Killing Floor - 1997

Jack Reacher is really big and strong and also really smart and he wins every fight and he solves every crime. I’ve wanted to meet this character for a while after hearing the TV show is peak Dad TV, and I see the appeal now. The preface is honestly the most interesting part of the book; Child, a veteran British TV writer, walks through the process of creating the character based on his decades of experience crafting story, his sense for audience needs, and where to zag when the rest of the industry is zigging, namely by creating deeply flawed, neurotic protagonists that eat shit the entire book. Jack doesn’t have that problem. The middle third of the book is detective work by day and then going out to listen to blues music with a pretty lady by night. You get the Sherlock-esque detail-noticing, but you also get the Vin Diesel “contractually obligated to never lose a fight” action scenes. There are over 30 of these novels. I’m going to read another one.