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John Keller #1
Hit Man
Keller is an assassin – he is paid by the job and works for a mysterious man who nominates hits and passes on commissions from elsewhere. Keller goes in, does the job, gets out: usually at a few hours’ notice . . . Often Keller’s work takes him out of New York to other cities, to pretty provincial towns that almost tempt him into moving to the woods and the lakeshores. Almost but not quite.
But then one job goes wrong in a way Keller has never imagined and it leaves him with a big problem. Finding himself with an orphan on his hands, Keller's job begins to interfere with his carefully guarded life. And once you let someone in to your life, they tend to want to know what you do when you're away. And killing for a living, lucrative though it is, just doesn't find favour with some folks.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 21, 1998
About the author
Lawrence Block
732 books2,882 followersLawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 544 reviews
July 11, 2018
Aside from Matthew Scudder, J. P. Keller has always been my favorite of the characters created by Lawrence Block. Keller is just your basic guy, living alone in New York City and doing the sorts of things that a lonely, single guy would do. But every once in a while, his phone rings and it's Dot on the line, summoning him to White Plains to meet with the Old Man. After reporting in and receiving his instructions, Keller then goes off somewhere and kills somebody.
As the book's title would imply, Keller is a hit man, and logically, we readers should be repelled by him and his actions. But as is the case with Richard Stark's amoral thief, Parker, you can't help but root for the guy, even though you know you shouldn't. He's the BAD guy, for god's sake, and we should despise him, but he's just too damned likable.
This is a collection of stories, many of which originally appeared in Playboy magazine, and which were the reason why so many people read the magazine back in the day. They trace the arc of Keller's life through a series of assignments and entanglements, romantic and otherwise.
What makes the character so appealing are his inner musings about life in general and his own in particular. He has a habit of traveling to a small town somewhere and wondering what it would be like to live there permanently; he goes into analysis, but naturally, he can't really reveal anything about himself to the analyst--he has to make it all up. He gets a dog and a girlfriend, both of which complicate his life. He sometimes gets too close to his targets and has trouble carrying out his mission.
It's a complicated life, and in the hands of any writer less skilled than Lawrence Block, the premise would never work. But this is a great collection of stories, and Keller is a character that no fan of crime fiction will want to miss. It's interesting that Block and Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) were close friends and collaborated on a couple of books, and that they would create two great characters like Keller and Parker, protagonists that any right-minded person should revile but that reader can help but love.
As the book's title would imply, Keller is a hit man, and logically, we readers should be repelled by him and his actions. But as is the case with Richard Stark's amoral thief, Parker, you can't help but root for the guy, even though you know you shouldn't. He's the BAD guy, for god's sake, and we should despise him, but he's just too damned likable.
This is a collection of stories, many of which originally appeared in Playboy magazine, and which were the reason why so many people read the magazine back in the day. They trace the arc of Keller's life through a series of assignments and entanglements, romantic and otherwise.
What makes the character so appealing are his inner musings about life in general and his own in particular. He has a habit of traveling to a small town somewhere and wondering what it would be like to live there permanently; he goes into analysis, but naturally, he can't really reveal anything about himself to the analyst--he has to make it all up. He gets a dog and a girlfriend, both of which complicate his life. He sometimes gets too close to his targets and has trouble carrying out his mission.
It's a complicated life, and in the hands of any writer less skilled than Lawrence Block, the premise would never work. But this is a great collection of stories, and Keller is a character that no fan of crime fiction will want to miss. It's interesting that Block and Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) were close friends and collaborated on a couple of books, and that they would create two great characters like Keller and Parker, protagonists that any right-minded person should revile but that reader can help but love.
January 29, 2010
Keller's a pretty normal guy. He does crosswords, loves dogs, collects stamps and buys earrings for his girlfriend every time he travels. And he travels a lot since his job is killing people.
Block did a great job with this string of short stories about Keller that build a character study about a professional hit man who often finds himself dealing with odd circumstances despite his desire to just do the job and get out of town. Keller isn't a psycho, but he isn't exactly wracked with guilt either.
Keller's also got a tendency to get a bit lost in his own imagination as he does his job, and Block uses these to add some themes to the stories. For example, after reading a paperback western on the plane to a Wyoming town to kill a guy, Keller spends the rest of the trip thinking of himself as the heroic drifter in a western movie who's blown into town.
It's Keller's idle musings that make these stories different from other hired killer books. Keller's mind will wander, but at some point his pragmatic streak kicks in and he'll focus on just getting the job done. Too bad for his targets that he's really good at it.
Block did a great job with this string of short stories about Keller that build a character study about a professional hit man who often finds himself dealing with odd circumstances despite his desire to just do the job and get out of town. Keller isn't a psycho, but he isn't exactly wracked with guilt either.
Keller's also got a tendency to get a bit lost in his own imagination as he does his job, and Block uses these to add some themes to the stories. For example, after reading a paperback western on the plane to a Wyoming town to kill a guy, Keller spends the rest of the trip thinking of himself as the heroic drifter in a western movie who's blown into town.
It's Keller's idle musings that make these stories different from other hired killer books. Keller's mind will wander, but at some point his pragmatic streak kicks in and he'll focus on just getting the job done. Too bad for his targets that he's really good at it.
January 31, 2019
Keller is your standard lonely bachelor. He makes a decent wage, but every night comes home to his apartment alone. He spends his time with his hobbies, watching TV, reading the occasional book… he’s starting to get into stamp collecting. He likes dogs, and every once in a while he has to go out of town and kill someone; but that’s just a job, and a profession doesn’t have to define a person, now does it? Nope. Keller’s your average, occasionally boring guy.
Block’s first collection of short stories about Keller is something of a minor masterpiece. It balances some fairly clever crime stories with an extremely witty sense of humor. For a while I debated if it was appropriate to put this in the humor bookshelf. I recognize that I have a fairly dark sense of humor, so just because I found myself cackling didn’t mean that most reasonable people wouldn’t shake their heads in horror and/or disgust…. Then a scene happened where he called his apartment, worrying that his dog would be lonely, only to reveal that he didn’t even have an answering machine and that he just hoped that it would pick up good vibes through the ringing. I decided at this point that if the idea of this insecure/self conscious hit man worrying about his dog as he plots to murder someone didn’t come off as absurdly humorous to others… well, that’s just their loss. This is a very funny book, just in a borderline surreal way. It all just fits into place, despite the absurdity; it always feels appropriate for the character.
Keller is a surprisingly likeable protagonist. He’s doing horrible things, but it’s hard not to smile while he sits there pondering how his situation is straight out of a western and inventing parallels to go along with it just for the hell of it. There’s a wonderful moment where he keeps going to the same restaurant multiple days in a row and inventing a backstory for the waitress there, only to be disillusioned with the entire place when he hears about her real life not matching his fantasies. To Keller, his job is a touch boring, and these fantasies help keep him going.
The continuity between the stories is a nice touch. While I gather they were published in multiple magazines before being collected, they have enough callbacks and references that it feels consistent. If there had been a more overarching plot, I would have considered it a novel with a bit of an episodic feel. As things stand it all works wonderfully, and I will be delighted to give Keller another shot in the future.
A solid 4/5.
Block’s first collection of short stories about Keller is something of a minor masterpiece. It balances some fairly clever crime stories with an extremely witty sense of humor. For a while I debated if it was appropriate to put this in the humor bookshelf. I recognize that I have a fairly dark sense of humor, so just because I found myself cackling didn’t mean that most reasonable people wouldn’t shake their heads in horror and/or disgust…. Then a scene happened where he called his apartment, worrying that his dog would be lonely, only to reveal that he didn’t even have an answering machine and that he just hoped that it would pick up good vibes through the ringing. I decided at this point that if the idea of this insecure/self conscious hit man worrying about his dog as he plots to murder someone didn’t come off as absurdly humorous to others… well, that’s just their loss. This is a very funny book, just in a borderline surreal way. It all just fits into place, despite the absurdity; it always feels appropriate for the character.
