Killing Floor by Lee Child

Lee Child, Killing Floor, (New York: The Berkley Publishing Group; 1997), 536 pages.

Killing Floor is Lee Child’s first book. It introduces the world to a new character called Jack Reacher, a retired soldier and military policeman now exploring America by foot. Reacher is a modern hobo, a man without roots who keeps a low profile and goes where he wants when he wants by foot or public transport. In Killing Floor, Reacher is arrested on suspicion of murder while passing through a small town in Georgia. After a brief period in a jail holding cell where an attempt was made on his life, Reacher helps the local police force investigate the murder. In doing to, he reveals a criminal enterprise that corrupted most of the small town, the town mayor, and part of the police force. Reacher’s brother, a federal investigator, is also killed by the conspirators. By working with the remaining honest local police that includes a female officer he becomes involved with, Reacher races to solve the murders and their relationship to the corruption and conspiracy before the conspirators can kill him and the other investigators.

Child’s innovation in Killing Fields is that his character in this crime book is not a policeman, attorney, or someone connected in some way with a legal institution. Reacher was part of the military justice system, but is now a highly skilled but rootless hobo. Reacher has great intellectual ability and physical strength: he is strong and unafraid and never gives up or backs down. He is the kind of man that can look after himself. He is intimidating when crossed or angered to the extent that people fear him. Despite his lack of connection with the community, he gets involved in that community largely because of noblesse oblige, and because he hates the big smug people that think that they can get away with things. Even though this is the first book I’ve read by Lee Childs. He is a skilled storyteller who keeps the reader engaged and turning the pages. Based on this first book, I’ll be reading more of Lee Child’s works that feature Jack Reacher.