Author | Lee Child |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Jack Reacher |
Release number | 1 |
Genre | Thriller novel |
Publisher |
|
Publication date | 25 March 1997 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
Pages | 522 (Paperback) |
ISBN | 0-515-12344-7 |
OCLC | 35249487 |
Followed by | Die Trying |
Killing Floor is the debut novel by Lee Child, first published in 1997 by Putnam. The book won the Anthony Award and Barry Award for best first novel. Set in 1997 in the fictional town of Margrave, Georgia it follows Jack Reacher in his first thriller book. It is written in the first person.
The novel has four prequels: The Enemy (set seven years before Killing Floor and published in 2004), The Secret, (set five years before Killing Floor and published in 2023), Night School (set one year before Killing Floor; published in 2016), The Affair (set six months before Killing Floor; published in 2011). [1]
Jack Reacher gets off a Greyhound bus in the town of Margrave, Georgia, because he remembers his brother mentioning that a blues musician named Blind Blake had died there. Much to his surprise, shortly after his arrival, he is arrested in a local diner for murder on the orders of the sheriff, Morrison, who falsely claims he saw Reacher leave the scene of the crime.
While in custody, Reacher meets Finlay, the chief of detectives, and Roscoe, a female officer who believes him to be innocent. Reacher persuades Finlay to call a number on a piece of paper found in the victim's shoe; the number leads them to Paul Hubble, a retired banker who instantly confesses to the murder. Before Reacher can be released, he and Hubble are transferred to a state prison in Warburton, where Reacher manages to thwart an attempt on their lives by the Aryan Brotherhood. Suspecting that the assistant warden set them up, Reacher joins Finlay's investigation, while Hubble is presumed dead after vanishing from his house in the middle of the day.
Reacher learns that the murdered man is his brother Joe, who was an investigator with the Treasury Department and was running an investigation into a counterfeiting ring operated by the Kliner family under the protection of Morrison, several dirty cops, and corrupt mayor Grover Teale. A second body, belonging to truck driver Sherman Stoller, is found, and Morrison and his wife are brutally murdered shortly thereafter. Roscoe theorizes that the Kliners are using Margrave as a distribution hub for their counterfeit money, but this is apparently disproven when Reacher searches one of their trucks and finds it empty. He then realizes the Kliners have been hoarding the money in response to a Coast Guard operation cutting off their supply of bills from Venezuela, and plan to resume distribution once the operation is shut down as a cost-saving measure.
Sending Hubble's family into hiding to protect them from the Kliners, Reacher kills their son and three associates after luring them into an ambush. He then informs Finlay of the secret behind the Kliners' operation, which his brother had been trying to prove: in order to obtain the special paper required to make undetectable forgeries, the criminals had employed Hubble to collect hundreds of thousands of used $1 bills and send them to ports in Florida through Stoller and other drivers, whereupon they would be bleached in Venezuela to remove the ink and then used to make forged $100 bills. However, when Reacher and Finlay return to Margrave, they are taken captive by Kliner, Teale, and Finlay's FBI contact Picard, who reveals that he has been keeping track of their progress and has Roscoe and Hubble's family in his custody. Kliner reveals that Hubble isn't dead, but in hiding, and threatens to kill his hostages unless Reacher finds him.
En route, Reacher stages a distraction and kills Picard's escorts before ostensibly shooting him dead. He then locates Hubble in a nearby motel and brings him back to Margrave. Finding the criminals gone, they spring Finlay from captivity in the police station and set it on fire before locating the hostages at Kliner's warehouse. Reacher kills a dirty cop named Baker, shoots Teale and Kliner, and sets fire to the rest of their money. A wounded Picard arrives, and bests Reacher in a physical fight, but Reacher and Finlay kill him. The group then escapes as the warehouse explodes, and Reacher ends up spending the night with Roscoe. Realizing that his actions will attract a lot of unwanted attention from the authorities, Reacher decides to leave Georgia. Roscoe gives him one last gift: a picture of his brother retrieved from one of Kliner's victims.
The book was developed into the first season of TV series Reacher , produced by Skydance Television, Paramount Television Studios, Blackjack Films and Amazon Studios for Amazon Prime Video. It premiered in February 2022. Lee Child makes a cameo appearance at the conclusion of the series. As Reacher enters a diner, Child walks past him and says, "Oh, excuse me. Sorry." The two exchange looks.
Crossfire is a 1947 American film noir drama film starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan which deals with the theme of antisemitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentleman's Agreement. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and the screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on the 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks. The film's supporting cast features Gloria Grahame and Sam Levene. The picture received five Oscar nominations, including Ryan for Best Supporting Actor and Gloria Grahame for Best Supporting Actress. It was the first B movie to receive a Best Picture nomination.
