⇒ Read Free Hit and Run John Keller Mysteries Lawrence Block 9780060840907 Books

Hit and Run John Keller Mysteries Lawrence Block 9780060840907 Books

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Hit and Run John Keller Mysteries Lawrence Block 9780060840907 Books

Readers of the previous Keller novels will not immediately recognize what a strange book this is. First, the protagonist is a professional killer (a capital crime most places) but we still like him. He's also a stamp collector and we receive a lot of detailed information about that hobby. Like his creator, Lawrence Block, he lives in New York but always seems to be elsewhere. In Hit and Run Keller is framed for a murder by a previous client and goes on the lam. Thus, we get a tour of the motels, fast food restaurants and gas stations in an area triangulated by Iowa, New York and Louisiana. Keller's contact, Dot, appears to have been murdered and, hence, his access to the 2.5 mil on which he was about to retire has disappeared. Moreover, his beloved stamp collection has been stolen. What's a fella to do? How about finding a girl friend and becoming a construction worker in New Orleans?

Only Lawrence Block could pull all of this off and hold our attention while doing it. In fact, the attention is seized in inverse proportion to the speed and urgency of the plot. Keller is not on the lam with sweat on his brow and the sound of baying hounds a few seconds behind him. He is sleeping in his car or going to cineplexes, watching dull movies.

Block has dug a very big hole for himself, but leaps out of it effortlessly and delivers a satisfying resolution to Keller's problem and a satisfying, though initially totally unexpected, conclusion to the story and a major phase in Keller's personal life.

Writers: this is the sort of book and the sort of writer from whom one learns, big time. Readers: this is a don't miss.


Tags : Hit and Run (John Keller Mysteries) [Lawrence Block] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Keller's a hit man. For years now he's had places to go and people to kill. But enough is enough. He's got money in the bank and just one last job standing between him and retirement. So he carries it out with his usual professionalism,Lawrence Block,Hit and Run (John Keller Mysteries),William Morrow,0060840900,Thrillers - Suspense,Assassins;Fiction.,Keller, John (Fictitious character);Fiction.,Mystery fiction.,AMERICAN MYSTERY & SUSPENSE FICTION,Assassins,BLOCK, LAWRENCE - PROSE & CRITICISM,FICTION Thrillers Suspense,Fiction,Fiction - Mystery Detective,Fiction-Suspense,GENERAL,General Adult,Keller, John (Fictitious character),Monograph Series, any,Mystery & Detective - General,MysterySuspense,Ohio,United States

Hit and Run John Keller Mysteries Lawrence Block 9780060840907 Books Reviews

I read the previous Keller books in order and liked this one best. I normally like police procedurals but the Keller series is a nice change of pace. Of course you can't look too deeply at the psychology of the killer Keller, for he's a schizo mix of cold blooded and normal, even warm hearted now and then. I truly could do without the extensive descriptions and intricacies of stamp collecting. But I like the witty dialog and the wordsmithing. I must admit I find the new character Julia not believable.
All in all a good read, if you gloss over most parts describing the stamp collecting......unless you're a collector.
Lawrence Block was a successful writer many years before I became aware of him, so what I have to say is going to have zero effect on his reputation. I'm aiming this at a reader who is just starting to make his acquaintance and is wondering if it is worth the effort.

It certainly is, and this effort provides a good sampler of his talents. First, his hero, known only as Keller, is a highly skilled killer-for-hire who always gets away with it. We are thus already in an alternate universe. He leads a quiet, normal life, and collects stamps for a hobby. He has a administrator/sidekick, Dot, who "runs" him and acts as a confidante and balance wheel.

This outing demonstrates Mr. Block's talents as a master of the twisted plot. Keller is routinely engaged to eliminate an obscure businessman for an obscure reason, but as he is preparing to do so, someone assassinates the Governor of Ohio. Far worse, the plotters intentionally steer suspicion toward a man who looks very much like Keller and play his picture on every television in the state. Keller is suddenly a highly visible fugitive, a completely new experience for him. He is virtually without resources, having just spent his trip money on a tempting set of stamps, and he completely loses contact with Dot. The rest of the tale tells of his efforts, over months, not only to evade capture but find out why he was entangled in the first place.

Everything works out, but the suspense is delicious. Read, and join the choir. Five stars.
HIT AND RUN (New York, 2008)—a novel about Keller, a killer-for-hire—is far from Lawrence Block's best work. One piece of good news is it's really a novel, unlike HIT PARADE (2006), Block's previous Keller book (a collection of 8 short stories and 1 novelette that was falsely marketed as a novel for financial reasons—novels usually sell far more copies than do collections).

