Customer Reviews

Hit Parade CD (John Keller Mysteries)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Contract killer John Keller has been at it for a long time, methodically rubbing out his victims while attempting to fill in the holes in his vintage stamp collection. Keller is thinking about retirement but he has been spending so much money on postage stamps that he needs to work even harder. He stalks a baseball player all around the country, waiting for him to attain some statistical milestones before fulfilling the contract. He enjoys the ballgames and picks up some Turkish postage stamps along the way. He checks in with Dot to update her on the progress of his work, she is his contact with various death brokers and Block keeps his dark subject very light and breezy. The real joy of this audiobook is that Larry Block is the reader. The book is great, his reading is dead on and a sweet thing to hear. The combination of zingy writing read by a real master makes this audiobook a real treat!

The main character, Keller, is interesting and Block certainly is creative in the situations he creates and resolves. It keeps your interest. With respect to the material, the only criticism I really have is that his dialogues between Dot & Keller seem to carry too much explanation; in other words they are constantly explaining to each other what they meant to say, which is often obvious. Further, you'd think 2 people who had worked together so long and had a face-to-face relationship would have found a smoother communication style.

With respect to the audio, I found the quality of his voice a little grating and the irritation not fade over multiple discs. Further, and this is related only to the audio, Block's narration did not offer much distinction between his dialogue as Keller and his dialogue as Dot thus causing some confusion as to who was speaking at times. I have listened to about 25 audio books and usually, the narrators chance pitch or inflection a little to distinguish characters. Block is not very good at this.