Keller is a surprisingly likeable protagonist. He’s doing horrible things, but it’s hard not to smile while he sits there pondering how his situation is straight out of a western and inventing parallels to go along with it just for the hell of it. There’s a wonderful moment where he keeps going to the same restaurant multiple days in a row and inventing a backstory for the waitress there, only to be disillusioned with the entire place when he hears about her real life not matching his fantasies. To Keller, his job is a touch boring, and these fantasies help keep him going.
The continuity between the stories is a nice touch. While I gather they were published in multiple magazines before being collected, they have enough callbacks and references that it feels consistent. If there had been a more overarching plot, I would have considered it a novel with a bit of an episodic feel. As things stand it all works wonderfully, and I will be delighted to give Keller another shot in the future.
A solid 4/5.
September 26, 2024
3.5 stars
short review for busy readers:
Keller is nothing special. He's a bachelor who lives in a one room apartment in New York City, makes up elaborate stories about people he meets and fantasises about living in the towns he visits on business.
And that's the one out-of-the-ordinary thing about Keller: his business. He's a hit man. Paid to kill off people he's never met and has nothing against. And he's good at his job. Well, most of the time.
Not a bad set up!
Keller is an interesting character with plenty of interior thoughts and worries to keep the narrative going. The only catch...this isn't a novel in the traditional sense. It's a series of interlocking anecdotes told chronologically about Keller's various jobs and a little about his private life.
That means there are one or two plot strands running through all the stories, mainly about "the old man" who assigns Keller his jobs and Keller's dog. But in essence, it's a short story collection.
While those stories are entertaining individually, too many spoils the soup and it's easy to tire before the end, so best enjoyed in spurts and not in one go.
short review for busy readers:
Keller is nothing special. He's a bachelor who lives in a one room apartment in New York City, makes up elaborate stories about people he meets and fantasises about living in the towns he visits on business.
And that's the one out-of-the-ordinary thing about Keller: his business. He's a hit man. Paid to kill off people he's never met and has nothing against. And he's good at his job. Well, most of the time.
Not a bad set up!
Keller is an interesting character with plenty of interior thoughts and worries to keep the narrative going. The only catch...this isn't a novel in the traditional sense. It's a series of interlocking anecdotes told chronologically about Keller's various jobs and a little about his private life.
That means there are one or two plot strands running through all the stories, mainly about "the old man" who assigns Keller his jobs and Keller's dog. But in essence, it's a short story collection.
While those stories are entertaining individually, too many spoils the soup and it's easy to tire before the end, so best enjoyed in spurts and not in one go.
September 5, 2012
I'm completely embarrassed to say that I've read this one before, somehow, in some form. One would think I'd remember a book called Hit Man. Alas, I'm getting old. So what did I do when I discovered my little error? Keep on reading, of course, because I could only vaguely remember details and it is a fast read. What I have to say about memory is that it's very odd to read one long deja vu, and somewhat disconcerting to realize my memory had inserted another chapter. Perhaps I was channelling Block. More likely, I read the next book and forgot most of the specifics. Now, if only I can get my subconscious to review it...
Block does it again, creating sympathy and a multifaceted character in that most staple of thriller tropes, the assassin. The book is written as a series of loosely connected shorts that cover episodes in Keller's life as he goes through his routine at home in NYC and on the road plying his trade.
This assassin is definitely a little different. As he follows his mark around the small town of Roseburg, Oregon, he starts to fantasize what living there would be like. Perhaps he'll take his savings and buy a 'starter home.' Perhaps he'll start his own business, do some printing. However, the job ends, the fascination passes, he comes back to his life in NYC. Not for long, however; soon he is on his way to Martingale, Texas, carting along a paperback he hasn't read on the strength of the line "he rode a thousand miles to kill a man he never met." In a boozy barroom, he listens to stories about cheatin' hearts and naturally, meets a woman looking for a good time.
Back in NYC, he shares a dream about mice with his therapist. Long before Tony Soprano sat with Dr. Melfi, Keller was sitting with Dr. Breen. That doesn't work so well, but soon he's moving on to his new dog, followed by a dog-walker, because after all, an assassin's got to travel. Then he and Dot have some trouble at the agency with the man upstairs (literally).
Overall, a fun, fast read and an unusual character study. I found myself discovering sympathy (likely for the second time) for the hit man, who has so badly actualized himself. These books are--in the wise words of Trudi--potato chip reads; you might only mean to read a few pages, but soon you've downed the whole bag.
Cross posted at: http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2012/1...
Block does it again, creating sympathy and a multifaceted character in that most staple of thriller tropes, the assassin. The book is written as a series of loosely connected shorts that cover episodes in Keller's life as he goes through his routine at home in NYC and on the road plying his trade.
This assassin is definitely a little different. As he follows his mark around the small town of Roseburg, Oregon, he starts to fantasize what living there would be like. Perhaps he'll take his savings and buy a 'starter home.' Perhaps he'll start his own business, do some printing. However, the job ends, the fascination passes, he comes back to his life in NYC. Not for long, however; soon he is on his way to Martingale, Texas, carting along a paperback he hasn't read on the strength of the line "he rode a thousand miles to kill a man he never met." In a boozy barroom, he listens to stories about cheatin' hearts and naturally, meets a woman looking for a good time.
Back in NYC, he shares a dream about mice with his therapist. Long before Tony Soprano sat with Dr. Melfi, Keller was sitting with Dr. Breen. That doesn't work so well, but soon he's moving on to his new dog, followed by a dog-walker, because after all, an assassin's got to travel. Then he and Dot have some trouble at the agency with the man upstairs (literally).
Overall, a fun, fast read and an unusual character study. I found myself discovering sympathy (likely for the second time) for the hit man, who has so badly actualized himself. These books are--in the wise words of Trudi--potato chip reads; you might only mean to read a few pages, but soon you've downed the whole bag.
Cross posted at: http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2012/1...
August 25, 2017
A collection of short stories featuring John Keller, a professional hit-man whose job takes him to different places where he eliminates the target and then return home after that. He is not a typical hit man (the ones you see in spy movies) nor a psycho-path, He's close to a normal person. Keller takes his time in doing his job, waiting for the right moment to strike. He passes time by solving crosswords puzzles, fantasizing about the places he went to (settling down there, having a normal life), watching movies and other stuff. The novel has some twists, and each story reveal a side of Keller's personality.
The book was fun and I recommend it to those who likes hit man novels.
The book was fun and I recommend it to those who likes hit man novels.
November 29, 2009
Hitman is a collection of short stories about a professional killer named Keller. What sets this book apart from others of its kind is that it's more about what Keller does when he's not actively killing people, what makes him tick. He has fantasies about living in whatever town he's visiting for a job. He has a dog that he's quite attached to. And eventually he takes up stamp collecting as a hobby so he'll have something to do when he retires.
That's not to say there's no action. Keller dispatches quite a few people in this book. He's a professional and the ways he figures out how to pull off the killings are well done.
Lawrence Block's writing is another attraction for picking this up. He knows how to weave a short story like nobody's business. There isn't a single dud in the collection as far as I'm concerned.
If hitmen interest you, go out and get this RIGHT NOW! Keller's a fleshed out character and a joy to read about. I'll be picking up the other two Keller books in short order.
That's not to say there's no action. Keller dispatches quite a few people in this book. He's a professional and the ways he figures out how to pull off the killings are well done.
Lawrence Block's writing is another attraction for picking this up. He knows how to weave a short story like nobody's business. There isn't a single dud in the collection as far as I'm concerned.
If hitmen interest you, go out and get this RIGHT NOW! Keller's a fleshed out character and a joy to read about. I'll be picking up the other two Keller books in short order.
