Killing Floor

Jack Reacher is a former military policeman who now travels the country on his own terms. His determination to stay anonymous and off-the-grid is in direct contrast to a modern world that increasingly tracks one’s every move. Like the knights-errant in medieval literature, Reacher wanders from one city to the next, solving their problems with brutally efficient vigilante justice and leaving before the authorities catch on. Because Reacher exists outside traditional structures of law and order, and his moral compass is rather flexible, he is able to deliver the punishments that the police or the FBI cannot. Lee Child designed Reacher to be an “overdog” rather than an underdog, someone who has no flaws or emotional hang-ups and always wins every fight. Despite his highly specialized skill set and deadly use of physical force, Child notes that Reacher is “awkward in civilian society. He gets around his difficulties by assembling a series of eccentricities that border on the weird. […] He has enough problems to make him interesting, but crucially, he himself doesn’t know he has these problems. He thinks he’s fine. He thinks he’s normal” (xxi, emphasis original). Reacher chooses not to participate in things he does not understand, such as doing his own laundry, having a credit card, or owning a house.