Killing Floor - Lee Child

This is a review/re-read that I have been looking forward to since I started this blog!

Killing Floor is the first Jack Reacher novel written by Lee Child.  This was originally recommended to me by a mentor at work.  After reading this book, I subsequently read all of the Jack Reacher novels, pretty much in a row.

The book takes place in Margrave, Georgia, which is a fictional town about an hour outside of Atlanta (I looked it up, it doesn't exist!).  It is a perfect town, where everything is not what it seems.  Jack Reacher is quickly accused of murder.  Once he comes up with an unshakable alibi, he finds a few reasons to stay in town to help the police department solve the murder.  I am being intentionally vague.  I don't want to give away any of the early twists in the book!  I originally read the novel in March 2009, so I didn't remember all of the plot details.  The book has a lot of plot twists, several of which I did not remember.  I'm not going to give them away, but they are totally reasonable, and make the book really exciting.

The best thing about the book is re-reading the character development of Reacher at the beginning of the novel.  If it's your first read, pay attention!  It will serve you well throughout the rest of the novels.  This is one of the novels written in the first person, so it really lets you get inside Reacher's head and listen to Reacher's inner monologue.  There is a lot of tactical talk about how to engage enemies which is totally reasonable.  There is also a fair amount of gun talk in the book.  This is one of Lee Child's strong points.  He can talk military without sounding cheesy.

The climax scene is classic Reacher too. Of course, it takes place at 4am, which he took from the KGB.  This is a recurring theme in the books.

Overall, this is a vintagecrimeblog.com MUST read.

Up next - I don't know quite yet.  I'm taking suggestions.