Lynnie 
mystery, action/suspense
Jack Reacher, who is just making a quick trip to a small Georgia town, gets arrested for a crime he did not commit. Given his background as a military crime investigator, he always seems to have an innate understanding of situations and is ready for anything. He's quick on his feet and intelligent.
Amy's Review
I had always heard good things about the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. So, I added the first novel in the series, Killing Floor, to my library audio book queue a while back and waited patiently until I was able to check it out. I enjoyed it very much! I like reading about smart protagonists and I like seeing good triumph over evil. I also enjoy great characters and an adventure. This novel had all of that. The story was engaging and made me want to keep listening to find out what happened next. It had pretty good pacing but got bogged down in details that didn't interest me a few times.
I enjoyed the passages that dealt with music in this novel. And I appreciated that the setting was my own state of Georgia. However, the one big irritation to me is that Jack is a drifter--a self-proclaimed "rambling man". I can't really put myself in his shoes and can't imagine much worse than traveling alone through life and never settling down with people you care about. So, this aspect of his personality is a big turn-off to me personally. But, I suppose, he had to be that way for this story to work.
The narrator, Dick Hill, was very good. He sounds like an actor who usually plays a police officer or mafia guy, but I can't think of his name. He sounds like he's from the north but he still did a very passable southern accent. His voice acting was awesome. My main complaint is that he sounded too old to be Jack (who is 38 years old in this novel). I give him an A- for this novel.
Amy's Review
I had always heard good things about the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. So, I added the first novel in the series, Killing Floor, to my library audio book queue a while back and waited patiently until I was able to check it out. I enjoyed it very much! I like reading about smart protagonists and I like seeing good triumph over evil. I also enjoy great characters and an adventure. This novel had all of that. The story was engaging and made me want to keep listening to find out what happened next. It had pretty good pacing but got bogged down in details that didn't interest me a few times.
I enjoyed the passages that dealt with music in this novel. And I appreciated that the setting was my own state of Georgia. However, the one big irritation to me is that Jack is a drifter--a self-proclaimed "rambling man". I can't really put myself in his shoes and can't imagine much worse than traveling alone through life and never settling down with people you care about. So, this aspect of his personality is a big turn-off to me personally. But, I suppose, he had to be that way for this story to work.
The narrator, Dick Hill, was very good. He sounds like an actor who usually plays a police officer or mafia guy, but I can't think of his name. He sounds like he's from the north but he still did a very passable southern accent. His voice acting was awesome. My main complaint is that he sounded too old to be Jack (who is 38 years old in this novel). I give him an A- for this novel.
Lynnie's Review
I listened to this on a recent road trip and there were several times that we thought of abandoning it, but we didn't have time to start something new so we stuck with it. First things first. The narrator, Dick Hill, had a very soothing voice (not great for road trips, sometimes it made me sleepy) and I enjoyed his male voices but his female voices were all ridiculously whiny sounding; it's like he doesn't know women can be anything other than breathy and in distress. That said, I'd give him a B for his reading- after all, he only had so much to work with.
The pros: I liked the character of Jack Reacher- he was interesting, a bit absurd, and entertainingly cliche as a man who swoops into town to solve all the problems. I also liked the overall story, even if the writing was often clunky and frustrating, I genuinely wanted to see how everything came together and the plot line resolved.
But now, the cons:
-This book would make an excellent drinking game. If you took a drink every time Dick Hill read, "he said," "she said," "I said" you would be blotto before the first chapter ended. This was perhaps my biggest pet peeve of the story because it continued for 17 hours- I almost cheered once when he read that "she exclaimed" or something like that.
-Lee Child has never met a metaphor he didn't like. His descriptions of... everything, were ridiculous and I often felt that his writing was condescending as he over-described every single thing. At one point, he spends, no kidding, about 10 minutes describing a big pile of money. We were literally screaming at the radio, "we know the pile of money is huge, move on!!!" He also spends ages describing a chase through the Atlanta airport baggage claim that made it very clear he hadn't ever bothered to google the ATL baggage claim- his descriptions were so absurdly off the mark and absolutely unrealistic. Dude, just google the airport and look at a picture of the baggage claim.
- As a 28-year military spouse, Child's description of growing up military is ridiculous. No matter how important a service member may be, they do not move them and their family every few months. In fact, if a service member has a duty station that is less than a year the military doesn't move the family- it's too expensive and frankly, disruptive. I have known loads of military kids and the most high schools attended I've ever heard of, even in the heavy movers, is 3, not 7. It was just preposterous. Yes, military families move a lot, but nothing like Child describes.
