Sequel to Block's previous work, Hit Man, a gripping insight into the life of a paid assassin who finds his way on to someone else's hit list.
Superficially, John Keller - the urban lonely guy of assassins - leads a normal life despite his profession. He has an office manager, the breezily efficient Dot, who organises his "jobs" and reassures his grumbling conscience. He is an obsessive stamp collector. In a blackly comic twist, he even gets called for jury service. Laid back, couldn't care less, morally distanced from his vocation, Keller is an intriguing character. A visit to an astrologer tells him, and us, that he is a gentle man who is simply surrounded by violence rather than being a perpetrator of it. His professional satisfaction, we learn, comes from "solving a problem". Taking lives causes him no real anxiety.
And then Keller's jobs start to go wrong. Targets die before he can get to them. Gradually he realises that he is being stalked. Another hitman is trying to weed out the competition and kill him. Keller and Dot try to turn the tables but how many innocents will get caught in the crossfire before Keller is truly safe?
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
When Keller gets off a plane in Louisville, ready to do the job he's been hired for, something about it feels wrong from the start. And when two people are killed in the motel room he has just vacated, he realises he narrowly missed a set-up, but can't figure out why. Then he goes to Boston to do another job, and afterwards dines in a coffee shop where another patron has the misfortune of leaving with Keller's raincoat:
The Globe didn't have it. But there it was in the Herald, a small story on a back page, a man found dead on Boston Common, shot twice in the head with a small-caliber weapon.Keller's agent, Dot, puts the pieces--including the death of another contract killer she books occasionally--together and comes up with the seemingly crazy idea that a greedy hit-man is knocking off the competition. In between other legit hits, romancing a commitment-shy artist, visiting an astrologer and a long stint on jury duty, Keller slowly moves closer to the faceless nemesis he and Dot dub "Roger". But it's Dot, the woman of action, who figures out what to do about him. Though Hit List is too introspective to be a caper novel, and too funny to be noir, it's bound to find a rapt audience with fans of both sub-genres. After two such engaging books, can Hit Parade be far behind? --Barrie TrinkleKeller could picture the poor bastard, lying face-down on the grass, the rain washing relentlessly down on him. He could picture the dead man's coat, too. The Herald didn't say anything about a coat, but that didn't matter. Keller could picture it all the same.
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Book Description hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Second Edition. Large print edition. Dust jacket, blue cover with gilt lettering to spine and contents in very good clean condition. Dust jacket has been library reinforced and plastic protected. Library stamp on front inside cover and catalogue page. Library stickers and remain of library plate on FEP. Ex-Library. Seller Inventory # 113957
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First UK edition 1st printing, Fine minus, unread book with slight touch of page edge toning, in a Near Fine jacket with slight rubbing to black panels and with couple of small, light overwrite impressions. This copy signed by Block on the title page. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # Moctir4047