Keller is friendly. Industrious. A bit lonely, sometimes. If it wasn't for the fact that he kills people for a living, he'd be just your average Joe. The inconvenient wife, the troublesome sports star, the greedy business partner, the vicious dog, he'll take care of them all, quietly and efficiently. If the price is right.
Like the rest of us, Keller's starting to worry about his retirement. After all, he's not getting any younger. (His victims, on the other hand, aren't getting any older.) So he contacts his "booking agent," Dot, up in White Plains, and tells her to keep the hits coming. He'll take any job, anywhere. His nest egg needs fattening up.
Of course, being less choosy means taking greater risks—and that could buy Keller some big trouble. Then again, in this game, there are plenty of opportunities for some inventive improvisation . . . and a determined self-motivator can make a killing.
...and still the championSeptember 3, 2006 Roger Long(Port Clinton, OH USA) 4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Keller the killer is back, as good as ever--still champion. It's amazing that I actually looked forward to a sympathetic account of a murderer for hire and philatelist, lest I forget. Keller is simply one of the best-ever characters in crime fiction. The book is episodic, as are the two previous volumes in this series. Keller does in a baseball player and others, including a dog, of the canine rather than human variety. But the plot or plots scarcely matter.
Lawrence Block's biggest talent is in the writing of dialogue. Other writers should study the flow of it, the subtle undertones. Most crime fiction writers are lame by comparison. And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the humor that prevails through the carnage Keller leaves behind in his travels. I actually laughed out loud, several times, as I read this, and I now have to wait a year or so as I look forward to the next book. Meanwhile, I'm sure Keller will be filling in more blank spaces in his stamp albums.
Thrilled that Keller is still doing business.July 8, 2006 parusski(Brentwood TN) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Keller is a strangely loveable hit-man. The man is not a sociopath, but he still kills people for a living. At least all his victims are not likeable. I find the interaction between Keller and Dot to be the most entertaining aspect of the book. Block has written a unique series of books. If you have not read the entire series it is not necessary to read the first two books in the trilogy(Hit Man and Hit List) but reading the first two helps you understand Keller. Reading the first two books will also give you a better appreciation and understanding of the relationship between Keller, the hit man, and Dot, his "broker".
Enjoy.
Fascinating and darkly funny look at the life of a professional hit-manOctober 22, 2006 booksforabuck(Dallas) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Professional killer John Keller isn't a sociopath. He's pretty sure of this because he does have some feelings. And he never had experience torturing animals, wetting his bed, or setting fires. But he's good at killing, and he's not getting any younger. Starting a new career at his age, and with his lack of things to put in his resume (you really can't list dozens of professional hits) just doesn't appeal. Still, it would be nice to have someone to talk to, to explain his problems to. Still, Keller's problems with a former (and late) psychologist don't bode well for that kind of honesty.
Although Keller may angst about his career, he has a stamp collection that demands new feedings and the offers just keep coming in. So, he goes about his job. A ball-club realizes that it made a mistake paying an aging free agent millions of dollars and opts for the permanent retirement plan. A businessman wants to disolve a business partnership but lacks the funds to buy his partner out. 9-11 happens and Keller takes some time out to volunteer at the soup kitchens, but the demand for murder doesn't stop. Still, what happens when Keller actually likes a client? And what happens when an apparently simple case of a dog-killing dog takes un unexpected complications. Keller has to keep in mind his need to feed the stamp collection and find a way to struggle on, killing because that's his job.
Author Lawrence Block somehow manages to make a cold-blooded professional killer sympathetic and interesting--and even darkly funny. Keller works with his victims, finding ways to arrange their murders so they'll be seen as natural causes or unexpected muggings. He waits, sometimes for weeks, for the moment when the killing seems appropriate rather than simply a meaningless death. He cleans up after himself, even if that means occasionally killing where he doesn't even get paid for it. When he decides he has had enough, the only way he can see to get out is to kill even more people, even faster.
HIT PARADE is not a comfortable book. Keller may have his moments of existentialist angst, but he is not concerned with the morality of his killings. In some cases, the victims deserve what they get, in other cases, not-so-much. Still, Block manages to involve the reader, make us wonder how Keller is going to manage the next death, how he's going to deal with his own issues, whether he really is going to pull off his planned retirement. One thing for sure--I'm definitely de-motivated to go into the murder for hire business.
See Lawrence Block Have Fun!! (And You Too)August 13, 2006 Chris Ward(Costa Rica) 4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Block (like Donald Westlake) can do funny and he can do hard-boiled. His Bernie Rhodenbarr novels are laugh-out-loud tongue-in-cheek romps where the mystery is less important than Bernie's wisecracks. The Keller books (Hit Man, Hit List, Hit Parade) are nastier but no less funny in their way: Keller kills people for money (admittedly not an obvious set-up for jocularity) and is clearly beginning to come unmoored from reality a bit in this volume. But his conversations with his assignments clerk and partner, Dot, are little Zen koans of absurdity. This is black humor at its best, and Keller's increased questioning of his own behavior ("Am I a sociopath?") leads the reader to look forward to Block's next volume: Keller's meltdown. What'll he call it? HIT BOTTOM.
Quick Paced Read!June 11, 2007 Melvin Hunt(Cleveland,, Texas United States) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The hero of of our story is a hit man named Keller. He has a hobby of
collecting stamps. Hi broker for his paid assassinations is someone named
Dot. Dot will get a job an then call Keller. He will then carry out the job. In this book you had a variety of characters. His first assignment is a professional baseball player named Floyd Turnbull. Turnbull is about
to reach a career record of 400 homeruns and 3,000 hits. Keller has to make the decision whether he should allow him to reach these goals. His
next assignment is to assassinate a jockey if a racehorse named Kissimee
Dudley doesn't win a race. He next moves to Miami to hunt down and kill
Ruben Olivares. Keller next travels to Arizona to carry out his next job. It is on a labor official named William Wallis Edgemont.
Keller starts worrying about retirement. He along with Dot decide to take any job so he can accumulate $1,000,000. His stamp collection has lowered his savings.He is next hired by Claude Harrelson to kill his business partner Barry Blyden. This assignment becomes quite complicated.
Keller is next hired to kill Fluffy a pit bull. This job has more to it than killing a pit bull.His next hit is on Meredith Grondahl who is under
the Witness Protection Program in Indianapolis.An underworld figure Len Horvath hires Keller to kill Sheridan Bingham.
This was an interesting book but Keller still hadn't decided to retire.
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