January 11, 2023
I had a great time with this… anthology (?) of tales featuring killer for hire Keller by the great Lawrence Block.
I had no idea while reading this that this was not a novel but a collection of stories featuring Keller that had appeared in various publications. This book features those stories strung together to read like a novel.
Very exciting stuff. Keller is as tough as they come and displays no remorse. Killing people is just a job for him.
Highest recommendation!
I had no idea while reading this that this was not a novel but a collection of stories featuring Keller that had appeared in various publications. This book features those stories strung together to read like a novel.
Very exciting stuff. Keller is as tough as they come and displays no remorse. Killing people is just a job for him.
Highest recommendation!
February 21, 2023
You got in close, you pointed, you fired. It wasn’t rocket science, for God’s sake. It wasn’t neurosurgery. Anyone could do it.
Initially, I was a little disappointed to find out the the book of the month chosen by my group is a collection of short stories instead of a full blown novel, but I should have trusted in the talent of Lawrence Block to make the best out of the premise. There is a good reason why he was voted Grand Master by his fellow mystery writers, and the Keller stories are an excellent showcase for his talent.
What’s more, these are not just random episodes in the life of a contract killer, but an in-depth and solidly anchored character study enlivened by a delightfully lurid streak of black humour and by the author’s signature witty dialogues. Each case is also standing on its own legs, as an independent episode, as they appeared initially in literary magazines [Playboy?], but in my opinion they are better experienced in the logical order arranged for this first book in the series, as they track the main character career in an approximate chronological order.
I never had any interest in it or any aptitude for it, but it turns out you don’t need any. All you need is to be able to do it. I did it once because somebody told me to, and I did it a second time because somebody told me to, and before I knew it was what I did.
The deadpan delivery of puns in the rapid fire conversations between Keller and his assistant/handler Dot were extremely familiar and I struggled for a bit to remember why, until the sardonic social commentary, the casual descriptions of the murders and the absurdly comical misunderstandings that crop up regularly clicked. I think my AHA! moment came in the short story about Keller going to a psychiatrist for his depression:
Dr. Oatman: Don't kill anybody for a few days. See what it feels like.
Martin Q. Blank: All right, I'll give it a shot.
Dr. Oatman: No, don't give it a shot! Don't shoot anything!
The dialogue quoted here is from one of my favourite movies, where another contract killer [Marty] has a too-casual approach to his job and likes to exchange barbed puns with his secretary, Marcella. I’m referring of course to ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’ from 1997, a year before ‘Hit Man’ was published. I don’t think Block can be accused of borrowing, because the original Keller stories appeared in magazines before the movie. Yet the similarity is striking for me, especially in terms of how much fun I had with both contract killers.
“Well, this is good ice tea, as far as that goes. Made with real tea.”
“And real ice, I’ll bet.”
Lawrence Block knows his crime traditions, and there is one more classic movie that I saw recently and that is referenced directly in here, with a famous quote from 1948:
He didn’t much feel like a scoundrel. He felt like your basic New York single guy, living alone, eating out or bringing home takeout, schlepping his wash to the laundromat, doing the ‘Times’ crossword with his morning coffee. Working out at the gym, starting doomed relationships with women, going to the movies by himself. There were eight million stories in the naked city, most of them not very interesting, and his was one of them.
This also explains how the author managed to make Keller so relatable, despite of his chosen profession: he is just a regular guy, doing his job, getting bored and depressed with his life, looking around at the crazy world he lives in and wondering what to make of it.
The actual action in each chapter is usually delivered in a couple of lines, almost like an afterthought [... oh, yes ... and then I killed him ... and went back home], with the rest of the time spent by Keller just trying to make it through to the end of another bleak day.
‘The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me’
Keller has to be able to leave his house at the drop of a phone call, travel to the other end of the country, kill a perfect stranger there, and then come back and resume his ‘regular’ life. His contracts are delivered through a clearing house in a nearby town [White Plains], making it all impersonal and hopefully professional.
The chronology I was referring to in my earlier commentary refers to the progressive corruption of Keller’s system which results in several mishaps, and to his growing restlessness that leads him first to a psychiatrist couch, later to owning a dog, to women troubles [what can you expect when you date someone you met at a course called ‘Deciphering the Mysteries of Baltic Cuisine’ ?] and, finally, to something that could fill up the empty spaces in his life:
“I’ll be damned, Keller. It sounds for all the world as though you’ve got yourself a hobby. You’re a whatchamacallit, a philatelist.”
Yet, before we earn this practical solution to Keller’s existential crisis, we are treated to a whole series of dismal motel rooms, long hours of surveillance in a rented car, boozy conversations in bars that play only sad country music, the dreariness of finding something worthy on TV, several decades before the Netflix debacle:
The hard part was finding something to pass the time. He went to a movie, walked through a mall, and watched a lot of television. [...]
It might be easier to change the channels now, but it was harder than ever to find anything he wanted to see.
It struck Keller that there ought to be some sort of solution that didn’t involve lowering the population. But he knew he was the person least likely to come up with it.
The one constant from one mission to the next is Keller’s vague, unspecific desire to change something in his life, to escape from the routine he let himself drift into, even as he, perversely, takes pride in the professional way he always ‘solves’ the puzzle of how to dispatch his targets.
Perhaps the best thing about dogs, it seemed to Keller, was that you could talk to them. They made much better listeners than human beings did. You didn’t have to worry that you were boring them, or that they’d heard a particular story before, or that they’d think less of you for what you were revealing about yourself.
No matter how often Keller visits homes on sale in remote small towns, or wonders if country life is better than living in a big city, or if a pet can replace the necessity of speaking with other people, our hit man always returns to his old haunts. Keller is the most typical of New Yorkers, just as Dot explains it to him, and his dreams of other lives are just a fantasy to ease his boredom when he is away from home.
Keller, who lived in a one-bedroom apartment in midtown Manhattan, had no lawn to mow. There was a tree in front of his building, planted and diligently maintained by the Parks Department, and its leaves fell in the fall, but no one needed to rake them. The wind was pretty good about blowing them away. Snow, when it didn’t melt of its own accord, was shoveled from the sidewalk by the building’s superintendent, who kept the elevator running and replaced burned-out bulbs in the hall fixtures and dealt with minor plumbing emergencies. Keller had a low-maintenance life, really. All he had to do was pay the rent on time and everything else got taken care of by other people.
He liked it that way.
Lawrence Block is a regular New Yorker himself, and I believe he too loves his big city comforts, just like Keller, and maybe this is why his portrait of the man and of the city is so persuasive. I found these insights into modern living, with the accompanying social commentary about popular culture, politics and economic inequalities [ ... he very likely billed it to his company, or took it off his taxes. Or, if his accountant was enterprising, both. ] as captivating as the subversive ways the author finds to derail the murder plans of Keller and to make him re-examine what he does for a living.
Not that he ever seriously considers changing careers mid-journey. This Keller [his first name is John Paul, but that appears I think only once or twice in the whole book] somehow manages to speak to me more about modern life than about the nuts and bolts of how to get away with murder. He does that too, because we should not forget this is a crime caper.
Guns Don’t Kill People Unless You Aim Real Good !
These surprises are best left to each reader to discover as they come along, so I will not do a synopsis for any of the ten episodes included here. I’m not even sure I will remember after a few months the actual details of each episode, except maybe the one with the doctor, the one with the double contract and the one with the secret government agent:
- ‘Keller’s Therapy’
- ‘Keller’s Choice’
- ‘Keller’s Last Refuge’
I guess I could call these my favourites, but that doesn’t mean the other stories are of less quality, or that they don’t add something to the composite image of the contract killer. I believe the lasting impression will be this character growth that was revealed to us in a progressive manner:
“They tend to call us expediters,” Keller said, “but troubleshooter is what it amounts to.”
