GRADE: A The Experience jack reacher, killing floor, lee child, the lee child experience KILLING FLOOR: THE QUESTIONSĮighteen years after its initial release, KILLING FLOOR (March 17, 1997), is still just as strong now as it was then. I cannot recommend KILLING FLOOR enough. There’s a lot of noise out there, and a lot of writers begging for your attention. But if you’re like me and have little time to waste on a boring or cliche read, then let me save you some time: grab a copy of KILLING FLOOR today. If you’ve never read Lee Child before, then you absolutely must. Obviously Reacher is a wanderer, and not for a second did I think he’d walk off into the sunset with a woman, but I was rather surprised that that was the note KILLING FLOOR ended on. Rather than the no-holds-barred Reacher I’d come to respect, taking names and kicking ass, Child ends on a rather wishy-washy note of Reacher coming to terms with ending the relationship with Roscoe. *****MINOR SPOILER : SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH TO AVOID***** I wish Lee had done more with Picard–I was really hoping for a balls-out fight between him and Reacher. You hate the persons you’re supposed to hate and root for good guys. Finlay was terrific, and Roscoe–in spite of her never being given a first name–was great as a strong female lead and Reacher’s love interest. Without giving any spoilers, I researched the plot’s plausibility and found that not only is it plausible, but it’s still in practice today–albeit in a much more complicated manner. That’s important to remember if you’re reading this for the first time. The plot was absolutely original when KILLING FLOOR first released in 1997. He knocks you out and pulls you in right from the first chapter. They suck you in by not bogging you down with soggy fluff and let you get right to the meat of what Lee wants you to know. At first I found the four to six word sentences a bit jarring, but it wasn’t long before it just worked. Which brings me to an interesting observation: Lee’s writing style. Each chapter moved the plot at a smooth pace and, unlike a lot of other debut novels I’ve read, there were no saggy bits.
I felt like I was watching a movie with all the thrills of a Coen brother’s film. I read KILLING FLOOR in a week and a half. My work allows for maybe an hour or two of uninterrupted reading at night–and that’s assuming that the day hasn’t already won. To put this into perspective for you, I read, on average, about one novel a month. She’s been preaching the virtues of Lee Child and Jack Reacher since we first met, and again, she’s right.įrom the opening scene of Reacher’s arrest to the final showdown in a warehouse, KILLING FLOOR kept me turning pages like my life depended on it.
– Jack Reacher, KILLING FLOOR The Reacher Meter: KILLING FLOOR Either you can walk out of here by yourself, or these other fat boys behind you are going to carry you out in a bucket.” “What I mean is this…You’re going to leave. But he doesn’t stand a chance of convincing anyone.
All Reacher knows is that he didn’t kill anybody. He’s just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he’s arrested for murder. Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter.