Killer [Paperback]

Dave Zeltserman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2010

Praise for Dave Zeltserman:

“Pariah will keep you glued to its pages. There are no holds barred anywhere in this wonderful launch into evil. The meek beware . . . be-very-ware.” —Charlie Stella

“This fusion of hard-boiled and bitter satire is brand new territory for noir and I suspect that [Pariah] will be one of the most talked about novels of 2009.” —Ed Gorman

“The plot of Small Crimes is a thing of beauty.” —The Washington Post

Leonard March walks free from jail after fourteen years' hard time served after turning state’s witness against his Mafia boss Salvatore Lombard. It’s only after Leonard is sentenced that the public learns that he was a Mob hitman with eighteen deaths to answer for.

Leonard is released to public outrage and media furor. He spends his time working as a janitor while looking over his shoulder, fearful of a vigilante attack or revenge hit from his former colleagues. At sixty-two and with plenty of time on his hands, he is at an age when most men grow reflective and attempt to understand their mark on the world. But for Leonard, while the threats to his safety are not imagined, his self-reflection may pose the greatest threat of all.

Dave Zeltserman lives in the Boston area with his wife. Small Crimes was included in The Washington Post’s Best Books of 2008 and was one of NPR’s top five crime and mystery novels of 2008.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The strong final book in Zeltserman's felon-out-of-prison trilogy (after Pariah and Small Crimes) focuses on hit man Leonard March, who cuts a deal with the state in exchange for a lighter sentence. By providing full details of the 28 murders he committed for Boston's top crime boss, Salvatore Lombard, March receives immunity from prosecution for those crimes. Pleading guilty to lesser crimes leads to his serving only 14 years in prison. Once freed in 1997, March gets a janitorial job in Waltham, Mass., but makes few long-range plans, convinced that it's only a matter of time before Lombard's goons take him out. Writers and journalists pursue the enigmatic March, seeking to capitalize on his murderous past, which is revealed in flashbacks, though survivors of his victims could seek any proceeds. Spare prose and assured pacing place this above most other contemporary noirs. (May)
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From Booklist

Leonard March is a contract killer and a survivor. Zeltserman develops his protagonist skillfully, building a complex picture of a highly intelligent man forced to examine, test, and confront the boundaries of his self-defined morality. While most of the story is set in the present, following March’s release from a 14-year prison term, it also fluidly moves around in time as March describes the events that have shaped his life within the world of organized crime. He takes pride in his deadly competence and his range of highly specialized skills. Zeltserman’s choice of first-person narrative, chilling but often laced with noir humor, works perfectly, leaving it for the reader to decide if March the man is evil or a soldier doing a job. --Elliott Swanson

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (May 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184668644X
• ISBN-13: 978-1846686443
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Zeltserman is the Shamus award winning author of 'Julius Katz', and the Ellery Queen's Readers Choice Award winner for 'Archie's Been Framed'. His 'man out of prison' crime noir series features the novels Small Crimes, Pariah and Killer, with Small Crimes being selected by NPR as one of the five best crime novels of 2008 and by the Washington Post as one of the best novels of 2008, and Pariah selected by the Washington Post as one of the best novels of 2009. His novel The Caretaker of Lorne Field was short listed by the ALA for best horror novel of 2010 as well as being nominated for a Black Quill Award for best dark genre novel of the year. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Dave attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, and after graduating with a BS in Applied Math and Computer Science, returned back to the Boston area where he continues to reside with his wife, Judy. After spending 20 years developing network management software for several of the world's leading technology companies, he now splits his time between writing crime fiction and studying martial arts, where he holds a black belt in Kung Fu. His crime novels Outsourced and A Killer's Essence have both been optioned for film.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars STUNNING END TO A MEMORABLE TRILOGY, April 28, 2010

By 

Roger Smith (Cape Town, South Africa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killer (Paperback)

KILLER is the final instalment of Zeltserman's "man-out-of-prison" series. SMALL CRIMES and PARIAH take some beating, but KILLER is superb. When once-upon-a-time hit-man, Leonard March, is freed from prison, he's like an old, de-fanged wolf, battle scarred and shunned by the pack. Zeltserman, in this meditation on the mind of a killer, expertly weaves together two time frames: Leonard now, and Leonard in his bloody heyday. KILLER is a measured, compelling, character study that manages to be at once terrifying and strangely moving, as Leonard struggles with alienation, loneliness, and old ghosts. But don't be lulled into expecting a Hollywood ending to this story: this is vintage Zeltserman, and that means there's always a tail. With a sting. Be warned.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read to Kill Time!, January 2, 2011

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Killer (Paperback)

I've read a few of Zeltserman's books, and Killer is easily one of the best. Like all Zeltserman novels you go in knowing it may either turn out well for the main character or maybe not, which I wish more authors would do. It's a simple plot, a now become old by age and more importantly by hard time served, man Leonard March is released from prison. He brilliantly had a much would be heavier sentence reduced by half for the murder of a policeman by promising to testify and bring down his employer, mafia boss Salvatore Lombard. His plan was so brilliant, because he forced prosecutors to put in writing that he would never be prosecuted for his other crimes that he would divulge while providing the information that would bring down Lombard. What he didn't tell the prosecution was that those other crimes were the murders of eighteen people. You see Leonard March was a mob hit man.

Like with Zeltserman's Small Crimes initially we the reader don't know should we be hoping this inflictor of terrible atrocities is able to move on with his life or should we in fact be hoping those he comes across get their vengeance. Flashbacks to his years as a hit man paint a different picture to that which the public (and the relatives of the victims) have portrayed of those events. So is or was Leonard really a villain? Zelterserman takes us along for the ride to find out as those who wrongly believe a ruthless killer now trapped in a withered old man's body do, that you can only push an old killer so far. All Leonard wants to do is work hard and move on with a peaceful life and overtime reconnect with his children, who along with his wife who died of cancer while he was behind bars, was what he was doing the highly paid work for in the first place.

It's a good read, these sort of Zeltserman novels remind me of Richard Stark's Parker series in that we know the main character is a violent criminal and if those crimes were against us we'd certainly want to see him stopped, but as readers knowing he's a fictional character, we now still sort of want him to succeed. Through the flashbacks we get a lot more information on Leonard March than Westlake (Stark) ever gave us on Parker though, and for this novel, that's a great thing! Some parts of the novel, Sophie related and so forth are a little predictable but the fun is in how Zeltserman delivers us there.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astounding!, November 25, 2010

By 

Frank A. Stevens Sr. "casertadue" (Sarasota, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Killer (Paperback)

Cleverly crafted tale structured about the ebb and flow from present to past in alternate chapters -- two books in one. The climax is the most astonishing one I have ever come across.The Gangster Film Reader (Softcover) (Limelight)