Rating: 
Summary: JACK REACHER -- MY NEW HERO
Review: Even though I read about fifty books a year in the Mystery/Thriller genre, this is my first introduction to Lee Child. He comes highly recommended and I'm now wondering why I waited so long to pick up one of his books.My immediate thoughts on this author are that I like his writing style. He writes like we speak -- shorter sentences and gets right to the point. My second discovery is his use of surprises. There's nothing I like more than reading a book where I don't know what's going to happen at the end of a chapter. I love having some of those "Oh, No" moments when settling down with a mystery. My third and probably most important reason for liking this book is the main character. Finally, I meet Jack Reacher -- 6'4", 36 years old, a former military policeman and, best of all, he's not a wise-guy. I don't know why most authors think they have to resort to the wise-cracking main character in order to have a successful book. To me, Jack Reacher is a refreshing change. The setting of this book, Margrave, Georgia, is reminiscent of a Stepford town. Everything is perfect, everything is clean, everyone is happy with their lives....until dead bodies start showing up. Reacher, who just happens to be wandering through Margrave, is immediately considered a suspect simply because he's an outsider. But little does this town know that it's the "insiders" they have to worry about as Reacher sets out to prove his innocence and seeks revenge for the death of someone from his past. And when Reacher sets out to seek revenge, he means it, as he has no problem at all in killing bad people. In the beginning of the book, he won't know whom to trust and neither will the reader. As the story progresses, however, you will become amazed at Reacher's intelligence and will become attuned to his deciphering of even the smallest clue. Jack Reacher has now moved right up on top of my list of favorite main characters in a mystery series. I've looked past the fact that he has no problem killing people. I'm just so glad that this is a series because it means that I get to visit with this pantheon of human pulchritude again and again and again. Next up....Die Trying.
Rating: 
Summary: Jack Reacher's debut novel.
Review: Having already read three other Jack Reacher novels, I finally got around to reading "Killing Floor," the first in Lee Child's popular series. Here is the Jack Reacher that we know and love--macho wanderer, man of few words, quick with his fists, an expert at weaponry, fearless and unforgiving. Jack is passing through Margrave, Georgia. It is a town that is surprising clean and well-kept, considering that most of the residents have little visible source of income. Jack intends to stay for a brief period to look up some history about a blind musician, and then he intends to move on. However, Jack is arrested for a vicious crime that he did not commit, and he then becomes embroiled in a murder investigation that involves his brother. It turns out that Margrave is a corrupt town, rotten to the core. With the help of a few good police officers (one of whom makes for a sexy love interest), Reacher gets to the heart of an extremely profitable criminal operation run by some very ruthless and powerful men. "Killing Floor" is a fast-moving, engrossing and extremely violent thriller. Reacher is quick-witted, unerring in his instincts, and relentless in his pursuit of justice. One of Reacher's quirks is that he rarely changes his clothes, since he hates to be bothered with laundry. Since he never carries luggage and he only showers when he gets a chance, he must be fairly malodorous. Surprisingly, no one seems to notice. I enjoyed "Killing Floor," recognizing it for the entertaining fairy tale that it is. Child does not try for realism. If you can stomach tremendous carnage and you like non-stop action, then you will enjoy "Killing Floor".
Rating:
Summary: Commendable first novel, with a few annoying flaws
Review: KILLING FLOOR is a real page turner and Jack Reacher is a man's man. It has a lot of action and great fight passages...Reacher whupped 5 guys at once in chapter 7 alone! The plot twists and turns and leads you away only to bring you back in a totally surprising way. Mr. Childs is an excellent writer and knows how to keep the reader interested. OK I noticed a few things which bugged me, the excessive use of the word "shrug." I started to count the shrugs and gave up after about the thirtieth time Jack or Finlay or Roscoe shrugged before, or instead of speaking. The other thing that bugged me was something Jack mentioned about his background, his youth. He and his older brother Joe were Army Brats. They traveled around the globe from base to base wherever their Dad was stationed. Mostly Europe, Asia, and the US. I assumed they were army posts. On page 188 of the paperback, he says the Marine Corps took care of his father's funeral arrangements. As far as I know there are no Marine Corps units stationed in Europe, since we have no US Navy ports in Europe. The 6th Fleet does something called a "Med Cruise," which means the fleet goes to the Mediterranean for a few months. They are not based there, hence no US Marines stationed in Europe. Both Jack and Joe served in the US Army as officers. Where did the Marine Corps come from? Just a few flaws, but nothing that ruined the excitement for me.
