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Binding: Mass Market PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780061030994 ISBN: 0061030996 Label: HarperTorch Manufacturer: HarperTorch Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 384 Publication Date: February 01, 2002 Publisher: HarperTorch Release Date: February 05, 2002 Studio: HarperTorch Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Few mystery authors have a stable of protagonists as uniformly appealing as Lawrence Block's. Whether Block's taking the reader into PI Matthew Scudder's world of dimly lit bars and basement AA meetings, quirky burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr's used bookstore, or the international hot-spot hangouts of Evan Tanner, the spy who never sleeps, he always provides good company. John Keller, star of Block's 1998 story collection Hit Man, is a typical Block invention: an unassuming, get-the-job-done-and-move-on New York contract killer who collects stamps, does the morning crossword, eats Vietnamese takeout, and falls for the occasional woman. When Keller gets off a plane in Louisville, ready to do the job he's been hired for, something about it feels wrong from the start. And when two people are killed in the motel room he's just vacated, he realizes he narrowly missed a setup, but can't figure out why. Then he goes to Boston to do another job, and afterwards dines in a coffee shop where another patron has the misfortune of leaving with Keller's raincoat: The Globe didn't have it. But there it was in the Herald, a small story on a back page, a man found dead on Boston Common, shot twice in the head with a small-caliber weapon.Keller's agent, Dot, puts the pieces--including the death of another contract killer she books occasionally--together and comes up with the seemingly crazy idea that a greedy hit man is knocking off the competition. In between other legit hits, romancing a commitment-shy artist, visiting an astrologer, and a long stint on jury duty, Keller slowly moves closer to the faceless nemesis he and Dot dub "Roger." But it's Dot, the woman of action, who figures out what to do about him. Though Hit List is too introspective to be a caper novel, and too funny to be noir, it's bound to find a rapt audience with fans of both subgenres. After two such engaging books, can Hit Parade be far behind? --Barrie Trinkle Product Description: Keller is a regular guy. He goes to the movies, works on his stamp collection. Call him for jury duty and he serves without complaint. Then every so often he gets a phone call from White Plains that sends him flying off somewhere to kill a perfect stranger. Keller is a pro and very good at what he does. But the jobs have started to go wrong. The realization is slow coming yet, when it arrives, it is irrefutable: Someone out there is trying to hit the hit man. Keller, God help him, has found his way onto somebody else's hit list. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Funny and at the same time, a SnoozeTypical Lawrence Block. Funny, interesting dialogue, interspersed with bits of a story. This time, however, the plot took too long to get into, and even with the great dialogue, I found myself bored for much of the time. Rating: - Weaker than it's PredecessorI found the introduction to John Keller in Hit Man to be mildly entertaining. I read the novel in less than a day and had only minor qualms about its content. In contrast, Hit List took me over a week to finish and I couldn't help but stop and make mental notes of things that just didn't sit right with me. The pacing of the story is very off. Things move along so slowly that I found myself counting how many pages were left in almost any given chapter. While the end builds nicely and ... Read More Rating:  - DREADFULL!This is what happens when a succesfull author of many, many books has to write another one. Simply Dreadfull! There is hardly any story and 9/10ths of the book is filler! Rating:  - Good, if a bit oddLawrence Block is one of those guys who apparently write at the speed of sound, or something. He's now got three series that I know of going, the dark but interesting Matt Scudder private eye series, Bernie Rhodenbarr, the burglar turned used bookstore owner, and of course the series starring Keller, the hit man with mundane everyday problems. This book, Hit List, is second in the series, and it takes up (sort of) where the first one left off. Keller's an average guy. He does most anything ... Read More Rating: - A Boring Hit Man!An average plumber has a more interesting life than this hit man. What a waste. |
