The Killing Floor

Jack Reacher is the typical 80’s macho-man swole beefcake, a la Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Except this time, he is the lead in a hard-boiled detective story. Formerly of the military police, he is now a drifter and gets off a bus early one morning and walks to a small town in Georgia. What follows is a whirlwind case where is is first the suspect, and then part of the investigation to uncover a plot that threatens to shake the very foundation of the economic power of the United States.

The whole premise is rather dated, and reminiscent of an 80’s macho action tome:

• Ex-military drifter, with a manly sounding name (John Rambo)
• Muscle-bound strong man hero (Stallone / Schwarzenegger)
• Has a personal grudge against baddies
• Villains are standard corrupt businessmen and politicians
• Hero has few allies, but is betrayed
• Hottest girl around immediately taken up with him
• Everything goes boom at the end

With this in place, the book itself is not bad. the writing and pacing is even. The dialogues are poor, and forced. The story is intruiging and has the right level of complexity without being contrived. The character build-up is good for all the central characters, and even the side characters are well thought out.

There is a pervasive feeling of predictability once the base plot is laid out, and the feeling that this is very derivative. But the book is still worth reading. The book has been adapted into a TV show, with this book’s story spread over an entire season.