Rating:
Summary: Great new hero, great beginning, fine plot, fun reading !
Review: This was our first Lee Child, and his first work introducing leading man Jack Reacher. Jack is a retired homicide investigator for the military police, and as this book opens, just roaming the country looking for something to grab his interest in life. We meet him minding his own business eating brunch in a diner in Margrave, Ga., where after a few minutes, the police storm the eatery and arrest Jack for murder! We all know he's absolutely innocent, but our attention was riveted by Child's technique of having Reacher actually start working the murder case as he himself is being interrogated as a suspect! Spending a day in the slammer as a material witness, along with an unfortunate banker named Hubble, whose phone number being in the murdered man's shoe makes him a suspect as well, Reacher kills (in self-defense) another inmate, the first in a series of brutal slayings depicted throughout the novel. So now we know Reacher can more than take care of himself both physically and mentally. Soon the police discover Reacher's got an airtight alibi for the murder; then it's discovered the victim is by total coincidence Reacher's brother Joe, a US Treasury special agent in charge of counterfeiting. And so the plot is off and running. Before it's over, some bad cops are unearthed, with we readers often getting to smell out the rat in advance, which was fun. Police Officer Ms. Roscoe, who took a shining to Jack upon sight, provides our hero a stirring and sexy romance, which was an interesting sub-plot with which we anxiously awaited resolution. To us, Child's writing skill, his pace and ability to sustain action and suspense, and his crafty plot with just the right amount of complications, has given us a page-turning, stellar new series to enjoy. Can't wait to read our next Reacher!
Rating: 
Summary: Dimwit Hero in Kingdom of the Even More Dimwitted
Review: That the "who's the traitor" plot cleaves too closely to cliche to be a mystery is forgivable (well, not really), but the fact that none of the characters -- including two Ivy League professors who spend a year thinking about it -- can puzzle out the incredibly obvious plan the bad guys have in motion is embarrassing. The book moves decently, though, and the action is above average. I would definitely try another "Jack Reacher" book -- at least as soon as another "Harry Bosch" or "Lucas Davenport" book -- but I would bail out if I thought Child was being this lazy again in plotting. A better book than this is the original "The Killing Floor" (70s) by Jacob Asch, or for that matter Geoffrey Household's "Courtesy of Death" (60s) with which this book shares a number of similarities.
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Summary: Super: The best Jack Reacher and the last of Reacher for me
Review: This was the first one and I can see now why Lee has a cult following. The Character Reacher is cliched and the offputting thing for me abt my reacher exploration was that it was comic book type. Reacher, an ex-army man with no place , nothing but the shirt on his back, I mean cmon no one lives like that. Ever a wanderer, never settling down. Its unrealistic. And in all the sequels, I wondered that Reacher must be the most hazard prone guy, coz he always seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time too many no of times to be really credible, so much so that the Reacher series is now a capstone achievement in an author striving for the longetivity of the one character he seemed to have got right. Honestly, I cant believe that with the display of fine plotting potential that Mr Lee shows, that he did not go on to write a completey different story with different story and different plot. I read the Killing floor, then I read the vistor . I loved both. But then it got too much for me. Th coincidences of reacher always getting caught in accodental set of circumstance which propel him into a storyline was becoming laughable and completely unbearable. I stopped reading tripwire halfway and then made up my mind to never read Lee Again. But if there is one Lee novel that you should read , then read the Killing floor. Exquisite. I think Lee had the potential to be somehing great. Look at the other guys, Grisham, Crichton...etc always experimenting, trying new thing, putting flesh to fresh ideas. After all is said and done, KF is a commendable effort and an amazzing first novel hit which probably sealed Lee's early retirement plans. I just feel he could have given us something special if he had not continued to find the easy way out and dish out more farcical stories the same character and attitude. Sort of like he was lazy enough to think up somehting new. Well atleast enjoy KC, This was the best and last from Lee, who has already been forgotten. The greats are different. They take a chance. Repetitive and routine is for the uncreative mind
Rating:
Summary: In a word.......................WOW
