I thought: should I be worried? I was under arrest. In a town where I’d never been before. Apparently for murder. But I knew two things. First, they couldn’t prove something had happened if it hadn’t happened. And second, I hadn’t killed anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time, anyway.
About the book: Killing Floor is a crime thriller novel by Lee Child. Published in 1997, it is Lee Child’s debut novel. It is the first book in the Jack Reacher series.
Short summary: Jack Reacher is arrested for murder, almost as soon as he enters the tiny town of Margrave, Georgia. But the tough ex-military policeman has been through much worse. Unable to convince the cops of his innocence, Jack Reacher decides to take matters in his own hands. As he tries to uncover the truth himself, he stumbles across a much deeper conspiracy in Margrave.
My thoughts: It was a good read. With the fast paced action, the twists in the plot, the strong (albeit stereotypical) characters – it was a really good read. It was the sort of thing that I’d very reluctantly add to a list of ‘Guilty Pleasure Reads’, though. What I didn’t like was the drama. The first thing I thought was it would make a good movie (I don’t know if there already is one..?!) At times I found it too brutal, I found some dialogues kind of cheesy, and I didn’t like the fact that most of the core happenings in the book were shaped by some pretty huge coincidences.
It felt almost as if the writer had planned the ending first, and wrote the book backwards. So when I read it from the starting, it was hard to believe how the characters guessed and assumed all the things they did; it was almost as if they knew the end. The plot holes were a huge disappointment.
I thought of the book as something written to attract a huge number of fans – which it rightfully did. It was a fun read, but I also thought it could have been much better.
Tabula Rasa 