Sat 10 Apr 2010
Reviewed by Walter Albert: LAWRENCE BLOCK – Hit and Run.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[10] Comments
LAWRENCE BLOCK – Hit and Run. William Morrow, hardcover, June 2008. Harper, paperback, June 2009.
Block’s sympathetic hitman Keller returns for a fourth outing. As he’s waiting for the go ahead to carry out a job in Des Moines, a charismatic African-American governor is assassinated and a photograph of Keller is widely disseminated as the face of the assassin.
You might say that it’s poetic justice, but Keller’s been set up, and we always have the sense that the people who hire him are the real villains, with Keller the competent professional who’s just doing his job. His life in ruins, Keller goes on the run.
With the help of a new person who comes into his life and the ever faithful Dot, he eventually recovers but the momentum of the series has been seriously damaged. Much of the novel finds him just marking time, and that new person seems nothing more than a plot device to rescue Keller from an almost impossible situation.
As far as I’m concerned, this series has run its course, and if this is indeed meant to conclude Keller’s saga, it’s a lame resolution.
The Keller series —
1. Hit Man (1998)
2. Hit List (2000)
3. Hit Parade (2006)
4. Hit and Run (2008)
April 10th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I may be wrong about this, since I haven’t read any of the books in Block’s Keller series, but I believe that HIT AND RUN is the first of the four to be an actual novels, with the first three consisting of individual (but connected?) stories from PLAYBOY magazine and other sources.
I’ve searched here and there online, and so far I’ve found nothing to indicate that there will be a fifth book, but with the author still actively writing, it’s obvious that there isn’t any door that should be closed on that.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Block’s already written a novella, “Keller in Dallas,” set after HIT AND RUN that finds Keller picking up his old trade with nary a hiccup. I believe at present the story is only available at Amazon on the Kindle.
April 10th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Thanks, Vince. I missed this one when I was looking around for more about Keller earlier this evening, but I see now that Block has a brief mention of it on his website. Oops.
No print version yet, though. What’s with that?
April 10th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
For me Keller is too nebulous a character to work in a novel. He seems better fit to the long short story or novella form because of that. And I’ve said before, for my taste the novella is the ideal format for the mystery/suspense tale.
That said, I can’t fault Block for trying him out at novel length. Not that I can fault Block for much of anything. Even when I don’t like an individual book I marvel at the skill he puts into it.
I hope I don’t have to invest in a Kindle reader or wait for four more novellas collected together before reading “Keller in Dallas.” Luckily for us, prolific as Block is it might not be a long wait,
April 11th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
“Keller in Dallas” did make a print appearance of sorts. The novella was originally serialized in several issues of American Stamp Dealer & Collector. Probably not that helpful; as Block himself said, “I hope the non-philatelists among you will have as much fun reading the story as you’ll have trying to find a copy of the magazine.”
April 11th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
I used to be a stamp collector. I sold off my collection, one huge album, for a pittance when I tired of it, to my continuing regret, since if I hadn’t, I might have been a subscriber to that stamp collecting magazine with the Block story issues, and I could sell them to someone now for … a pittance?
Or in other words, what I’m wondering is how badly truly dedicated Block collectors might want them.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Funny, but I was a stamp collector also during my teenage years. Unlike Steve, I still have my gigantic stamp album buried in the basement under a pile of boxes. I’ve never looked at it since I stopped collecting stamps in the 1950’s. My collecting activities switched to books, pulps, digests, and vintage paperbacks.
Even in the 1950’s I noticed that many of my friends were into collecting but it seemed to be almost entirely a male occupation. All these years later, I still see very few female pulp collectors for instance. Same thing with the book and paperback collecting fields. And stamps? There must be a female somewhere but I’ve never heard of one collecting stamps.
I’m sure Steve has noticed the same lack of females collectors at the Windy City Pulp Convention, PulpFest, NYC Paperback show, Bordentown pulp show, etc.
Even when we see a solitary woman collector, she’s usually looking up her grandfather’s books or pulps. Or helping her boyfriend or husband.
April 11th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Steve
Walker
I think we have all noticed the gender difference in regard to collecting pulps, comics, etc., but then I don’t suppose there are hoards of male doll collectors out there unless they have been enlisted by their wives.
I suppose this would make a good sociological study — who collects what, and why. But then some fields such as mystery fiction and science fiction have large female followings.
I guess it all boils down to who likes what, but you have to admit in the case of the pulps the primary appeal was always to men, and while some girls liked comics they always seemed to out grow it faster then we did.
April 12th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
My wife is a book collector, and loves the feel of old books. However, she has a large library of books concerning a few, selected subjects. She will only buy books that she intends to read at some point, whilst I know of some male collectors who will purchase books that they never intend to read. It’s the difference between buying books because you’re interested in what’s in them, and buying a book because it will complete your collection. Books as books vs Books as things…
April 12th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I don’t think I ever bought a book I didn’t intend to read, but you know what they say about the road to hell.
My mother and both my wives were big readers, but not collectors — at least of books. Still, they were all remarkably supportive of my addiction.