Review: Killing Floor (Jack Reacher 1) by Lee Child

Shevya
Story Lamp Reviews
Published in
3 min readDec 31, 2023
Cover of the book

Title: Killing Floor. Date of Publication: 17 March 1997 Genre: Novel, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Suspense. Publisher: Putnam. Pages: 364.

I was introduced to Lee Child’s famous character, Jack Reacher, when Amazon Prime Video released the show “Reacher” in 2022. After watching season 1, I immediately added this book to my reading list.

First published in 197, this book has won the Anthony Award and Barry Award for best first novel. It is also the first book to feature the character Jack Reacher. Jack Reacher is an internationally popular series which can be read in any order, but I wanted to start reading from where it all started in the author’s mind. It presents Reacher for the first time, as the tough ex-military cop of no fixed abode: a righter of wrongs, the perfect action hero.

Downsized out of the military, Jack Reacher is a drifter now travelling around to see the country he was serving. He has no home, no address, no license, no credit card, no phone, no nothing. He doesn’t even have a bag of belongings as he travels light, buys clothes from thrift stores and returns the old ones there. He travels by bus or hitch-hiking and pays in cash, so there’s no trail behind him.

He is passing by Margrave, Georgia, just on a whim to know about an old forgotten guitarist, Blind Black, where within an hour, he gets arrested for murder. All Reacher knows is he didn’t kill anybody, at least not here in Margrave. But he can’t convince anyone with his profile as a hobo (yes, he says he is a hobo, not a beggar, and there’s a difference). He provides his alibi and wants to get out of this small town as soon as possible.

Police officer Finlay puts him in a cell, and he has to stay put until his alibi checks out and his prints match with the military database. Tangled up in all this, Reacher accompanies police officers Roscoe and Finlay to the morgue, where he finds out that the guy who got murdered was his only brother, Joe Reacher.

Toughly built and well-trained Reacher has cutting-edge investigation and killing skills. Now, he is hellbent on finding out who killed his brother and why. Shortly, he finds out that he is in the middle of a conspiracy involving dirty cops, scheming, cunning politicians and shady businessmen.

After two more gruesome murders and a failed attempt at killing Reacher and Roscoe, everything escalates in Margrave. Reacher, Finlay and Roscoe try to figure out what is going on in Margrave secretly as they do not know who is involved in this grand scheme of a fancy little town which is polished to the teeth despite very little milling about of people.

This thriller becomes interesting as revealing Joe’s murderer leads to finding out a hidden operation running in Margrave. Jack Reacher is a very interesting character. The Prime Video show “Reacher: season 1” covers most of the aspects of the book. But I still found the book a bit more interesting because it shows us what is happening in Reacher’s mind.

This thriller has got me motivated and interested enough to read other novels in the Jack Reacher series. I would highly recommend reading this book and exploring the mystery by yourself.

I hope you like this book, and do let me know if you’ve read it. I would also appreciate recommendations for books of any genre.

Thank you for reading this review!

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