From Hell is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published in serial form from 1989 to 1998. The full collection was published in 1999 by Top Shelf Productions.
The Green Mile is a 1996 serial novel by American writer Stephen King. It tells the story of death row supervisor Paul Edgecombe's encounter with John Coffey, an unusual inmate who displays inexplicable healing and empathetic abilities. The serial novel was originally released in six volumes before being republished as a single-volume work. The book is an example of magical realism. The subsequent film adaptation was a critical and commercial success. The Green Mile won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1996. In 1997, The Green Mile was nominated as Best Novel for the British Fantasy Award and the Locus Award. In 2003 the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel".
Faye Marder Kellerman is an American writer of mystery novels, in particular the "Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus" series, as well as three nonseries books, The Quality of Mercy, Moon Music, and Straight into Darkness.
Robert Crais is an American author of detective fiction and former screenwriter. Crais began his career writing scripts for television shows such as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Quincy, Miami Vice and L.A. Law. His writing is influenced by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker and John Steinbeck. Crais has won numerous awards for his crime novels. Lee Child has cited him in interviews as one of his favourite American crime writers. The novels of Robert Crais have been published in 62 countries and are bestsellers around the world. Robert Crais received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award in 2006 and was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2014.
Ken Bruen is an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.
Peter Harmer Lovesey, also known by his pen name Peter Lear, is a British writer of historical and contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. He is also one of the world's leading track and field statisticians.
Jeff Abbott is an American suspense novelist. He has degrees in History and English from Rice University. He lives in Austin, Texas. Before writing full-time, he was a creative director at an advertising agency. His early novels were traditional detective fiction, but in recent years he has turned to writing thriller fiction. A theme of his work is the idea of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary danger and fighting to return to their normal lives. His novels are published in several countries and have also been bestsellers in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, France and Portugal. He is also Creative Director at Springbox, a Prophet company.
Jan Burke is an American author of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Agatha Award for Best Short Story, the Macavity Award, and Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award.
The Visitor is the fourth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. It was published in 2000 by Bantam Press in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the book was released under the title Running Blind. It is written in the second and third person. In the novel, retired Army military police officer Jack Reacher must race against time to catch a sophisticated serial killer who is murdering a group of female soldiers, but leaving no forensic evidence.
Without Fail is the sixth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. It was published by Putnam in 2002. It is written in the third person. In the novel, retired military police officer Jack Reacher is asked by the Secret Service to help track down assassins who are threatening the Vice President-Elect.
The Enemy is the eighth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. It is narrated in the first person.
One Shot is the ninth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. The book title is based on "One shot, one kill," the military sniper's creed. The novel was adapted into the 2012 film Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise as the title character. This book is written in the third person.
La Balance is a 1982 French film directed by Bob Swaim. It stars Nathalie Baye, Philippe Léotard, Tchéky Karyo, Maurice Ronet and Jean-Paul Comart. It won the César Award for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress, and was nominated for Most Promising Actor (twice), Best Director, Best Writing – Original and Best Editing. The film had a total of 4,192,189 admissions in France becoming the 5th highest-grossing film of the year.
Dana Cameron is an American archaeologist, and author of award-winning crime fiction and urban fantasy.
Louise Penny is a Canadian author of mystery novels set in the Canadian province of Quebec centred on the work of francophone Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. Penny's first career was as a radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). After she turned to writing, she won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha Award for best mystery novel of the year five times, including four consecutive years (2007–2010), and the Anthony Award for best novel of the year five times, including four consecutive years (2010–2013). Her novels have been published in 23 languages.
Jane K. Cleland is a contemporary American author of mystery fiction. She is the author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, a traditional mystery series set in New Hampshire and featuring antiques appraiser Josie Prescott, as well as books and articles about the craft of writing. Cleland has been nominated for and has won numerous awards for her writing.
Under the Beetle's Cellar, is a 1995 suspense novel by American author Mary Willis Walker, the second in her "Molly Cates" series.
Paul D. Marks was an American novelist and short story writer. His novel White Heat, a mystery-thriller set during the Rodney King riots of 1992, won the first Shamus Award for Independent Private Eye Novel from the Private Eye Writers of America.
Reacher is an American action crime television series developed by Nick Santora for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the Jack Reacher book series by Lee Child, it stars Alan Ritchson as the title character, a self-proclaimed hobo and former U.S. Army military policeman with formidable strength, intellect, and abilities. During his travels, Reacher crosses paths with dangerous criminals and battles them.