The journey doesn’t end here, and from low expectations I ended up with a growing appreciation of Lawrence Block as a master storyteller and with a genuine desire to continue with the Keller format:
“Give the man an exploding cigar.”
Initially, I was a little disappointed to find out the the book of the month chosen by my group is a collection of short stories instead of a full blown novel, but I should have trusted in the talent of Lawrence Block to make the best out of the premise. There is a good reason why he was voted Grand Master by his fellow mystery writers, and the Keller stories are an excellent showcase for his talent.
What’s more, these are not just random episodes in the life of a contract killer, but an in-depth and solidly anchored character study enlivened by a delightfully lurid streak of black humour and by the author’s signature witty dialogues. Each case is also standing on its own legs, as an independent episode, as they appeared initially in literary magazines [Playboy?], but in my opinion they are better experienced in the logical order arranged for this first book in the series, as they track the main character career in an approximate chronological order.
I never had any interest in it or any aptitude for it, but it turns out you don’t need any. All you need is to be able to do it. I did it once because somebody told me to, and I did it a second time because somebody told me to, and before I knew it was what I did.
The deadpan delivery of puns in the rapid fire conversations between Keller and his assistant/handler Dot were extremely familiar and I struggled for a bit to remember why, until the sardonic social commentary, the casual descriptions of the murders and the absurdly comical misunderstandings that crop up regularly clicked. I think my AHA! moment came in the short story about Keller going to a psychiatrist for his depression:
Dr. Oatman: Don't kill anybody for a few days. See what it feels like.
Martin Q. Blank: All right, I'll give it a shot.
Dr. Oatman: No, don't give it a shot! Don't shoot anything!
The dialogue quoted here is from one of my favourite movies, where another contract killer [Marty] has a too-casual approach to his job and likes to exchange barbed puns with his secretary, Marcella. I’m referring of course to ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’ from 1997, a year before ‘Hit Man’ was published. I don’t think Block can be accused of borrowing, because the original Keller stories appeared in magazines before the movie. Yet the similarity is striking for me, especially in terms of how much fun I had with both contract killers.
“Well, this is good ice tea, as far as that goes. Made with real tea.”
“And real ice, I’ll bet.”
Lawrence Block knows his crime traditions, and there is one more classic movie that I saw recently and that is referenced directly in here, with a famous quote from 1948:
He didn’t much feel like a scoundrel. He felt like your basic New York single guy, living alone, eating out or bringing home takeout, schlepping his wash to the laundromat, doing the ‘Times’ crossword with his morning coffee. Working out at the gym, starting doomed relationships with women, going to the movies by himself. There were eight million stories in the naked city, most of them not very interesting, and his was one of them.
This also explains how the author managed to make Keller so relatable, despite of his chosen profession: he is just a regular guy, doing his job, getting bored and depressed with his life, looking around at the crazy world he lives in and wondering what to make of it.
The actual action in each chapter is usually delivered in a couple of lines, almost like an afterthought [... oh, yes ... and then I killed him ... and went back home], with the rest of the time spent by Keller just trying to make it through to the end of another bleak day.
‘The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me’
Keller has to be able to leave his house at the drop of a phone call, travel to the other end of the country, kill a perfect stranger there, and then come back and resume his ‘regular’ life. His contracts are delivered through a clearing house in a nearby town [White Plains], making it all impersonal and hopefully professional.
The chronology I was referring to in my earlier commentary refers to the progressive corruption of Keller’s system which results in several mishaps, and to his growing restlessness that leads him first to a psychiatrist couch, later to owning a dog, to women troubles [what can you expect when you date someone you met at a course called ‘Deciphering the Mysteries of Baltic Cuisine’ ?] and, finally, to something that could fill up the empty spaces in his life:
“I’ll be damned, Keller. It sounds for all the world as though you’ve got yourself a hobby. You’re a whatchamacallit, a philatelist.”
Yet, before we earn this practical solution to Keller’s existential crisis, we are treated to a whole series of dismal motel rooms, long hours of surveillance in a rented car, boozy conversations in bars that play only sad country music, the dreariness of finding something worthy on TV, several decades before the Netflix debacle:
The hard part was finding something to pass the time. He went to a movie, walked through a mall, and watched a lot of television. [...]
It might be easier to change the channels now, but it was harder than ever to find anything he wanted to see.
It struck Keller that there ought to be some sort of solution that didn’t involve lowering the population. But he knew he was the person least likely to come up with it.
The one constant from one mission to the next is Keller’s vague, unspecific desire to change something in his life, to escape from the routine he let himself drift into, even as he, perversely, takes pride in the professional way he always ‘solves’ the puzzle of how to dispatch his targets.
Perhaps the best thing about dogs, it seemed to Keller, was that you could talk to them. They made much better listeners than human beings did. You didn’t have to worry that you were boring them, or that they’d heard a particular story before, or that they’d think less of you for what you were revealing about yourself.
No matter how often Keller visits homes on sale in remote small towns, or wonders if country life is better than living in a big city, or if a pet can replace the necessity of speaking with other people, our hit man always returns to his old haunts. Keller is the most typical of New Yorkers, just as Dot explains it to him, and his dreams of other lives are just a fantasy to ease his boredom when he is away from home.
Keller, who lived in a one-bedroom apartment in midtown Manhattan, had no lawn to mow. There was a tree in front of his building, planted and diligently maintained by the Parks Department, and its leaves fell in the fall, but no one needed to rake them. The wind was pretty good about blowing them away. Snow, when it didn’t melt of its own accord, was shoveled from the sidewalk by the building’s superintendent, who kept the elevator running and replaced burned-out bulbs in the hall fixtures and dealt with minor plumbing emergencies. Keller had a low-maintenance life, really. All he had to do was pay the rent on time and everything else got taken care of by other people.
He liked it that way.
Lawrence Block is a regular New Yorker himself, and I believe he too loves his big city comforts, just like Keller, and maybe this is why his portrait of the man and of the city is so persuasive. I found these insights into modern living, with the accompanying social commentary about popular culture, politics and economic inequalities [ ... he very likely billed it to his company, or took it off his taxes. Or, if his accountant was enterprising, both. ] as captivating as the subversive ways the author finds to derail the murder plans of Keller and to make him re-examine what he does for a living.
Not that he ever seriously considers changing careers mid-journey. This Keller [his first name is John Paul, but that appears I think only once or twice in the whole book] somehow manages to speak to me more about modern life than about the nuts and bolts of how to get away with murder. He does that too, because we should not forget this is a crime caper.
Guns Don’t Kill People Unless You Aim Real Good !
These surprises are best left to each reader to discover as they come along, so I will not do a synopsis for any of the ten episodes included here. I’m not even sure I will remember after a few months the actual details of each episode, except maybe the one with the doctor, the one with the double contract and the one with the secret government agent:
- ‘Keller’s Therapy’
- ‘Keller’s Choice’
- ‘Keller’s Last Refuge’
I guess I could call these my favourites, but that doesn’t mean the other stories are of less quality, or that they don’t add something to the composite image of the contract killer. I believe the lasting impression will be this character growth that was revealed to us in a progressive manner:
“They tend to call us expediters,” Keller said, “but troubleshooter is what it amounts to.”
The journey doesn’t end here, and from low expectations I ended up with a growing appreciation of Lawrence Block as a master storyteller and with a genuine desire to continue with the Keller format:
“Give the man an exploding cigar.”
December 15, 2013
I'll say up front, I fully expected that if I got into this book I'd at best be mildly interested. It is after all a story of a "Hit Man". Personally I don't condone murder either as profession or pass time, so in rating this book a 4 I'm saying this is an interesting book.
