Book Review: Killing Floor by Lee Child

Title: Killing Floor Author: Lee Child

ASIN: B0031RS2HC Publisher: Transworld Digital Author’s web site: Lee Child Genre: Thiller Print Length: 532 Pages Plot synopsis:

Jack Reacher jumps off a bus and walks fourteen miles down a country road into Margrave, Georgia. An arbitrary decision he's about to regret. Reacher is the only stranger in town on the day they have had their first homicide in thirty years.The cops arrest Reacher and the police chief turns eyewitness to place him at the scene. As nasty secrets leak out, and the body count mounts, one thing is for sure - they picked the wrong guy to take the fall.

I was introduced to Jack Reacher through the original

Tom Cruise film. When I went to buy the book I was surprised by how many there are. Since this was the first one I started with it. I soon discovered that it was a page turner and a very impressive debut novel. There is a lot of Rambo in the main character, Jack Reacher, but if this puts some people off do not let it, Jack Reacher is a more three dimensional character and his motives are more sophisticated than those of Rambo. I loved Child’s style. It was not one I had seen so obviously used before. The short, punchy sentences are perfect for the story line and set the tension off brilliantly. Even using short sentences Child is still able to depict the sense of place really well. I won’t summarise the plot as I prefer that readers discover it for themselves, other than to say it can be pretty gruesome in places. Should one give 5 stars to a debut novel? I have heard it argued that that a debut novel is the foundation of which to build the author’s following works, so how can it be their best work? I disagree. This is an example of a 5 star debut. It sets a high standard for subsequent novels, but I have read some of Child’s subsequent novels and the high standard is maintained. So 5 stars it is! A very great novel, whose pages almost turn themselves for the reader.

What others say. On Goodreads.com (at the time of this review) there were 7,214 reviews of which 96% were rated 3* and above. The man is obviously a popular author!

On Amazon.co.uk there were 2,568 reviews, of which 2,430 were rated as 3* or above. On Amazon.com there were 4,770 reviews, of which 93% were 3* or above.

Other Jack Reacher Books by Lee child (books 2 to 5)