Customer Reviews

Hit Parade

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book is a set of 9 chronologically sequential, loosely connected, stories about John Keller, thoughtful, stamp-collecting hit man. It includes great dialog--esp. the repartee between Keller & his broker Dot with considerable dry humor & punishment. A few of the stories were previously published separately in mystery anthologies. While the book jacket calls this a novel, it's a real stretch to call it that. It has no table of contents--so here's one for you:
page 1--Keller's Designated Hitter;
p. 29--Keller by a Nose;
p. 51--Keller's Adjustment;
p. 127--Proactive Killer;
p. 163--Keller the Dogkiller;
p. 197--Keller's Double Dribble;
p. 235--Quotidian Keller;
p. 275--Keller's Legacy;
p. 291--Keller and the Rabbits.
As you can see, the length varies quite a bit as do the tone of each one. Several are about sports: baseball, basketball, horse racing, & golf. Keller also has his own sense of ethics--e.g. rooting for his victim to complete his 3000th hit & 400th home run--a constant source of discussion with Dot. Many of the stories involve the playing out of this as Keller feels his way into the actual hit which doesn't always turn out the way the buyer intended. In this collection (the 3rd in the series), he & Dot also pursue retirement planning, and there's much more detail (esp. in one particular story) on stamp collecting (Quotidian Keller). All in all, it's an intriguing book (though Block doesn't go very far into the lives of his characters herein), even including Keller's unpredictable response to the 911 attack on the Twin Towers. Like the movie/T.V. show MASH or Hogan's Heroes, it's amazing how a creative writer can turn death/destruction into entertainment & even humor.

Keller the killer is back, as good as ever--still champion. It's amazing that I actually looked forward to a sympathetic account of a murderer for hire and philatelist, lest I forget. Keller is simply one of the best-ever characters in crime fiction. The book is episodic, as are the two previous volumes in this series. Keller does in a baseball player and others, including a dog, of the canine rather than human variety. But the plot or plots scarcely matter.

Lawrence Block's biggest talent is in the writing of dialogue. Other writers should study the flow of it, the subtle undertones. Most crime fiction writers are lame by comparison. And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the humor that prevails through the carnage Keller leaves behind in his travels. I actually laughed out loud, several times, as I read this, and I now have to wait a year or so as I look forward to the next book. Meanwhile, I'm sure Keller will be filling in more blank spaces in his stamp albums.

Keller is a strangely loveable hit-man. The man is not a sociopath, but he still kills people for a living. At least all his victims are not likeable. I find the interaction between Keller and Dot to be the most entertaining aspect of the book. Block has written a unique series of books. If you have not read the entire series it is not necessary to read the first two books in the trilogy(Hit Man and Hit List) but reading the first two helps you understand Keller. Reading the first two books will also give you a better appreciation and understanding of the relationship between Keller, the hit man, and Dot, his "broker".

Enjoy.

As I began to read HIT PARADE, I had an eerie feeling I'd read it before. But that couldn't be because the copyright said 2006. Then I found a proviso up above the copyright: Portions of this book had appeared in somewhat different form in MURDER AT THE RACE TRACK and TRANSGRESSIONS, both of which I'd read. So that almost ruined the book for me. But eventually Block does add some new stories.

HIT PARADE is episodic in nature, essentially a bunch of short stories. Block's main accomplishment is his portrayal of Keller, the sensitive hit man. His only confidant is his agent Dot. At one point, prior to this edition, she helps him find a hobby, collecting stamps. He had no idea what to do with all of the money he was making, something like $50,000 a hit. In this one he's getting older and has come up with a retirement plan. He will make one million dollars, than hang it up. This, plus Dot's investments in the stock market should allow him enough for a comfortable retirement, plus being able to indulge his stamp hobby.

During one of his conversations with Dot, they discuss whether he may be a sociopath. "How else could you kill someone?" she argues. But there's evidence that Keller cares about others. For one thing, he helps feed the volunteers who are working on clean-up of the Trade Center disaster. Another instance occurs when he's assigned the murder of a baseball player. The baseball player is only a few hits shy of 3,000 hits and 400 homers, which would get him into the Hall of Fame. Keller can't do it until the man achieves these goals. He also has trouble going through with a contract when he knows the target personally, as happens when he's hired to "cancel" a fellow stamp collector.

There's also some dark humor in HIT PARADE, as there always is with Block. For instance, one of his commissions involves the murder of a pit bull. But then the two women who want the pit bull killed turn on each other and complications ensue.

