Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He’s just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he’s arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Reacher knows is that he didn’t kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn’t stand a chance of convincing anyone. Not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell.

Listening Length

17 hours and 47 minutes
Author

Lee Child
Narrator

Dick Hill
Audible release date

October 27, 2015
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audio
ASIN

B015RPX6IU
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	17 hours and 47 minutes
Author	Lee Child
Narrator	Dick Hill
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	October 27, 2015
Publisher	Random House Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B015RPX6IU
Best Sellers Rank	#634 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #11 in War & Military Fiction #20 in Crime Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #66 in Suspense (Audible Books & Originals)

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Ranger Book Reviews

A fast moving mystery thriller; the first Jack Reacher novel and basis for the hit TV show

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 13, 2022

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Published in 1997, "Killing Floor" is the first Jack Reacher novel in the long Lee Child series featuring the larger-than-life Army Veteran drifter with a chip on his shoulder crisscrossing the USA bringing an unlikely justice to the inexplicable troubles that come his way. Unlike the subsequent volumes, "Killing Floor" is written in the first person POV. If you read any other Jack Reacher novels, watched the Tom Cruise movies based loosely on the books, or watched the Amazon TV series starring Alan Ritchson, you may find this first outing a bit rough. The first person perspective is unsettling as the strength of the protagonist in both the later novels and the Amazon series is his raw physicality, his instinctive morality, and cunning for targeted violence. Reacher comes across as more thoughtful, unsure, and clay-footed in this first outing.
I am new to the Jack Reacher franchise. I read and enjoyed "No Middle Name," the short story collection that explains Reacher's origins and focuses on his propensity for violent direct action to clear up any misunderstandings with bad guys. I did not watch the movies as I dislike Tom Cruise (entirely miscast in the role) and assumed Reacher was a Jack Ryan copy or a low-tech Mission Impossible. And I did watch a couple episodes of the Amazon TV series, which is based on the plot of "Killing Floor" but with several key storyline deviations. After reading "No Middle Name," I believe Alan Ritchson nailed the role and if you've seen any scenes from that show, it will be impossible for you to conceive of Reacher portrayed any other way.
In "Killing Floor," Jack Reacher is starting his life on the road. Led by a clue from his brother, Joe, about a blind blues guitarist's mysterious demise in a backroad Georgia town, Reacher walks into Margrave, GA, only to find himself arrested for a crime he didn't commit. The bluesman clue was an attempt by Joe Reacher to bring his brother Jack into town to help break a counterfeiting conspiracy. But Joe Reacher, a Treasury agent whom Jack hasn't seen in years, is murdered and the body count piles up as the criminal conspiracy unravels. This is such a good mystery plot that to add anymore description of the storyline would be one long spoiler. Those who have watched the Amazon show will recognize the clues. But as a novel, there are important differences in the storyline between the book and the show. I prefer to think of such situations as "different interpretations" of a story rather than compare the two. Needless to say, Jack Reacher brings the conspiracy to an explosive end while ending the lives of some of the most vile thugs in crime novel history. It's a great read.
The book's strongpoints are the way in which Lee Child has the crime caper picked apart and solved by the team of Reacher, Margrave Detective Finlay, and Margrave Policewoman Roscoe. The action scenes are very well-done and the violence is descriptive and realistic. Lee Child performed excellent research to have put together such a great criminal mystery. It is worth reading for that reason alone. I also like the government corruption angle as this is entirely realistic given the amount of money being moved by the bad guys.
The novel has several weak points starting with the relationship between Roscoe and Reacher, a romance element that never sat well with me, since I knew it wasn't going anywhere. Seemed somewhat gratuitous, as if Lee Child knew he needed to romantic angle to sell this first book to women.
Jack Reacher's military origins are vague and unrealistic. Reacher doesn't seem like a West Point type to me. I would have made him a prior enlisted guy who maybe got a commission at Texas A&M. As a veteran, I am picky about the military references in a novel. Which is on me but still, it can't be helped.
Finally, the ending was a bit too clean. The advantage of the drifter protagonist is that he/she can move on at the end. So things can be left unsettled or unresolved if need be. I thought this one wrapped up too quickly... especially as the relationship with Roscoe should have produced more baggage. But maybe it does and I will find out more if I read more Jack Reacher novels or watch more episodes of the TV series.
This fast moving novel is pure entertainment for those who like a well-paced mystery with great action scenes and where the bad guys get what's coming to them. I was 260 pages into this before I realized it was a 500 page novel. But I read it quickly enough... in fact... I couldn't put it down! Recommended... but be warned, this is a violent and graphic novel. Not for the faint-hearted. Enjoy!

25 people found this helpful

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Richard Kline

I'm not going to spill the beans. No Spoilers. Just read the darned book!!!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2023

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Read it. That's all.

The movie had Tom Cruise who is barely 5'7". The Jack Reacher in the book is 6'5". Had I known this fact when I saw the move first I would have laughed... Now I love the series better than the original movie and I'm looking forward to season 2.