It's odd to find yourself at least mildly sympathetic to a killer. When I first "met" Keller he put me in mind of a homicidal Walter Mitty. When he goes somewhere to "fulfill" a contract he tends to start day dreaming about having a normal life "there", wherever "there" happens to be. In the course of the book we will see interesting depths in "Mr. Keller" and also interesting voids. No spoilers here.
This is not a book I would have picked up but for a recommendation here, and I do plan to read the next book. While there are some sour notes in the book, a little misinformation etc. (but then it is fiction) oddly, unexpectedly, even unsettlingly, I like it.
It's odd to find yourself at least mildly sympathetic to a killer. When I first "met" Keller he put me in mind of a homicidal Walter Mitty. When he goes somewhere to "fulfill" a contract he tends to start day dreaming about having a normal life "there", wherever "there" happens to be. In the course of the book we will see interesting depths in "Mr. Keller" and also interesting voids. No spoilers here.
This is not a book I would have picked up but for a recommendation here, and I do plan to read the next book. While there are some sour notes in the book, a little misinformation etc. (but then it is fiction) oddly, unexpectedly, even unsettlingly, I like it.
August 20, 2016
A composite novel about a hitman who spends a lot of his time wondering just what it is he is doing with his life, I had expected it to be closer to Block's Scudder novels than the Burglar Bernie books in terms of tone and content, but Block plays it light and observational and somehow makes it work.
He doesn't revel in the sordid details of the act like your common Lee Child might, instead he finds value in his character and the humanity he observes, using the collection of stories to explore his new creation and his world before giving us what I expect will a more traditional novel in Keller's second outing.
Sure, I would have preferred dark and moody and contemplative, something like Marin Booth's A Very Private Gentleman perhaps, but Lawrence Block is a fine writer, an intelligent man who seeks to entertain and always gives you something to think about. Or as GQ's generic pull quote rather condescendingly puts it on my copy "popular fiction that always respects his readers' desire to be entertained but never insults their intelligence."
They are an entertaining, very easy read, exactly what I have come to expect from the Grandmaster, and I am looking forward to more Keller adventures in the future.
He doesn't revel in the sordid details of the act like your common Lee Child might, instead he finds value in his character and the humanity he observes, using the collection of stories to explore his new creation and his world before giving us what I expect will a more traditional novel in Keller's second outing.
Sure, I would have preferred dark and moody and contemplative, something like Marin Booth's A Very Private Gentleman perhaps, but Lawrence Block is a fine writer, an intelligent man who seeks to entertain and always gives you something to think about. Or as GQ's generic pull quote rather condescendingly puts it on my copy "popular fiction that always respects his readers' desire to be entertained but never insults their intelligence."
They are an entertaining, very easy read, exactly what I have come to expect from the Grandmaster, and I am looking forward to more Keller adventures in the future.
November 6, 2024
Запознайте се с Келър - наемен убиец на средна възраст, действащ в ерата преди 9/11, тероризма на местна почва в САЩ и интернета.
Колко по-лесно му е било на господина да упражнява безпроблемно избраната професия - чак ме чуди на моменти...
Разказите с неговите задачи са чудесно написани и са леко свързани, почти роман се е получил.
Мистър Блок ни е осигурил перфектното книжно забавление!
Колко по-лесно му е било на господина да упражнява безпроблемно избраната професия - чак ме чуди на моменти...
Разказите с неговите задачи са чудесно написани и са леко свързани, почти роман се е получил.
Мистър Блок ни е осигурил перфектното книжно забавление!
October 16, 2024
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Hitter*
A review of the HarperCollins eBook edition (March 17, 2009) of the William Morrow & Co. hardcover original (January 21, 1998).
Lawrence Block returned to writing about the neurotic hitman John Keller in 1998, after having first introduced him in the short story Answers to Soldier: a Keller short story (1984). That short story became Chapter 1 in the new collection and sets the tone for the rest to come.
The challenge in writing about an anti-hero character is to make them either sympathetic or charismatic enough for a reader to want to continue reading. Keller's neuroticism makes him at least somewhat sympathetic, but it grows tiresome in the long run.
Keller takes contracts from an "old man" broker in White Plains, NY and often banters with secretary Dot. He travels to out-of-town jobs from his Manhattan, NYC apartment. While onsite he muses about what it would be like to live another life in these towns. He goes to therapy. He gets a dog. He gets a dogwalker (as he is often out of town). The dogwalker eventually becomes a live-in girlfriend. The therapist, the old man, the dog and the dogwalker eventually all disappear from his life (not all of them naturally). That's about it.
This was part of my Lawrence Block re-read of books from 20 to 40+ years ago. I'm mostly enjoying the Matt Scudder series, the John Kellers are more of a chore. I started this over a month ago, putting it aside during TIFF24. There wasn't a great pull to get back to it, but now it is done. I'll try 1 or 2 more, but am not so sure about whether they'll stand up.
Footnote
* Yes, I stole the idea for my lede from the title of Alan Sillitoe's short story collection The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1959).
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.
A review of the HarperCollins eBook edition (March 17, 2009) of the William Morrow & Co. hardcover original (January 21, 1998).
"Answers to Soldier" marked Keller's first appearance—and I never expected to write more about the wistful hit man. But time passed, and I got to thinking about him. - Author Lawrence Block.
Lawrence Block returned to writing about the neurotic hitman John Keller in 1998, after having first introduced him in the short story Answers to Soldier: a Keller short story (1984). That short story became Chapter 1 in the new collection and sets the tone for the rest to come.
The challenge in writing about an anti-hero character is to make them either sympathetic or charismatic enough for a reader to want to continue reading. Keller's neuroticism makes him at least somewhat sympathetic, but it grows tiresome in the long run.
Keller takes contracts from an "old man" broker in White Plains, NY and often banters with secretary Dot. He travels to out-of-town jobs from his Manhattan, NYC apartment. While onsite he muses about what it would be like to live another life in these towns. He goes to therapy. He gets a dog. He gets a dogwalker (as he is often out of town). The dogwalker eventually becomes a live-in girlfriend. The therapist, the old man, the dog and the dogwalker eventually all disappear from his life (not all of them naturally). That's about it.
This was part of my Lawrence Block re-read of books from 20 to 40+ years ago. I'm mostly enjoying the Matt Scudder series, the John Kellers are more of a chore. I started this over a month ago, putting it aside during TIFF24. There wasn't a great pull to get back to it, but now it is done. I'll try 1 or 2 more, but am not so sure about whether they'll stand up.
Footnote
* Yes, I stole the idea for my lede from the title of Alan Sillitoe's short story collection The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1959).
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.
July 8, 2015
How does Lawrence Block do it? He's the author of the comic Evan Tanner series about an ultra-insomniac CIA agent. He's written the dark and suspenseful Matthew Scudder series. Then he's got the uproariously funny and New York-hip series about Bernie Rhodenbarr, the world's suavest burglar. You'd never think that these three series were penned by the same author.
Now Block does it again with the incredibly inventive Hit Man, a debut novel about a philosophical murderer for hire. You'd expect such a man to be amoral, but Keller -- just Keller, no first name -- has his own code of honor. The novel is a series of short stories that sometimes intersect. This series is as different from Block's other three as they were from each other. Keller's stories are even darker than those of Scudder although Keller is considerably more introspective than Scudder (even after Scudder went on the wagon). Perhaps that's because, as a deliberate loner, Keller has a lot more time for self-analysis. (God knows, you'll find that traditional analysis didn't do much for the guy!)
It's a fabulous, fabulous read. You won't be able to wait to get the next one in the series, Hit List.
Now Block does it again with the incredibly inventive Hit Man, a debut novel about a philosophical murderer for hire. You'd expect such a man to be amoral, but Keller -- just Keller, no first name -- has his own code of honor. The novel is a series of short stories that sometimes intersect. This series is as different from Block's other three as they were from each other. Keller's stories are even darker than those of Scudder although Keller is considerably more introspective than Scudder (even after Scudder went on the wagon). Perhaps that's because, as a deliberate loner, Keller has a lot more time for self-analysis. (God knows, you'll find that traditional analysis didn't do much for the guy!)
