Hit List

I just read Lawrence Block's "Hit Man" collection of short stories two weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I expected this story (second in the series) to be equally entertaining but it fell far short. I have to believe that this novel was constructed/expanded out of a couple short stories because each chapter is repeating elements of the prior chapter(s) like maybe we had forgotten them in a few pages. There is just too much recapping and padding in here to qualify as a good read. The interesting story elements (such as one involving a painter) were overshadowed by long weak sections. The story starts off very slow on top of it all but a twist to this wherein the hunter might be the hunted adds a little interest. It just seems like a show more poorly written sloppy fix-up novel. I'll give the next book a try sometime as I like the character "Keller" in here and the first book of stories was quite entertaining. show less

In this, the second of the Keller series, Keller gradually realizes that someone is trying to kill him, to hit the hit man. I enjoyed much of this novel, although not as much as the first one; unusually for Block in my experience, some of it felt padded, in particular the time Keller spends on jury duty. It was interesting, but seemed extraneous to the plot. I will, however, read the next in the series.

Short stories kill my taste for detective series far quicker than reading, say, the whole Nero Wolfe corpus ever did. I still love Lawrence Block's stamp-collecting hitman Keller, but grew tired of the 'formula' pretty quick with this second instalment. The long 'quirky' conversations with his agent Dot, where one or both go off on a tangent, soon lost their charm in particular. Still, good fun and easy to read while travelling to and from work.

I enjoyed these short stories immensely. Although, I guess they are more episodic than entirely separate.

Block's anti-hero is a rather boring blend into the crowd hit man. He is very normal, except he kills people. And he is likable, and yet - he kills people for hire and does it with about as much emotional angst as someone might have over firing an employee. He's not a sociopath, he's a business man.

Block does an excellent job of making Keller both entirely normal and likeable with homey descriptions of his life between jobs, his daily activities, his hobbies and girlfriends. It's all almost boring and yet very compelling. (which is the mark of a good writer, in my opinion) And then he startles us out of our complacence with Keller show more killing people. More or less innocent people are killed.

The strongest supporting character is Dot, the assistant to the old man, who gives Keller his jobs. She is tough and yet a bit motherly with lots of snark in her commentary, to which Keller plays the straight man.

It is not particularly realistic. I found myself aware that Keller had a very casual attitude about evidence, but the characters hold it together and so I never quite lost my suspension of disbelief. show less

It is what you'd expect if you read Hit Man: it's fast and easy to read, the characters are engaging and interesting and the morals are not stogged down your throat.

The only negatives are that the segue between "scenes" is a bit choppier than in Hit Man (or Hit and Run which were both excellent reads) and there is a bit too much coverage of Keller's stamp collecting hobby. Oh, and there is some "supernatural" stuff near the 2/3 mark that didn't really seem to fit Keller's character.

Keller is Hunted
A review of the Harper Collins eBook (October 13, 2009) of the William Morrow & Co. hardcover original (2000).

This second book in the series with the neurotic hitman John Keller has more of a novel story arc although you could still say it is a novel in short stories. Each story is usually 2 to 4 chapters and I made notes in order to follow the overall arc. I mostly titled the stories according to which city Keller travels to for each assignment. I didn't do individual ratings, but the early setups from Chapters 1 to 14 were the best and would be 4s. The later stories and the ending are somewhat downbeat due to the unlikely coincidences and the "collateral damage," so you don't feel that great about the resolution. So show more 2's for those, resulting a 3 rating overall.

All throughout, Keller continues his stamp collecting and the somewhat tedious banter with his contractor Dot. The stamp collecting is a parallel with author Lawrence Block's own hobby for which he wrote a series of columns collected in Generally Speaking: All 33 columns, plus a few philatelic words from Keller (2019).

The following notes provide my story capsulations and chapter groupings. I have spoiler blocked it, although I'm not giving away too many details.

Chapters 1-4 The Louisville, Kentucky Job Keller stays at a motel while planning the job. He changes rooms due to noise. After finishing the job, he hears that the people in his old room were murdered.
Chapters 5-7 The New York City Job Keller scopes a job at an art gallery. He meets an artist named Maggie and begins an affair.
Chapters 8-10 The Tampa, Florida Job Keller learns about his astrology and (according to palmistry) that he has a murderer’s thumb. Consulting an astrologist he is warned that he is in danger from an unknown person.
Chapters 11-14 The Boston Mass. Job Wearing an olive green trench coat, Keller does the job and goes to eat at a coffee shop. As he is leaving he discovers his coat has been stolen. Afterwards he reads that a man wearing a green coat was murdered. Keller and Dot piece together that there is another hitman out there who is trying to reduce the competition.
Chapter 15 The Forest Hills, Illinois Job Keller goes to do the job but the target has a car accident. The client thinks it was genius, but it was just blind luck.
Chapter 16 The Albuquerque, New Mexico Job Keller travels to a supposedly impossible job with the victim under witness protection. Again, a lucky break solves the problem for Keller.
Chapter 17 The Breakup No job, but Maggie from The New York City Job breaks it off with Keller.
Chapter 18 The La Jolla, California Job Keller flies in but before he can do the job, the victim himself commits suicide. He returns home and six weeks later there is The St. Louis, Missouri Job. Keller does the job quickly before learning that the client had called it off.
Chapters 19-23 Jury Duty and the Fells Point, Maryland Job Dot has a job but Keller initially turns it down because he has been called for jury duty. He agrees to scope out the job on weekends. During the trial Keller and another juror Gloria make a connection and when sequestered at trial's end they have a one-night stand. Keller does the job during one of the weekend breaks from the trial.
Chapters 24 to 30 The Inside Job Dot and Keller set a trap for the unknown hitman back in New York City.Trivia and Links
I read a considerable number of Lawrence Block books in my pre-GR and pre-reviewing days. Probably 40 or so out of the 100+ that are available. That included all of the Matt Scudder books, several of the Bernie Rhodenbarrs, several of the Evan Tanners, several of the Kellers, a dozen or so standalones and some of the memoirs. There were even a few of the earlier pulp novels which were originally published under pseudonyms. This re-read is part of an ongoing look back at some of those.

Lawrence Block (June 24, 1938 - ) considers himself retired these days, but still maintains an occasional newsletter with the latest issued in August 2024. He self-publishes some of his earlier works that have otherwise gone out of print, using his own LB Productions imprint. show less

An enjoyable summer Sunday afternoon read. Bogged down in the middle; almost gave up during the astrology bit and the nonsense about TV shows. A little choppy through the first half, and it could have been at least 75 pages shorter, which is typical for an episodic 'novel'. But glad I stuck with it because the last third was satisfying. The relationship between John Keller and Dot is fun.