Hit List

Keller Series, Book 2

By: Lawrence Block

Narrated by: Lawrence Block

Keller is a regular guy, a solid citizen. He goes to the movies, watches the tube, browses the art galleries, and works diligently on his stamp collection. But every now and then a call from the breezily efficient Dot sends him off to kill a total stranger. He takes a plane, rents a car, finds a hotel room, and gets back before the body is cold.

He's a real pro, cool and dispassionate, and very good at what he does. Until one day when Dot breaks her own rule and books him for a hit in New York, his home base. She sends him to an art gallery opening, and the girl he gets lucky with steers him to an astrologer. He's a Gemini, his moon's in Taurus...and he's got a murderer's thumb.

Then the jobs start to go wrong. Targets die before he can draw a bead on them. The realization is slow in coming, but there's no getting around it: Somebody out there is trying to hit the hit man. Keller, God help him, has found his way on to somebody else's hit list.

Read by the author.

©2009 Lawrence Block (P)2019 HarperAudio

The reluctant hero with an edge

Great balance of humor and action and plot twists. Ironically Keller, the hit man, comes across as a simple yet competent and resourceful guy, a sort of reluctant hero type. He seems relatable, dealing with everyday problems but in a unique job with usually very unique solutions. My opinion is all the Keller books are best narrated by author Block (with the possible exception of the first, superbly read by Robert Forster). Easily my favorite series on Audible (11 years listening)

Killer Keller

The hitman we hate to love. On a road trip a few years ago, we wandered into a used bookstore and picked up a volume of the collected works of Lawrence Block. The Keller stories quickly became our favorites and we spent many enjoyable hours on the road reading them to each other. We assumed that was it for Keller stories until a recent Audible post listing The Hit Man and The Hit List. The narration is excellent and we have many more hours of listening ahead.