It's a fabulous, fabulous read. You won't be able to wait to get the next one in the series, Hit List.
March 28, 2012
Until now, I have never read any Lawrence Block. Is that a cardinal sin for an avid reader? It should be.
My penance will just have to be more Block...
My penance will just have to be more Block...
January 30, 2019
Ten loosely connected short stories about a hit man - Keller, going around the country completing contracts. The stories are formulaic - Keller gets a mission, runs into a complication and ultimately overcomes it. For a book about assassinations, the hit themselves are devoid of shocks or set pieces. Keller follows the target around, waits for the opportune moment and then moves in for a close combat kill. There is one exception where he poisons the target and that is the most elaborate hit of the book.
The best part of the book is Block's writing. Keller's sardonic musings from what ifs to could have beens, his idle thoughts about philosophies and semantics often range from wistful to witty and morbid to meditative. But one thing that remains constant about them is that they are always entertaining because Block squeezes out a lot of ironic humor from every day situations.
Keller is capable of empathy, love and logical thinking. He is actually written as a regular loner except the fact that he is not burdened with any sort of morality. So if someone is repulsed with the subject matter of the book, don't expect Block to change your minds. This is not a morality play just a regular guy who kills others for a living because it is an easy way to make money.
Every time I hear the word Hit Man I will always think of the game series with the same name first, so the book is not even the definitive Hit Man in pop culture landscape. And this series is nowhere as good as Block's Scudder series. In spite of all that the writing is solid enough for it to be a fun, quick read that is not especially memorable. Rating - 3/5.
The best part of the book is Block's writing. Keller's sardonic musings from what ifs to could have beens, his idle thoughts about philosophies and semantics often range from wistful to witty and morbid to meditative. But one thing that remains constant about them is that they are always entertaining because Block squeezes out a lot of ironic humor from every day situations.
Keller is capable of empathy, love and logical thinking. He is actually written as a regular loner except the fact that he is not burdened with any sort of morality. So if someone is repulsed with the subject matter of the book, don't expect Block to change your minds. This is not a morality play just a regular guy who kills others for a living because it is an easy way to make money.
Every time I hear the word Hit Man I will always think of the game series with the same name first, so the book is not even the definitive Hit Man in pop culture landscape. And this series is nowhere as good as Block's Scudder series. In spite of all that the writing is solid enough for it to be a fun, quick read that is not especially memorable. Rating - 3/5.
December 17, 2014
Finally getting round to reading the Keller series after having read all the Matt Scudder books last year. Had forgotten how much I enjoyed reading Lawrence Block and am really glad that I have a new series to read as was suffering Scudder withdrawal symptoms (that sounds like quite a horrible disease). It's not quite as good as the Scudder books but still a really fun read with plenty of unexpected twists. This one is written as a series of short stories but each follows on from and refers to previous ones so it is pretty much like a normal novel. Love the way that Block describes the day to day normal activities of his characters when they are not doing their day job (contract killing)so that you really feel like you know the characters personally.
Four more books to go in the series - one on order and my library has the remaining three ! - so more Keller reviews to follow soon.
Four more books to go in the series - one on order and my library has the remaining three ! - so more Keller reviews to follow soon.
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February 20, 2017
Given that Crime/Thriller is pretty much my favourite genre, I am surprised that I have read only one other novel by the prolific Lawrence Block, "Burglars Can't Be Choosers". I did enjoy that book and I equally enjoyed "Hit Man" and its protagonist, murderer-for-hire, Keller. Well written in an easily read but quite captivating style, "Hit Man" engenders something close to empathy for Keller, if not for his means of earning a living and while not really liking the character, I did feel that he was, in his own way, a man of honour. I will certainly be reading more of Block's novels, including the others in the "Hit Man" series.
A solid 3.5 stars rounded to 4.0 because of the narration by Robert Forster and also to comply with the GR rating method.
A solid 3.5 stars rounded to 4.0 because of the narration by Robert Forster and also to comply with the GR rating method.
December 16, 2020
I purchased a hardback copy soon after publication at Barnes and Noble. I remember really liking it even if a little sterile.
February 17, 2022
Before I forget to mention, this is a 10-chapter book about an irregular assasin. Each chapter serves as a self-contained story, but all these stories are connected and show progression. So it functions as a novel in episodic doses.
I must say, the format really worked for me. But enough about that.
Sometimes you dive into a story with no expectations and come out of it grinning ear to ear.
I make it sound like a sweet little romcom. It's not. It's irreverent and cynical and so, so entertaining.
Hit Man is the story of a hitman. This hitman -- a contract killer named Keller -- is not an exceptional shooter or a terribly talented death-artist. He's a pretty normal dude who likes dogs and movies and stamps, along with drinks that give him heartburn. He's just got an unusual job. He's a ball to read about.
His mind wanders and waters thoughts just the way mine does. Which is strange, because I don't feel at all capable of taking a life. That I'd have a pint with him and exchange jokes with him in spite of his profession says a lot about Lawrence Block's skill as a character-writer.
The reader's enjoyment relies completely on their perception of Keller and it works. Not that there aren't other awesome characters in there, but Keller as the protagonist works like a charm — he overtakes John Wick and Billy Summers by a long mile, at least for me.
Intelligently written. Darkly funny. Praise-worthy dialogue.
My first Lawrence Block. Certainly not my last.
I must say, the format really worked for me. But enough about that.
Sometimes you dive into a story with no expectations and come out of it grinning ear to ear.
I make it sound like a sweet little romcom. It's not. It's irreverent and cynical and so, so entertaining.
Hit Man is the story of a hitman. This hitman -- a contract killer named Keller -- is not an exceptional shooter or a terribly talented death-artist. He's a pretty normal dude who likes dogs and movies and stamps, along with drinks that give him heartburn. He's just got an unusual job. He's a ball to read about.
His mind wanders and waters thoughts just the way mine does. Which is strange, because I don't feel at all capable of taking a life. That I'd have a pint with him and exchange jokes with him in spite of his profession says a lot about Lawrence Block's skill as a character-writer.
The reader's enjoyment relies completely on their perception of Keller and it works. Not that there aren't other awesome characters in there, but Keller as the protagonist works like a charm — he overtakes John Wick and Billy Summers by a long mile, at least for me.
Intelligently written. Darkly funny. Praise-worthy dialogue.
My first Lawrence Block. Certainly not my last.
August 1, 2014
This was a cool introduction to a new (to me) series by Lawrence Block. It's about, as the title suggests, a hit man named Keller.
Each chapter is an assignment for Keller, so it's like a series within a single book. This style kept it from ever becoming a bulky read.
Or listen, in this case. I found the audiobook and was pleased to try it out with this method. The actor Robert Forster did the narration and I'd have to say was pretty much perfect for this book. He really fit the style of the writing, and the character of Keller.
I will definitely be picking up more Block, and more in the Keller series in particular.
Each chapter is an assignment for Keller, so it's like a series within a single book. This style kept it from ever becoming a bulky read.
Or listen, in this case. I found the audiobook and was pleased to try it out with this method. The actor Robert Forster did the narration and I'd have to say was pretty much perfect for this book. He really fit the style of the writing, and the character of Keller.
I will definitely be picking up more Block, and more in the Keller series in particular.
June 1, 2021
This is my first Block novel, and I didn’t find the best place to start. The best I can describe it is patchy. It gets interesting and then runs out of steam. It’s sometimes humorous, but without consistency. There’s not one traditional through line, and where I was expecting a mystery it wasn’t one. Still, I expect to try another one, but maybe not in this series.
