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Hit Me (2013)

by Lawrence Block(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0316127353 (ISBN13: 9780316127356)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Mulholland Books

series

John Keller

review 1: Fairly enjoyable collection of 3-4 relatively unrelated stories about Block's Keller, who's retired from the killer business and living a boring life in New Orleans as a house rennovator and stamp collector with a young wife and small child. He gets drawn back into doing a few jobs; each story is a job. The book seems very surreal in a way; maybe Block is enjoying frustrating the reader's expectations. For one thing, Keller is not unhappy to be drawn back in and really doesn't care much one way or another. Second, and this is what I found most unbelievable, his wife, who had never known of his past becomes an enthusiastic supporter of his new job and finds that his killing "turns her on." She keeps asking him how does it make HIM feel? This is just fantasy fulfillment on B... morelock's part....talk about a supportive spouse! Third, Block takes care that Keller only kills people who seem like lowlifes to begin with, and, by the end of the book is killing the killers. So, Block has constructed this surreal world in which Keller's killings actually fit in well with his new life. Interesting, but it doesn't seem very realistic.
review 2: Keller is back! Everyone's favorite Everyman Hitman returns after HIT AND RUN, which seemed to be his swan song, and I couldn't be happier. Like some of the earlier titles in the series, HIT ME is really more a collection of stories than a novel, but they are delicious bonbons: Keller stalking a dirty abbot; Keller back in NYC; Keller on a cruise ship; Keller going into the stamp business; Keller raising a daughter in post-Katrina New Orleans. Block is such a delightful and affable writer you may miss just how clever a plotter he is, and of course the great charm of these stories is that you find yourself not only rooting for a contract killer, but also absorbed in his peculiar moral conundrums. (When is it proper to take out a companion along with the target? What if your target is a 12-year old boy?) It's hard to imagine that Block has gotten this much mileage out of the simple concept of a likable sociopath, but I sure hope this is not the last we've seen of Keller. One of my favorite series ever. less

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