I've been a fan of Lawrence Block's ever since I first picked up a Matt Scudder mystery; KELLER'S GREATEST HITS is a recent discovery. There are only three. However, I have one tiny objection to these series mysteries: We always know beforehand the main character is never really in any trouble. Without Keller, there is no series. Lawrence Block is just sinister enough to bump Keller off one of these times or at least get him arrested, and I'm kind of looking forward to it.

Professional killer John Keller isn't a sociopath. He's pretty sure of this because he does have some feelings. And he never had experience torturing animals, wetting his bed, or setting fires. But he's good at killing, and he's not getting any younger. Starting a new career at his age, and with his lack of things to put in his resume (you really can't list dozens of professional hits) just doesn't appeal. Still, it would be nice to have someone to talk to, to explain his problems to. Still, Keller's problems with a former (and late) psychologist don't bode well for that kind of honesty.

Although Keller may angst about his career, he has a stamp collection that demands new feedings and the offers just keep coming in. So, he goes about his job. A ball-club realizes that it made a mistake paying an aging free agent millions of dollars and opts for the permanent retirement plan. A businessman wants to disolve a business partnership but lacks the funds to buy his partner out. 9-11 happens and Keller takes some time out to volunteer at the soup kitchens, but the demand for murder doesn't stop. Still, what happens when Keller actually likes a client? And what happens when an apparently simple case of a dog-killing dog takes un unexpected complications. Keller has to keep in mind his need to feed the stamp collection and find a way to struggle on, killing because that's his job.

Author Lawrence Block somehow manages to make a cold-blooded professional killer sympathetic and interesting--and even darkly funny. Keller works with his victims, finding ways to arrange their murders so they'll be seen as natural causes or unexpected muggings. He waits, sometimes for weeks, for the moment when the killing seems appropriate rather than simply a meaningless death. He cleans up after himself, even if that means occasionally killing where he doesn't even get paid for it. When he decides he has had enough, the only way he can see to get out is to kill even more people, even faster.

HIT PARADE is not a comfortable book. Keller may have his moments of existentialist angst, but he is not concerned with the morality of his killings. In some cases, the victims deserve what they get, in other cases, not-so-much. Still, Block manages to involve the reader, make us wonder how Keller is going to manage the next death, how he's going to deal with his own issues, whether he really is going to pull off his planned retirement. One thing for sure--I'm definitely de-motivated to go into the murder for hire business.

We can't all be baseball players, firemen or astronauts. For many of us, the job we will have be more mundane, a mere way to earn a living. For Keller, the hero of Lawrence Block's Hit Parade, his occupation may be unusual, but it's just a job. But since Keller is a paid killer, his work is more interesting to read about.

Like the previous "Hit" books (Hit Man and Hit List), Hit Parade is really a collection of previously published short stories reworked into a novel. In this case, the plot line that connects them is Keller's desire for retirement. Although he has no vices to blow money on, he is a devoted stamp collector, and his hobby has chewed into his savings. He lives comfortably, but he has no nest egg. As a result, he arranges to take on more jobs than usual, leading to some odd targets.

None will be more odd than when Keller is hired to kill a dog. It can't be that simple, however, and by the time he is through, there will be more dead humans than pets. Other jobs will have him touring the country following a ball player, infiltrating a planned community and getting mixed up in a "Strangers on a Train"-like scenario.

The joy of this book is Keller himself who treats his work as a mere means to make money. He gets no glee from killing, but he also feels no remorse. As long as it pays, he doesn't care why he's killing. Is he a sociopath? Even he is not sure. His only real confidant is his booking agent, the witty Dot, and much of the best dialog is between the two of them.

Block is good at writing stories featuring odd antiheroes, from the burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr to the aging private eye Matt Scudder, but it's with the Keller series that he has his darkest humor. Keller may be a killer, but he's too likeable to root against. With Block, you almost always get a good book, and Hit Parade, like its predecessors, will please most readers.

We all know that there are people who earn their living as murderers. But we probably haven't ever met any of them . . . and hope not to.

Lawrence Block raises the veil to show us what it might be like. The result is a sort of Sopranos about the business and hobbies of criminal professionals.

John Keller prefers to be called Keller. He usually receives his jobs through Dot, who is contacted by a variety of aggrieved parties and booking agents who want a "hit" made.