READ THE BOOK!!! If I didn't make myself clear, Read......the.....book......

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Erik

“Homicidal frenzy is bad enough, but postmortem frenzy is worse” (Child 34)

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 9, 2017

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Since publishing his captivating novel Jack Reacher: Killing Floor, in 1997, Lee Child has written with determination and perseverance, showing the effects of crime, sex, and fraud in the late 20th century. Killing Floor analyzes the causes and effects of the counterfeit business through the likes of the loyal and trustworthy protagonist, Jack Reacher. Because Lee develops Jack into a very well rounded character through strong vocabulary, Child entertains young adults with a suspenseful thriller as well as persuading adults to question everything and not believing everything at face value.
At the very beginning of the novel, Jack Reacher is arrested for a murder that he didn’t commit. After being on the road for many months and drenched in rainwater, Jack Reacher only wants to be alone; he carries no luggage, no extra clothes, and no car. However, as trouble has always found its way to him, he is carried into a deep homicide investigation that no one understands. When Jack is being investigated, he says, “Homicidal frenzy is bad enough, but postmortem frenzy is worse” (Child 34). A military man through 36 years of his life and a specialized “agent” in homicide investigation himself, he finds himself questioning the investigators. Soon afterwards, Jack is on the team helping out with the investigation. However, as time draws nearer he must distinguish his friends from his enemies.
Through the use of many flashbacks in Jack Reacher’s military life, Child uses real world connections to entertain readers about the thinking skills of highly skilled military men. For example, during the interrogation of Jack Reacher at the police station, he tells Finlay two things, “But the actual evidence points to a minimum of three… [they] wouldn’t like that kind of frenzy. It would embarrass them” (37). On the surface, Finley is interrogating Jack about the mysterious murder, but on the deeper level though Finley can’t figure out how to solve the mystery because he is disobeying orders in order to let Jack tell him what he thinks of the mystery. Reacher’s high order thinking skills taught him how to analyze every part of the crime scene and he starts to find little details in “putting the puzzle pieces together.” Clearly, Reacher’s skills that he learned in the military prove effective. In addition, when Reacher is placed in the holding cell for his “murder”, he starts to think “about somebody who had watched his partner shoot a guy in the head [and] who had watched his partner shoot a guy in the head” (Child 44). Although not said directly, Jack Reacher calmly analyzes the situation at hand, using his real-life experiences in the military to aid him in preparing for his next move. In other words, Reacher’s connections to the military help him stay calm, cool, and collected, even in jail. There in no doubt that Child uses real-world connections to tell more about Jack Reacher.
Also, throughout the entirety of the book, there were many suspenseful parts that were described in the utmost detail. For instance, when Jack Reacher was in the prison cell he was cornered by five white guys that “had orange suits, torn-off sleeves, heavy men, slabby fat, and [they] had crude tattoos on their arms and their faces” (99). Using words such as “slabby” and “crude” signify the amount of imagery created in reader’s minds. By including all these descriptive words, readers feel as though they are part of the scene and are inside of Jack Reacher’s shoes. In addition, when Jack Reacher is talking with Hubble in the 6th cell of the prison about his life, he says, “I never leave a paper trail. It’s just a bit of fun. I like anonymity” ( 110). By using words such as “anonymity,” Hubble feels as though he starts to understand Jack Reacher's way of life and why he does what he does. He sees that some people are different in how they view life and the world. Lee Child’s use of anonymity, slabby, and crude demonstrates the wide variety of vocab he shares with readers.
Clearly, the most defining thing about Jack Reacher is his full commitment to anything he does, as a strong person and character; furthermore, he demonstrates a well-rounded character. During Jack Reacher’s visit to the lab, he finds out that his brother was one of the victims. He starts thinking to himself that “[he] feels rigid with shock on the counter between the fax machine and the computer terminal and felt like an arctic guy whose whole world changes in a single step” (141). On the surface level, it seems as though Jack is so shocked that his brother is dead, but on the deeper level words such as “changes” signify that he wants revenge on the attacker who killed his only brother. Although he seems rattled, his character gets stronger by committing himself further to the investigation. Moreover, when Jack Reacher is walking by himself on the streets he realizes that “deep down, [he] was always aware that [he] was supposed to stand up for him” (150). By including the phrase “supposed to stand up for him”, he commits himself to do whatever it takes to find out the truth. He realizes that to be a more developed character he must become more committed to the task at hand even if he didn’t want to do it at first; this is a sign of resilience. Overall, Child uses Jack Reacher ups and downs to fully develop his character, even at the roughest times.
Through the good and the bad, right and wrong, friends and enemies, Jack Reacher: Killing Floor resembles a suspenseful thriller, developing Jack Reacher through detail and real-world connections. Killing Floor has lots of imagery and attention to detail that make readers jump into Jack’s shoes. This book should be placed in the hands of curious people that want to hop into the world of unknown adventure of adult world. There is no doubt Jack Reacher: Killing Floor is right for you!

