Hit Me (Keller series Book 5)

Lawrence Block the highly acclaimed and decorated mystery writer with over fifty books to his credit is back with his fifth installment of everybody's favorite stamp-collecting-hit-man "Keller". Keller has been living a new quiet life with a loving wife and child under the name Nicholas Edwards in New Orleans where he renovates houses... and until recently business has been brisk in post-Katrina N'awlins. As coincidence would have it for joyous Keller-Block fans... a phone call out of the blue from former hit-person-entrepreneur... i.e. middle-(wo) man... who according to the rest of the world is dead... your friend and mine "Dot"... gets the old killing machine team back in full gear... and leads to multiple road trips for Nicholas Edwards-Keller-and his endless bag of names and I.D.'s.Dot and Keller take up where they left off... entertaining countless readers with their almost "Abbott and Costello" like "who's on first" phone conversations. The puns fly almost as fast as do the "burner" cell phones that Nicholas/Keller continually gets rid of. It seems killing is the least of Keller's daily on-the-road decisions... how long to keep a phone... and whether or not to invest a princely sum for breakfast while traveling seems to weigh much harder on our favorite philatelic "button-man". The author's breezy character analysis and snappy repartee make the pages fly by and Block fans are reminded once again why their excitement level rises the minute they catch wind of a pending book release.The far ranging scope of the "hits"... take the reader behind the scenes to such diverse locations as a monastery in Keller's old beloved hometown of New York... to a West Indies cruise... and places in between... and with "our" old lovable pals Dot and Keller always nearby... the entire literary trip is delightful.

Lawrence Block is a master storyteller. He's a wordsmith and I've enjoyed his previous Keller novels. They are not typical suspense or thriller stories so anybody looking to read them as such will be greatly disappointed. It takes _work_ to get into his novels and I love the stamp collecting bits that other readers deride. My two stars is a result of my setting the book aside after learning and remembering that the first novella in this book was published separately and several years ago. I remembered it because I bought it and read it., "Keller in Dallas" When I opened up "Hit Me" fully expecting to read a new story, I was upset to find the novella that I read a long time ago tucked in here in the first chapter. I don't blame the writer for this. His publisher should have put something on the cover. Guess I was one of the few who purchased the novella and read it and recognized it in this new publication. The author did say that all the rest were not published anywhere else. Still, I am wary of buying anything else with Keller. How many short stories did he write about him? I haven't read them all but I much prefer a brand new Keller story and not a string of novella's written from who knows when.

In 1992 I had the privilege of interviewing Lawrence Block as part of a Smithsonian program. I was struck then as I am struck now, by the effortless simplicity of his writing and the skill and labor that is required to achieve that effect. I have not read all of his work, but at a rough count I've read nearly 40 of his novels. He always impresses; he never disappoints.Hit Me is the newest of the John Keller novels. Keller is a professional assassin who always manages to remain a sympathetic and engaging character. In Hit Me, Keller is married, living in New Orleans with his wife and daughter and going by the name of Nicholas Edwards. For years he has been operating a rehab/flip real estate business, but as that market bottomed out he began to take calls and cases from his friend Dot. He is back in the assassination business.Superficially, the novel consists of a series of cases that Keller has accepted. The plot is interesting and `different' in that the novel consists of a sequence of novellas or (especially in the first and last cases) short stories. Each story is complete in itself.The novel, however, is much more than that, since there are two subplots that constitute an arc linking the case stories. The first subplot concerns Keller's relationship with his wife and daughter (and to a lesser degree, his contractor/partner). The principal subplot, however, concerns Keller's stamp collecting. In fact, the stamp collecting (Keller characteristically goes to a town, kills someone, and then stops off to buy stamps or attend stamp auctions) represents somewhere between 60-70% of Hit Me.It's one thing to make murder a sympathetic activity, quite another to make philately interesting to a broad reading audience. Block can do both, of course. The philately softens Keller's character and suggests his depths. Keller's take on stamps is geographic/historical, so that the moment he begins to discuss them we receive an extended meditation on the organization of the world and the course of human history.Both of the subplots help to turn a segmented novel into a seamless one. The philately is put to brilliant use by having Keller's putative last case (the last in the book and the one that he hopes to be the last in his career) turn out to be fraught with moral issues even as it focuses on philately.This is the kind of book that a casual reader might think anyone could write. The language is spare, the action frequently mundane (on the surface). On the contrary, this is the kind of book that only Lawrence Block can write. Here is the (very light) touch of the master.

Having enjoyed Hit Man, Hit List, Hit Parade and Hit and Run, there was never any doubt that I'd be picking up the latest in the Keller series. Hit Me though, may just be the best one yet.Keller is no longer in NYC, he's now settled in New Orleans with a wife, a child and a job that doesn't involve killing people. He's rehabbing houses after Hurricane Katrina but then the economy tanks, and what do you know, the telephone rings. If you've read this series before, you'll suspect that it's Dot on the other end and before we know it, Keller is back in business.You'd imagine that it would be hard to root for a man who kills people but LB has a way of writing that draws you in and makes you empathise with Keller. It's a skill that I can barely comprehend but the author has it in spades. A lot of us have family situations and work situations to juggle and it's hard. For the author to be able to put those words down on a page and have us be unable to put that book down is incredible.I've recommended this series to many friends and not one person has been disappointed. If you're a fan, you've probably already bought this. If you've happened to land on this page by chance, buy this book. Once you've done that, buy all of the other books, lock the doors, switch off the telephone and settle in for a fantastic reading experience.

Much as I love Block and Keller, this isn't one of his best outings. This is a series of linked novellas (some very short) which is not in itself an awful thing - the first Keller book was essentially a collection of the same. But the problem here is that there's too much philately and not enough murder. Pages of stamp-lore are leavened only occasionally by bloodletting. Frankly he's now too nice and middle-aged: there's no edge to him.You get the feeling that the only thing that might send him on a killing-spree would be if somebody steals his stamp-books. Also the telephone conversations with is partner in crime, Dot, degenerate into silly word-play or joking. Personally I'd like to see Keller meets Dexter...

I have read one by this author and wanted to read some more.

Last of five I had, the first was recommended. Different genre for me but interesting none the less. Finally back to what I know best

How does Lawrence Block make a hit man so likeable? Keller is a wonderful creation - a man who doesn't understand the world - is he mildly autistic? Don't read this book if you haven't read the earlier novels in the sequence - if you have read the earlier books ten you'll probably read this one what ever I say here, but rest assured it's the same old brilliance.