February 24, 2023
Hit Man is my first Lawrence Block novel. He is incredibly prolific, having written in the neighborhood of 100 novels to date ! In Hit Man we meet one of his serial subjects, Keller, an assassin for hire. Get it, "Keller" - a killer ? Block has the ultimate attribute for an entertaining and believable and thought-provoking writer - a great understanding of people.
We are taken along for the ride on a string of Keller's assignments. Sometimes Block gives us the details of his target, and sometimes we learn about him as the action proceeds, which is also fun. Strangely enough, one of Keller's most interesting, and, as you can imagine, few relationships, is with the agency's secretary or assistant, Dot. That took me aback for a minute - that someone running a killer-for-hire business would employ a middleman, or -woman, to contact and inform assassins about their next project. In any case, Keller's repartee with Dot is very amusing, and seems to keep him grounded.
That the "plot" is a chain of killings, and not much more, is its weak point. There is no thread beyond that to drive the storyline forward. Nor was I in any way a fan of his sessions with a psychiatrist - they did not add anything but a distraction in my opinion.
Most of the novel is spent inside Keller's head, as he considers options for each killing, but also as he muses on life in general and on his own very strange existence. While he is a pro, he sometimes breaks the "rules" of his occupation, taking some unnecessary risks. Is it out of boredom, or to enter into a heightened sense of danger and hyperconsciousness ? Or does he subconsciously want to foul up and let a target off the hook or be forced to get out of his line of work ? Keller isn't a hero with a heart of gold, but he is someone who is a thinker and pays attention to his hunches and feelings - he's not an automaton.
Most of Keller's targets are random people he's told little about, which probably dulls our concern for their deaths. But midway into the book he gets a job in a different way and knows all too much about the disgusting life of the scumbag he's hired to kill. That leads into a really good twist.
We are taken along for the ride on a string of Keller's assignments. Sometimes Block gives us the details of his target, and sometimes we learn about him as the action proceeds, which is also fun. Strangely enough, one of Keller's most interesting, and, as you can imagine, few relationships, is with the agency's secretary or assistant, Dot. That took me aback for a minute - that someone running a killer-for-hire business would employ a middleman, or -woman, to contact and inform assassins about their next project. In any case, Keller's repartee with Dot is very amusing, and seems to keep him grounded.
That the "plot" is a chain of killings, and not much more, is its weak point. There is no thread beyond that to drive the storyline forward. Nor was I in any way a fan of his sessions with a psychiatrist - they did not add anything but a distraction in my opinion.
Most of the novel is spent inside Keller's head, as he considers options for each killing, but also as he muses on life in general and on his own very strange existence. While he is a pro, he sometimes breaks the "rules" of his occupation, taking some unnecessary risks. Is it out of boredom, or to enter into a heightened sense of danger and hyperconsciousness ? Or does he subconsciously want to foul up and let a target off the hook or be forced to get out of his line of work ? Keller isn't a hero with a heart of gold, but he is someone who is a thinker and pays attention to his hunches and feelings - he's not an automaton.
Most of Keller's targets are random people he's told little about, which probably dulls our concern for their deaths. But midway into the book he gets a job in a different way and knows all too much about the disgusting life of the scumbag he's hired to kill. That leads into a really good twist.
January 18, 2016
Lawrence Block is a hard working pulp crime novelist, best known for his hard-boiled detective Matthew Scudder, gentleman thief Bernie Rhodenbarr and hit man John Keller. Hit Man is the first book in the Keller series, combining a collection of short stories to develop this character. This is an interesting technique and Block’s short story book One Night Stands and Lost Weekends remains one of my favourite crime collections. He manages to pack the same punch of a normal pulp novel into a stripped down story.
I enjoy Lawrence Block’s style; it is nice to know someone is trying to keep the pulp crime genre alive. However Hit Man is more of a thriller series, which develops the complexities of this character with short intervals for an assassination. I like the way the stories interlock as a way to introduce John Keller, I have never seen this technique and think it worked well. Having said that, I think this is a fun book but I am not sure if I will continue the series. I am looking for something darker and do not think the Keller series will give me what I desire.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-rev...
I enjoy Lawrence Block’s style; it is nice to know someone is trying to keep the pulp crime genre alive. However Hit Man is more of a thriller series, which develops the complexities of this character with short intervals for an assassination. I like the way the stories interlock as a way to introduce John Keller, I have never seen this technique and think it worked well. Having said that, I think this is a fun book but I am not sure if I will continue the series. I am looking for something darker and do not think the Keller series will give me what I desire.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-rev...
February 22, 2013
Hit Man was a little different from the other Lawrence Block books I've read. This one was published in 1998.
Keller is a hit man. But, at this stage in his life he seems to be going through some changes. He goes into therapy, then gets a dog, and that brings him a girlfriend. He loves New York and his lifestyle for the most part, but keeps a running fantasy of moving to some quaint small town and living a quiet obscure life. But, he always goes back to New York and his career.
This book is kind of like reading a memoir of a hit man. We get to travel along with Keller as he does his job, makes mistakes, gets taken in a few times, and deals with his own personal problems.
This was a very interesting type of novel. The first part of the book had me in stitches. It was laugh out loud funny at times, but then it sort of ran out of steam about half way through. It was still strangely absorbing at times and I kept wondering where all this would lead.
Well, it didn't really lead anywhere. It's not really a mystery, but I guess you could call it a crime novel. A little off beat, but enjoyable.
Over all a B-/C+
Keller is a hit man. But, at this stage in his life he seems to be going through some changes. He goes into therapy, then gets a dog, and that brings him a girlfriend. He loves New York and his lifestyle for the most part, but keeps a running fantasy of moving to some quaint small town and living a quiet obscure life. But, he always goes back to New York and his career.
This book is kind of like reading a memoir of a hit man. We get to travel along with Keller as he does his job, makes mistakes, gets taken in a few times, and deals with his own personal problems.
This was a very interesting type of novel. The first part of the book had me in stitches. It was laugh out loud funny at times, but then it sort of ran out of steam about half way through. It was still strangely absorbing at times and I kept wondering where all this would lead.
Well, it didn't really lead anywhere. It's not really a mystery, but I guess you could call it a crime novel. A little off beat, but enjoyable.
Over all a B-/C+
October 29, 2016
Delightful. I thoroughly enjoy Block's sense of humor and the irreverence that he imbues into the protagonist, Keller, a professional hit man who is both likeable and existentially curious at the same time.
Adding this to his thief series makes Block a frequent visitor to my "to read" shelf. Hooray.
Adding this to his thief series makes Block a frequent visitor to my "to read" shelf. Hooray.
November 3, 2017
I read this book some time ago but it wasn't marked as read in Goodreads so I bought it and immediately remembered the book and introduction to Keller, my favorite hit man. I have been trying to find time to clean up my data and think I have resolved about 50 duplicates and deleted 100 or so to be read...that led to duplicates and other problems.
July 1, 2021
Първата книга с приключенията и теггобите на Келър от Блок за мен е и най-добрата. Тук още нямаме амбиция за мозаичен роман, макар и между разказите да има връзки, както във времето, така и в ситуациите.
Разказите са излизали в списание Плейбой, като някои зли езици твърдят, че са помогнали доста за задържането на рейтинга на вече не толкова популярния формат. Склонен съм да се съглася. Това което прави Келър симпатичен на мъжката аудитория не е то1но професията му на наемен убиец, по-скоро как с лекота Блок разкрива парченца от вътрешния му свят и осъзнаваме, че въпреки "интересната професия" пътуванията и количеството пари свързани с нея, имаме един средно статистически чувстващ, разсъждаващ, съмняващ се в себе си човек, който страда от самота, скука и прочие бичове на обществото за времето си.