Until I read HIT PARADE, Block had been my favorite living crime fiction author. I had recommended 2 of his short stories about Keller to at least a dozen friends. In HIT PARADE, Keller came across as far smaller, both mentally and morally, than he'd been in most of Block's stories about him which I'd read previously. A second bit of good news about the novel HIT AND RUN is that, to some extent, Keller "regrows" morally after hearing a pretty woman's cry for help in a New Orleans park a night.

The A-to-Z plot of HIT AND RUN involves Keller's being framed for the assassination of a politician (which totally overturns his life and that of Dot, his friend and handler) and the revenge Keller and Dot seek against their powerful and dangerous enemy.

The weaknesses of HIT AN RUN are at least fourfold (1) we learn that Dot has recently done 2 despicable acts, and these seriously undercut the good feelings readers are likely to have about Keller's slight moral regeneration; (2) many of the scenes are "corny," "trite," "sentimental," "slack," and/or "unbelievably lucky"; (3) the novel as a whole, which is 287 pages long, often seems to be padded out; (4) the final face-to-face confrontation between Keller and the millionaire who had him framed is "rushed," "underdone," and very unsatisfying.

In my judgment, HIT AND RUN deserves a "C+" grade at most (3 stars). While making this judgment, I was NOT comparing Block's book with world-class grade-"A" books by Dante, Melville, Tolstoy, and Faulkner. Instead, and more appropriately, I compared it with crime novels I greatly admire. HIT AND RUN most resembles Geoffrey Household's man-on-the-run novel ROGUE MALE (1939), which I rate worth a "B+". Crime fiction that I rate as deserving "A" grades includes Grant Allen's AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE (1897), Eden Phillpotts' THE RED REDMAYNES (1922), Philip MacDonald's THE RASP (1924), Arthur Upfield's MR. JELLY'S BUSINESS (1937; aka MURDER DOWN UNDER) and THE BACHELORS OF BROKEN HILL (1950), Robert Van Gulik's THE CHINESE NAIL MURDERS (1961), and Rex Stout's GAMBIT (1962). Block's novel HIT AND RUN comes nowhere close to the fine qualities of any of these works, but it is better than the "D"-grade work of Hugh Pentecost's DEATH AFTER BREAKFAST (1978), Robert B. Parker's aptly titled BAD BUSINESS (2004), and Peter Turnbull's FALSE KNIGHT (2006).

POSTSCRIPT In case anyone wishes to read FAR better stories about Block's hit man, try "Keller's Therapy" (PLAYBOY, May 1993; awarded an EDGAR in 1994), "Keller's Karma" (PLAYBOY, Feb. 1995), and "Keller on the Spot" (PLAYBOY, Nov. 1997; awarded an EDGAR in 1998), at least 2 of which are available in several "Best of" anthologies. In these stories, Keller basically comes across as a deeply thoughtful and genuinely moral person who takes his profession seriously.
Readers of the previous Keller novels will not immediately recognize what a strange book this is. First, the protagonist is a professional killer (a capital crime most places) but we still like him. He's also a stamp collector and we receive a lot of detailed information about that hobby. Like his creator, Lawrence Block, he lives in New York but always seems to be elsewhere. In Hit and Run Keller is framed for a murder by a previous client and goes on the lam. Thus, we get a tour of the motels, fast food restaurants and gas stations in an area triangulated by Iowa, New York and Louisiana. Keller's contact, Dot, appears to have been murdered and, hence, his access to the 2.5 mil on which he was about to retire has disappeared. Moreover, his beloved stamp collection has been stolen. What's a fella to do? How about finding a girl friend and becoming a construction worker in New Orleans?

Only Lawrence Block could pull all of this off and hold our attention while doing it. In fact, the attention is seized in inverse proportion to the speed and urgency of the plot. Keller is not on the lam with sweat on his brow and the sound of baying hounds a few seconds behind him. He is sleeping in his car or going to cineplexes, watching dull movies.

Block has dug a very big hole for himself, but leaps out of it effortlessly and delivers a satisfying resolution to Keller's problem and a satisfying, though initially totally unexpected, conclusion to the story and a major phase in Keller's personal life.

Writers this is the sort of book and the sort of writer from whom one learns, big time. Readers this is a don't miss.