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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nifty double bill..., August 25, 2006
This review is from: Transgressions : Forever/Keller's Adjustment (Paperback)
Just like the good old days at the movies, this is a double feature with a pair of twisty-turny thrillers from a couple masters of the genre, Jeffery Deaver (The Bone Collector) and Lawrence Block (Hit Man, Eight Million Ways To Die, and dozens and dozens more).
I bought this compilation for Block's new Keller story, not particularly having liked anything Deaver's written up to this point. So I read the stories out of sequence, thinking I'd read Block's 'Keller's Adjustment' and then just sell the thing back to the bookstore. But my time with Keller only lasted an hour or so and I still had some time to kill, so I thought, what the h***? I took a chance and gave Deaver a chance to woo me over.
Well, dammit, he did. Deaver's story, 'Forever', stars a prim, manic-obsessive police statistician named Talbot Simms, who begins an investigation into a pair of apparent double suicides after they don't quite fit into his narrow theorem. The story is deftly written, with a likeable (if REALLY quirky) protagonist in Simms - and has all of Deaver's trademarked plot twists. I don't know how far Deaver can take Simms (how many of us really care that much about a mathmatics-obsessed statistitian and his quest for the perfect number?). His profile doesn't easily translate into a viable protagonist for a series, but for a fast read with a very specific scenario, he was perfect.
Block's entry, 'Keller's Adjustment', begins with his hit man Keller on the road, working a job in Florida at the time of 9/11, and wondering if he's still cut out for the life of a contract killer afterwards. Out of all his creations, Keller is Block's most ambiguous character, often seeming to be a conduit for Block to clear out all the accumulated junk built up inside his head: Keller spends most of his time collecting stamps, chewing the fat with his matronly contractor, Dot, or spouting crazy bursts of soul-cleansing stream-of-consciousness while on a job. Here, Block seemingly sets Keller up for his rumored retirement, and as always, Larry throws in heaping bits of the most cynical, pitch-black humor around. My personal favorite - when Keller fantasizes about killing the soccer mom who honks at him at a red light. Whooo! Brought tears to my eyes...
And now, my only real complaint: Even knowing, going in, that Transgressions #1 would be short, since it contains only a pair of novella's - which are usually what? 10,000 to 50,000 words or so? Well, even weighing in at a whopping 352 pages, this volume feels PADDED. The typeface is absolutely HUGE; it's large enough that somebody who's as blind as a bat could read it. And dangit, as much as I love supporting old Larry in his dotage, $7.99 is a lot of cash to shell out for a couple of eensy-weensy stories, even as good as these are; especially when you consider that Block's contribution will also be included in his next Keller novel, Hit Parade (John Keller Mysteries), along with three or four other new stories.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Fast and the Furious, November 26, 2006
This review is from: Transgressions : Forever/Keller's Adjustment (Paperback)
I was changing planes in Denver and realized I'd left my John Nance paperback on the last plane. A trip to the airport bookstore gave me the usual array of "already read it" vs. "wouldn't touch it" fiction, but I had another long flight ahead of me. My eye fell on the Deaver/Block edition of "Transgressions" and I thought, well, the Keller story will probably be okay. I really enjoyed "Hit Man" and was less-enchanted with "Hit List", but I expected to buy whatever came off the same assembly line. I balked at the Deaver story at first, having been disappointed by JD several times. My mom is a fan so I always buy copies for her and she passes them back, but they sit in my "nothing else to read" pile.
Reading the forward by Ed McBain left me hungering for some other authors who might have turned him down for this series, and I was also miffed when he stated that the authors appear "in alphabetical order on the cover, and the reverse inside", but I bit the bullet and choked down the Deaver, since I guessed I would never bother with it otherwise.
And I was thrilled! The son-of-a-gun can write, when it suits him! Or maybe the short form is really his home. This is the best book I've ever read by Jeffery Deaver, and although it unfortunately echoes a current television drama, it still strikes me as fairly original and well-rounded. I loved it!
The Larry Block piece was a nice return to our favorite hitman, picking up where we left him plus a few international tragedies. It was great, too. I loved reading the whole thing even after I flew home, staying up the rest of the night to get it all down.
I purchased the Ladies Edition of "Transgressions" (Ann Perry, Joyce Carol Oates, Sharyn McCrumb) at the same time, and so far, the stories look equally well-done.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
quirky crime, April 12, 2011
This review is from: Transgressions : Forever/Keller's Adjustment (Paperback)
This volume of Transgressions, edited by Ed McBain, consists of two novellas by New York Times bestselling authors Lawrence Block and Jeffrey Deaver. Deaver's contribution, Forever, concerns a statistician turned cop who becomes suspicious of double suicide. The cop, Tal Simms, blunders his way through an investigation until he is finally able to convince Homicide that it may be a case for them after all. The story builds nicely, but the ending seems a bit sudden. An enjoyable tale, nonetheless. Block's novella, Keller's Adjustment, concerns a successful hitman who becomes philosophical about his life and lifestyle after 9/11 and the ensuing security measures. Block is able to present his hitman, Keller, as almost the opposite of a sociopath. Any writer who has the singular ability to get his readers sympathising with a hitman is worth reading. Block's is arguably the better of the two novellas.
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