Иначе е ясно - всеки разказ (поне в тази книга) е свързан с определена задача, която леко свенливия и определено средно статистически персонаж на Келър получава от работодателите си. А задачите са да се отстрани определено лице. Не че методите му на работа не са изненадващи и доста находчиви, но поне при мен това не беше основното. Покрай "убийството на месеца" се промъкват парченца от живота и душевността на Келър, които спояват разказите.
Следващите книги не ми обадиха толкова, имаше прекалени напъни за романизиране, но за тях по-нататък.
Разказите са излизали в списание Плейбой, като някои зли езици твърдят, че са помогнали доста за задържането на рейтинга на вече не толкова популярния формат. Склонен съм да се съглася. Това което прави Келър симпатичен на мъжката аудитория не е то1но професията му на наемен убиец, по-скоро как с лекота Блок разкрива парченца от вътрешния му свят и осъзнаваме, че въпреки "интересната професия" пътуванията и количеството пари свързани с нея, имаме един средно статистически чувстващ, разсъждаващ, съмняващ се в себе си човек, който страда от самота, скука и прочие бичове на обществото за времето си.
Иначе е ясно - всеки разказ (поне в тази книга) е свързан с определена задача, която леко свенливия и определено средно статистически персонаж на Келър получава от работодателите си. А задачите са да се отстрани определено лице. Не че методите му на работа не са изненадващи и доста находчиви, но поне при мен това не беше основното. Покрай "убийството на месеца" се промъкват парченца от живота и душевността на Келър, които спояват разказите.
Следващите книги не ми обадиха толкова, имаше прекалени напъни за романизиране, но за тях по-нататък.
June 13, 2016
Keller travels all across the United States, a patient, sedentary life of airport lounges, flights, hired cars and hotel stays (preferably those with HBO), casually carrying out his job of hired hit man.
As he does so he takes time out to do some idle musing on innocuous subjects, such as the various names of roofing features and just how long it would take to ride a thousand miles on a horse.
Keller kills anyone for a fee, regardless of who or why. He even kills the wrong people by accident, as well as the wrong people on purpose. Sure, he thinks about the morality of what he does for a living, but for only about as much time as he spends thinking about the shopping channel, or how many pairs of earrings a woman can reasonably own.
Essentially he's a lonely soul. He enjoys his brief chats with Dot, the assistant to the old man from White Plains who he gets his jobs from, has the occasional girlfriend, even tries the companionship of a dog for a while. But essentially he's a loner.
Perhaps it's the job? I mean, it would be understandable if it made him undervalue the life of others just a touch. He dreams of retirement, but maybe he could just do with a hobby? Meanwhile, the old man is starting to behave erratically, making some costly mistakes.
Block had been writing top-notch crime fiction for decades before he invented Keller, establishing a few characters along the way, most notably the unlicensed alcoholic private detective Matthew Scudder and kind hearted burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr.
But Keller is his ultimate creation. Always a master of ironic plotting and black humor, a whimsical hit man for a protagonist plays perfectly to those strengths. You can't help but like him, laugh along with him, root for him even, though you know you shouldn't.
The book consists of ten stories, most of which had been previously published separately then slightly altered and additions made in order to introduce the few consistent threads needed to make a novel. A contrived method maybe, but it works a treat.
All the stories are clever and funny, virtually on the same high par in quality, though the third story in particular, in which Keller tries therapy and turns it into a busman's holiday, is especially brilliant.
Keller, you kill me.
As he does so he takes time out to do some idle musing on innocuous subjects, such as the various names of roofing features and just how long it would take to ride a thousand miles on a horse.
Keller kills anyone for a fee, regardless of who or why. He even kills the wrong people by accident, as well as the wrong people on purpose. Sure, he thinks about the morality of what he does for a living, but for only about as much time as he spends thinking about the shopping channel, or how many pairs of earrings a woman can reasonably own.
Essentially he's a lonely soul. He enjoys his brief chats with Dot, the assistant to the old man from White Plains who he gets his jobs from, has the occasional girlfriend, even tries the companionship of a dog for a while. But essentially he's a loner.
Perhaps it's the job? I mean, it would be understandable if it made him undervalue the life of others just a touch. He dreams of retirement, but maybe he could just do with a hobby? Meanwhile, the old man is starting to behave erratically, making some costly mistakes.
Block had been writing top-notch crime fiction for decades before he invented Keller, establishing a few characters along the way, most notably the unlicensed alcoholic private detective Matthew Scudder and kind hearted burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr.
But Keller is his ultimate creation. Always a master of ironic plotting and black humor, a whimsical hit man for a protagonist plays perfectly to those strengths. You can't help but like him, laugh along with him, root for him even, though you know you shouldn't.
The book consists of ten stories, most of which had been previously published separately then slightly altered and additions made in order to introduce the few consistent threads needed to make a novel. A contrived method maybe, but it works a treat.
All the stories are clever and funny, virtually on the same high par in quality, though the third story in particular, in which Keller tries therapy and turns it into a busman's holiday, is especially brilliant.
Keller, you kill me.
August 19, 2013
RATING: 4.5
You know how you take those tests in high school that help you determine what profession is best suited to you? Well, there was never a match for John Paul Keller. It was only when he became an adult that he found out what he was destined to be. His career, at which he excels, is that of a hit man. At various times, he receives a call from Dot in White Plains, contacts his travel agent and jets off to wherever the dirty deed needs to be done. He carries out the hit, no fuss, no bother, no remorse, and comes back home until the next job comes along. He goes back to being Mr. Average Joe, living alone in New York City, doing his crossword puzzles and going to the Laundromat.
The book is really a series of interlocking stories about various hits that Keller carries out that reads like a hit man’s memoirs. The stories were originally written for Playboy, so at times there isn't a lot of transition between chapters. However, I still found them to be wonderfully done. You wouldn’t think that you would enjoy reading about a man who is basically an assassin, but Block presents Keller in such a way that you just have to like the guy. He grows on you. We’re never really exposed to the gruesome details of the jobs. We see how they’re set up, how Keller overcomes various obstacles and are treated to his wry observations along the way. And as we go along, other characters are introduced, a new girlfriend, a new dog, a new hobby, that help us understand the layers of Keller the man.
This book is a delight to read. It is wonderfully entertaining, funny and touching at the same time. At one point, Keller experiences a midlife crisis and visits a shrink. And how does he end the session when he’s had enough of the analysis? He throws the guy out the window.
Realistic dialogue, excellent characterization, clever plotting. Recommended.
You know how you take those tests in high school that help you determine what profession is best suited to you? Well, there was never a match for John Paul Keller. It was only when he became an adult that he found out what he was destined to be. His career, at which he excels, is that of a hit man. At various times, he receives a call from Dot in White Plains, contacts his travel agent and jets off to wherever the dirty deed needs to be done. He carries out the hit, no fuss, no bother, no remorse, and comes back home until the next job comes along. He goes back to being Mr. Average Joe, living alone in New York City, doing his crossword puzzles and going to the Laundromat.
The book is really a series of interlocking stories about various hits that Keller carries out that reads like a hit man’s memoirs. The stories were originally written for Playboy, so at times there isn't a lot of transition between chapters. However, I still found them to be wonderfully done. You wouldn’t think that you would enjoy reading about a man who is basically an assassin, but Block presents Keller in such a way that you just have to like the guy. He grows on you. We’re never really exposed to the gruesome details of the jobs. We see how they’re set up, how Keller overcomes various obstacles and are treated to his wry observations along the way. And as we go along, other characters are introduced, a new girlfriend, a new dog, a new hobby, that help us understand the layers of Keller the man.
This book is a delight to read. It is wonderfully entertaining, funny and touching at the same time. At one point, Keller experiences a midlife crisis and visits a shrink. And how does he end the session when he’s had enough of the analysis? He throws the guy out the window.
Realistic dialogue, excellent characterization, clever plotting. Recommended.
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