Murder itself doesn't make much of an impression on Keller. He's usually over the effects pretty quickly, but he doesn't see himself as a sociopath. He's more like a narcissist who looks out for number one pretty well before considering anyone else.

Like many people who reject conventional values, Keller has his own ethics. A contract must be promptly fulfilled . . . except under certain circumstances. You'll learn more about those circumstances as you cruise through these loosely connected stories.

Lawrence Block does a good job of maintaining suspense by developing each "hit" in unexpected ways. You'll sweat along with Keller as he deals with these challenges . . . oddly finding yourself rooting for a killer. How perverse is that?

Ultimately, I found it a little offensive that Keller was made to be so sympathetic. Although obviously this book is all about dark humor, the deadpan doesn't always steer you away from Keller as much as it should.

Keller is going through a mid-life crisis in this book. He's asking himself if killing people is all there is. But he's also anxious to stay agile so he won't be killed in pursuing his profession: That means more killing to stay in practice. The hobby of stamp collecting turns out to be an oddly perverse distraction. Buying the stamps is the biggest part of the fun, but the stamps are really worth what you pay for them, and there's nothing to do once you've filled an album.

The best part of the book for me was Keller's reaction to 9/11. If you don't like the first two stories (Keller's Designated Hitter and Keller by a Nose), be sure to stick with the book until you read Keller's Adjustment. I think your opinion of the book will rise at that point. How many of us adjusted our lives in fundamental ways after 9/11? This story will bring you back in touch with those thoughts and emotions.

The story that was richest in irony was Keller the Dogkiller. I commend that one to those who are fascinated by twisted senses of right and wrong.

Keller's Double Dribble was the funniest story in the lot. You'll like this one!

Quotidian Keller is another fine story full of good character development. It's my second favorite after Keller's Adjustment.

But read them all. You'll be rewarded by rich plot twists, if nothing else.

Block (like Donald Westlake) can do funny and he can do hard-boiled. His Bernie Rhodenbarr novels are laugh-out-loud tongue-in-cheek romps where the mystery is less important than Bernie's wisecracks. The Keller books (Hit Man, Hit List, Hit Parade) are nastier but no less funny in their way: Keller kills people for money (admittedly not an obvious set-up for jocularity) and is clearly beginning to come unmoored from reality a bit in this volume. But his conversations with his assignments clerk and partner, Dot, are little Zen koans of absurdity. This is black humor at its best, and Keller's increased questioning of his own behavior ("Am I a sociopath?") leads the reader to look forward to Block's next volume: Keller's meltdown. What'll he call it? HIT BOTTOM.

Author of Afinidad: A novel of a serial killer
Aztec Dawn: A tale of sacrifical murder, from Manhattan to Mexico
Who would have thought that reading a chronicle of a hit man's life would be like taking a leisurely stroll on a summer's day? But that is what Block's Hit Parade feels like. As Keller, the hit man in question, bumps off one unfortunate human being after another, there is no sense of violence, or anger, or angst of any kind. He dispatches them from this world with quite cold blooded calculation, so it is rather surprising to learn how much time he spends actually thinking about what he does for a living. He wonders whether he is a sociopath and hopes he isn't; he plans endlessly for his retirement but keeps putting that off, ostensibly in order to keep adding to his stamp collection; but, really, the right conclusion a discerning reader should probably come to is that, at the end of the day, he loves what he does.
The stories of each killing are great. There are imaginative twists and turns in virtually every job that Keller undertakes and Keller comes up trumps in each and every one of them, usually by making much more money than expected. Then back he goes to his contract broker's house in White Plains, sits down with her on her wraparound porch and drinks iced tea while they chat away for all the world like two contented housewives filling in time until they have to make their husband's dinner. It's a great life if you can get it. Wish my life went so smoothly.
Block doesn't waste words on descriptions, either of his characters or the physical environment. By the end of the book, you will not know what Keller or his broker look like or how old they are; the other characters are given just a few strokes of the brush, and the weather is rarely mentioned. That's because Block's central point of writing is the dialogue and that is superb, both between characters and Keller's own internal musings. The lack of description makes for a spare, minimalist style that creates the relaxed feeling mentioned earlier. Definitely a book that, despite its subject, can be read last thing at night before nodding off into sweet slumber.

I really don't know if I liked this book or not. I got it in audiobook form and was so distracted by the author's monotone reading that I missed most of the storyline. Authors should not read their own material. It takes an actor to make a book come to life.