-Jack Reacher has no ID, no credit cards- these things are mentioned repeatedly, yet Reacher is still able to get on a plane. Later in the novel, he remarks how someone he is trying to find couldn't fly because this individual has no credit cards or ID. I literally screamed at the audio book.
-Jack Reacher's clothes. Okay, he has one set of clothes, which he wears for like 5 days. He gets another set, has to change back to the original set, holds a woman who literally bleeds out in his arms and yet he can continue to walk around in that original set of clothes and not a single person says, "wow, how'd you get all that blood on you?" He wears magic clothes.
There are other things but those in particular drove me crazy. It was a 17 hour audiobook, so much of which was filled with repetition and ridiculousness.
Yes, I know it's fiction. I know it doesn't have to be based in reality- but if you're going to use real places you should know what they look like. You should have the same set of standards for all characters (no id, no credit card, no flight- right?). And for goodness sakes the 5-10 minute descriptions of the minutiae of every single object and twist and turn of the road was just exhausting.
I know, everyone else loves this book & this series, but I don't think I'll be continuing.
*post updated 8/13/2020 to add Lynnie's review
I listened to this on a recent road trip and there were several times that we thought of abandoning it, but we didn't have time to start something new so we stuck with it. First things first. The narrator, Dick Hill, had a very soothing voice (not great for road trips, sometimes it made me sleepy) and I enjoyed his male voices but his female voices were all ridiculously whiny sounding; it's like he doesn't know women can be anything other than breathy and in distress. That said, I'd give him a B for his reading- after all, he only had so much to work with.
The pros: I liked the character of Jack Reacher- he was interesting, a bit absurd, and entertainingly cliche as a man who swoops into town to solve all the problems. I also liked the overall story, even if the writing was often clunky and frustrating, I genuinely wanted to see how everything came together and the plot line resolved.
But now, the cons:
-This book would make an excellent drinking game. If you took a drink every time Dick Hill read, "he said," "she said," "I said" you would be blotto before the first chapter ended. This was perhaps my biggest pet peeve of the story because it continued for 17 hours- I almost cheered once when he read that "she exclaimed" or something like that.
-Lee Child has never met a metaphor he didn't like. His descriptions of... everything, were ridiculous and I often felt that his writing was condescending as he over-described every single thing. At one point, he spends, no kidding, about 10 minutes describing a big pile of money. We were literally screaming at the radio, "we know the pile of money is huge, move on!!!" He also spends ages describing a chase through the Atlanta airport baggage claim that made it very clear he hadn't ever bothered to google the ATL baggage claim- his descriptions were so absurdly off the mark and absolutely unrealistic. Dude, just google the airport and look at a picture of the baggage claim.
- As a 28-year military spouse, Child's description of growing up military is ridiculous. No matter how important a service member may be, they do not move them and their family every few months. In fact, if a service member has a duty station that is less than a year the military doesn't move the family- it's too expensive and frankly, disruptive. I have known loads of military kids and the most high schools attended I've ever heard of, even in the heavy movers, is 3, not 7. It was just preposterous. Yes, military families move a lot, but nothing like Child describes.
-Jack Reacher has no ID, no credit cards- these things are mentioned repeatedly, yet Reacher is still able to get on a plane. Later in the novel, he remarks how someone he is trying to find couldn't fly because this individual has no credit cards or ID. I literally screamed at the audio book.
-Jack Reacher's clothes. Okay, he has one set of clothes, which he wears for like 5 days. He gets another set, has to change back to the original set, holds a woman who literally bleeds out in his arms and yet he can continue to walk around in that original set of clothes and not a single person says, "wow, how'd you get all that blood on you?" He wears magic clothes.
There are other things but those in particular drove me crazy. It was a 17 hour audiobook, so much of which was filled with repetition and ridiculousness.
Yes, I know it's fiction. I know it doesn't have to be based in reality- but if you're going to use real places you should know what they look like. You should have the same set of standards for all characters (no id, no credit card, no flight- right?). And for goodness sakes the 5-10 minute descriptions of the minutiae of every single object and twist and turn of the road was just exhausting.
I know, everyone else loves this book & this series, but I don't think I'll be continuing.
*post updated 8/13/2020 to add Lynnie's review