12 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Nick Brett

Reacher - back to the start

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

I’ve read all the Reacher books, but on conclusion of “The Midnight Line”, I thought it might be interesting to go back and compare to the first.
Killing Floor does present a less refined Reacher but also reminds us that some basic themes (town in the middle of nowhere, a secret, an attractive lady cop) started from book one.
For want of nothing better to do, Reacher stops off in a small town as a famous blues singer was reputed to have died there. Instead he finds himself arrested for murder and a town with too much money and a dirty secret. A personal element keeps Reacher there trying to find out what is going on while the body count mounts up. Reacher comes over as a dangerous man and a killer in this, not a man to cross and quite prepared to exist outside of the law. There are hints of the character he would develop into and also of the style that Lee Child would develop. This is a longish book at over 500 pages, so the abrupt style is not in place yet. The story works as do the twists and you can see why this series developed into something that has often been very special.

86 people found this helpful

CloselyObservedEnglish

Overblown

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

Having seen both Jack Reacher films (which I must confess to having enjoyed), I thought it only right that I take a look at one of the books that started the whole Reacher empire. I found a cheap copy of 'Killing Floor' on Amazon, and read the whole thing in about a week.

At first, I was mightily impressed. The hard-boiled prose spoke to me in a voice similar to Dashiell Hammett's, and the in-depth knowledge the writer possesses of his field really came to the fore. I think I enjoyed this book right until Reacher and Hubble come out of prison - those first passages, when nobody seems sure what's going on or who can be trusted, really worked well.

The problems began around that time, starting with a rather ridiculous plot device. Reacher, for whom nothing and nobody really seems to matter, discovers that the man whose murder he has been arrested for - SPOILER ALERT - is his brother. Now, the action all takes place in some tiny town in middle America, and Reacher only chose to stop off here at random during his peregrinations around the country; add to that the fact that the two brothers had barely spoken in years, and you have a particularly odd contrivance to work as motivation for what follows.

And then, the hard-boiled writing starts to work against Lee Child. It's not sufficient to support a book of this length. My favourite sentence in the whole book (and pretty much the reason I'm giving this two stars) came when Reacher takes his date out to dinner in a restaurant at the airport, and describes the place (or the food - I forget) with this: "It was OK." Thanks for that, Reacher/Child. Whole sections of the book could have been skipped if this is the language we're going to be treated to.

I'm not sure if I'd want to read another Reacher book after this one. I was entertained, more or less, as I read, but not to the extent that I would want to accompany Reacher on another of his adventures. I get the feeling that this is the prototype, and anything that follows will be something of a rehash - which might be an unfair analysis, but since I haven't read everything of Penelope Fitzgerald's or EM Forster's, I might prefer to invest my time there.

29 people found this helpful

Gil

Not for me.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

I looked forward to reading this, my first of his books, by the good reports, but was very off-put early on by a completely unnecessary , really sickening description of prison violence (not related to the plot at all)., so if you like that sort of thing, fine, but it's not for me.

38 people found this helpful

Peter Lee

Silly and overlong, but oddly enjoyable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

This was the second Jack Reacher book I've read, and in my usual "do it the wrong way" style the first one I read was the most recent book, "Make Me", and the second was this, the first in the series. I thought "Make Me" was enjoyable but descended into farce towards the end, and I'd heard that the earlier books were better, so I decided to go back to the beginning.

The books starts well. Reacher arrives in a small town in the middle of nowhere after walking in the rain for several hours and is eating breakfast in a diner. The police enter and he is arrested for a crime he didn't commit. Hauled off to the local police station he is thrown into a cell and the accusations begin to pile up against him. Eventually he is taken to the local prison for the weekend, but there appears to be a mix-up and he is placed in the lifers' wing, and from then on things really start to look bleak.

It's a page turner, but personally I thought it was way, way too long, probably by 200 pages or so, and the whole book is utterly unbelievable but remains strangely enjoyable. Having read two Reacher books now my suspicion is that they all follow the same template, as both of the ones I've read have had very similar story arcs, but I've got a few in my pile still to be read so I'll reserve judgement until I've worked my way through those.

38 people found this helpful

Ivan Kinsman

Nearly as good as James Bond!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

Lee Child (real name James D. Grant) has a very successful formula.

I first came across him being interviewed by Stephen Sackur on BBC's Hardtalk. He was making a lot of sense about his role as an author whose duty is to serve his readers what they want. And so I decided to read his first book.

The short sentences take some time to get used to but you soon get into the rhythm. Jack Reacher is an interesting hero and Child has a very observant eye for detail in small town America. Combine this with a good action plot with a lot of twists and turns and you have a book that is a real page turner.

I finished this very quickly and was straight onto the second one - Die Trying - about a white separatist group in Montana. Again unputdownable! Will now take a break, and then onto no. 3 - Tripwire.

15 people found this helpful

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