Hit Man
Lawrence BlockBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Keller is your basic urban Lonely Guy.He makes a decent wage, lives in a nice apartment.Works the crossword puzzle. Watches a little TV. Until the phone rings and he packs a suitcase, gets on a plane, flies halfway across the country...and kills somebody. It's a living. But is it a life? Keller's not sure. He goes to a shrink, but it doesn't work out the way he planned. He gets a dog, he gets a girlfriend. He gets along.
Synopsis
Keller is your basic Urban Lonely Guy. He makes a decent wage, lives in a nice apartment, works the crossword puzzle. Until the phone rings, and he flies halfway across the country and kills somebody. It's a living, but is it a life?
You've never met anyone like Keller.
Keller is a killer. Professional, cool, confident, competent, reliable.
Boston Herald
Leave it to Lawrence Block to write a knock-out novel about a hit man staggering through a midlife crisis. . .Block deliversa one-two punch of humor and introspection. . .Along the way, readers will find themselves analyzing why they are eager forthe killer to discover inner peace.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewFebruary 1998
Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block has been awarded every major mystery prize. With more than 50 published works, he is considered by many to be the ultimate voice in mystery; The Wall Street Journal calls him "one of the very best writers working the beat." Block's latest novel, Hit Man, is already winning praise from critics and fans alike.
During his incredibly prolific career, Block has created a memorable cast of recurring characters who have mesmerized his legions of fans. The latest addition to Block's list of memorable characters is Keller, a cool, confident, competent, and reliable hit man.
A precise professional, Keller, a native New Yorker, weaves in and out of assignments and personae with remarkable ease. Always armed with an alias and plausible stories when he is dispatched to remote locations, Keller epitomizes the professional hit man. But Keller does stand out. A complicated man, guarded and reclusive, Keller is prone to loneliness, self-doubt, and career worries; he is sort of a wistful murderer. He may be a killer — and this becomes quite obvious as we accompany him on his rounds — but he is also an all-too-human being.
Hit Man clearly displays the qualities that distinguish Lawrence Block's award-winning fiction — the intelligence, the wicked cleverness, the outright humor. But above all, Block writes with the true-grit sense of humanity that has become his trademark.
Boston Herald
Leave it to Lawrence Block to write a knock-out novel about a hit man staggering through a midlife crisis. . .Block deliversa one-two punch of humor and introspection. . .Along the way, readers will find themselves analyzing why they are eager forthe killer to discover inner peace.San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
An odd and appealing combination of the hard-boiled, the surreal and the whimsical. Keller grows on us, story by story. ..But he is also a cold-blooded killer. . .Unlike Keller, who likes movies where you can tell who the good guys are, Blocksfans can grateful for a book in which you can't always tell which is which.NY Times Book Review
A killer named Keller reacts to a midcareer crisis by becoming involved in the lives of his intended targets, in a series of murderous adventures that are both funny and full of rue.Anthony Neil Smith
I think it's one of Block's best....Keller is having an existential crisis. He wonders if his work defines him, if he chose the job or the job chose him. Can he be happy as anything other than a killer?....This one's worth the trip into the dark corners of Keller's soul. A great book.— Over My Dead Body.com