Y'all gonna make me lose my mind

Just read Lee Child's Killing Floor. I've seen the books compared to Richard Stark's Parker books since both leads are improbably skilled loners with a penchant for violence. Child's Reacher is considerably more violent than Parker. This book is going to appeal to men far more than women. Most guys know that certain people just need a good beat down and guys gravitate to books, movies and music where that beat down is delivered. Some characters will take the high road and rise above the violence of their foes. Not Reacher. Best stay out of his way.

Child is an ex-screenwriter and he keeps the pace moving incredibly quickly. There is pretty much no downtime for any character development, you get a description and the move on. Books usually suffer when that happens, but the pace makes up for it. His prose is like a less skilled Ellroy. By that I mean it stripped to the minimum, delivering only what is required. Ellroy of course makes his language almost musical and we shouldn't expect something that good out of a first novel at least. By the way ladies, Nancy Pearl wrote in More Book Lust that she really liked Lee Child, but the test might be if you thought Kill Bill was a good movie.