Review: Lee Child in his initial novel Killing Floor beautifully crafts a masterful thriller in the action adventure genre. Child's plot simmers just like his hero Jack Reacher slowly but unavoidably reaching the boiling point. Reacher, a 35 year old honorably discharged veteran military policeman is currently living a hobo's existence cruising around the country by bus. A blues afficiando, while passing through Georgia he remembers having heard that legendary blues guitarist Blind Blake had passed away in the small town of Margrave. With nothing presssing in his schedule, he gets off the bus and hikes 14 miles to check out the town. While having breakfast in the local diner he is arrested as a suspect in a local murder that has just been uncovered. Another suspect Paul Hubble, a local investment banker, is also brought in for questioning. Both Reacher and Hubble are sent to the local prison while their alibis are checked. While incarcerated they are almost murdered by the inmates in a very suspicious fashion. Reacher is released and soon learns that the murder victim is none other than his older brother Joe, a U.S. Treasury agent. Nosing around town he manages to stumble into a brilliant criminal scheme headed by a wealthy and devious Mr. Kliner. Kliner owns 4 large warehouses and fronts a foundation that dumps truckloads of money into the upkeep of Margrave and its citizens. Reacher soon learns of the widespread corruption in the town including Mayor Teale and Chief of Police Morrisson. He befriends Chief detective Finlay who along with Officer Roscoe, a soon to be Reacher love interest, aid him in avenging his brother's murder and cleaning up the town. Child creates an empathetic and cunning hero in Reacher who using his vast experience and resources embarks on a very satisfying campaign of vengeance. I will absolutely be sure to continue reading the books in this series
Rating:
Summary: Check it out
Review: Killing Floor
By Lee Child This is a fiction book The theme of this book is confusion due to all the mix up. The back round of this book is about a man who gets blamed for killing someone and the problem is that this man is trying to prove that he did not really kill this person. The story starts out when a man is wondering looking for a place to settle, he is a military police officer who has left the military after working there all his life, he was traveling around, finally he decided to stop in a small town near Florida. He had stopped in a small restaurant and that is where he was first arrested and taken for questioning, and it goes on from there.
The book was mostly interesting through the whole way through, which is one of the things that I personally like, many of the books I have read have many boring situations, this book is really entertaining.
The lesson in this book that I could see that people make mistakes and some of these mistakes can cost people their lives. The one thing that I did not like was that some of the big mistakes could have been avoided. By martin
Rating:
Summary: Hang On for a Wild Ride!
Review: I read one of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels quite awhile ago, and thought it might be worth checking out the others. I've finally started to read them from the beginning, and I wonder why I waited so long. This book is jam-packed with action from cover to cover. Jack Reacher is the most understated Rambo-type hero you'll ever meet. This book is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of very descriptive violence in here. The grammar is not of the highest calibre, but it does not detract from the story. And oh what a story it is! We meet Jack Reacher - the guy with no ID and no fixed address. As we read we find out about his background and life before he reached Margrave, Georgia. As soon as he reaches town he gets thrown into a conspiracy huger than anything he could have imagined. and he finds that he's got to clean up a whole town which has been corrupted by a philanthropist and his foundation - Mr. Kliner. This is a humbdinger of a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful
Review: Simply awful. When I finally finished this "book", I was suprised to see a picture of the author at the end. I was expecting a 7 or 8 year old. The writing is that bad. He uses short sentences to explain everything. It is very distracting and takes you out of the story. You are suppose to lose yourself in a story, not keep being distracted by bad writing. It says that Lee Child used to be a TV writer. Well, you would think that he would be good at writing dialogue. He's not. Every character talks the same. If someone is asked a question, they shrug and then speak in short sentences. Everyone shrugs all the time. It's almost funny how much the word is used. As for the plot, I guessed the secret very early. Mainly because it was already used in Robert Crais' "Indigo Slam." The handling of the end of the relationship between Reacher and Roscoe was poorly handled and should have been given more attention since it was a major part of the book. All in all, Reacher does have potential as a character, but he needs a better writer to handle him. If want to read great writing, read Robert Crais.
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