Review: Killing Floor

 Killing Floor 

Author: Lee Child

Series: Jack Reacher, Book 1 of 26

Published by: Jove

Release Date: March 17, 1997

My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Format: eBook 

Jack Reacher is a drifter, a wanderer. He doesn't have an end point other than to see the country he defended. He spent a dozen years in the military and most of it as a military police officer. His latest wandering has him on a Greyhound Bus in Georgia when he sees that Margrave is the next town off of the highway they're on. Jack heard that an old guitar player once lived there, so he asks the driver to let him off at the next cloverleaf. Even though the driver usually doesn't do that, he does indeed stop and let Jack off in the rain for his 14 mile walk to the nearest place which ends up being a cafe. While Jack's drying off and eating his breakfast the local police show up and very formally, but aggressively arrest him for murder. 

The problem...Jack has never been to this town before. How could he murder someone in a town he's never been to before? 

My thoughts: This was a tough one for me...I have watched both of the Jack Reacher movies several times and love them. I like the action, the mystery and the main character (MC) who is a no-nonsense, minimally worded, ex-military police officer. This is the main reason that I first purchased book 1 in this very long series. My hopes for this book just didn't end up happening. Now, I'll be very honest in saying that I DNF this book. I DID get through at least half of it though which is why I feel comfortable judging it and telling you all about it. 

The main character of Jack Reacher was exactly how I hoped he would be based on the movies...EXCEPT that he's tall! LOL! I know that sounds like a ridiculous comment, but if you haven't seen the movies then maybe you don't know that this character is played by Tom Cruise. Cruise is of relatively short or average height. When I learned in the beginning of the book that the MC is a tall man, I was shocked! It makes so much more sense, but here's why I think that detail really matters...tall + confident + quiet = Intimidating. Short + confident + quiet = wallflower. A wallflower is someone who can easily disappear into the background of any situation or space. Tall just doesn't disappear. This detail took awhile for me to adjust to in my mind when I was picturing the MC. He's still the tough, no-nonsense, quiet loner that I met in the movies which I really like. A character like this is a great "secret weapon" when you're writing because no one who cannot hear inside this character's mind actually knows what they are really like. Are they smart or stupid? Are they mean or nice? Are they rich or poor? There are a million basic questions like this that you can tease and use against either the reader or the other character or both! 

The main conflict of Jack being arrested for a murder in a town that he's never even been to is good and gets you to about halfway through the book...BUT once that's resolved the book keeps going and going still. For some reason I didn't have the patience to push through right now on this one even though I knew that these books have to be good since there are 26 of them and 2 movies. 

Now there are many reasons this might have happened in the book...

It could be that the editing was poorly done. If you don't have a good editor then you will not have a good product. It's that simple. 

It could be that this was one of the author's first books and with that newness comes so much lack of growth. When an author continues to write books (for example 26 with the same MC) then the growth and depth of the character becomes immense. Clive Cussler is one of my favorite authors that would fall in this adventure and long series with the same MC category. When I first started reading his books and loving them, I quickly decided to print off the full list of that series and start with book 1. Book 1 wasn't that amazing like the other ones I had read later in the series were. This makes sense for the already mentioned reasons. 

The secondary characters were decent and pretty believable which helps keep you interested but eventually I needed to set this one down and move on. 

Will I ever finish it? Maybe. I didn't hate the book. 2 stars = It was ok. A book that's ok, means it has potential. It didn't meet my basic expectations, but a book that has potential is always a book that deserves another try sometime in the future. 

What about you? 
Have you read any in this series? 
What did you think? 
Why?

Ange