- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Orion (20 Aug 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752893602
- ISBN-13: 978-0752893600
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.2 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 348,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Hit And Run
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Product Description
Review
'Block is one of America's finest crime writers and this is a cracking thriller with plenty of surprises, told with great verve and pace.' (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER )
Review
'Block is one of America's finest crime writers and this is a cracking thriller with plenty of surprises, told with great verve and pace.' HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Hit and Run" is the fourth in a rather amoral series about contract killer J P Keller and it rattles along nicely, apart from a couple of journeys and a scene on a golf course which drag a little. Keller has found a way of rationalising what he does to himself so the corpses do not prey on his conscience in the way you would expect in a man who in many ways also exhibits sympathy and humanity, but the two sides of his character do not fit easily together and a reader's attitude has to be ambivalent, which is why, though the stories are as exciting as Mr Block's always are, they aren't as involving as his other creations. At least Keller spares the dog, though other innocent bystanders are more permanently removed.
There is an autumnal feel to the book - I don't know how many Keller stories Mr Block intends to write but Keller seems to be settling down and gathering responsibilities besides his stamp collection by the end of the book, so while he is giving Keller time to enjoy life in New Orleans I hope Mr Block can breathe some life back in to Bernie Rhodenbarr, whose burgling and punning skills have been absent from the bookshelves for far too long.
There is an autumnal feel to the book - I don't know how many Keller stories Mr Block intends to write but Keller seems to be settling down and gathering responsibilities besides his stamp collection by the end of the book, so while he is giving Keller time to enjoy life in New Orleans I hope Mr Block can breathe some life back in to Bernie Rhodenbarr, whose burgling and punning skills have been absent from the bookshelves for far too long.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Lawrence Block's writing career has been one of the most varied and prolific in modern crime fiction. At his best he is up there with anyone you care to name, and a couple of his Matt Scudder books are as good as crime novels get.
Part of his brilliance is that he creates characters that we should find repugnant, yet still manages to make us CARE about them. So we have his series featuring the burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, and another, Keller's Greatest Hits, featuring a contract killer, or hit man. This book is the fourth in the Keller series (the three previous volumes have been short story collections) and once again, Lawrence has us rooting for his guy all the way.
Here, Keller is coming up to his retirement, but is tempted to take one last job. This turns out to be a mistake and he finds himself stitched up for a political assassination he didn't commit. There are great swathes of this book where Keller doesn't do anything other than avoid the public's gaze (the baddies have helpfully released his picture to the police and the image is in all the newspapers), and there's also page after page where he talks about or pines for his lost stamp collection. Yet it's never less than completely riveting. It's written with the lightness of touch of an absolute master who stages every scene to perfection and laces the whole thing with a healthy dose of dark humour. And his dialogue is also excellent.
This isn't Block's best book by a long chalk, but it's still unputdownable and a flat out great read. Recommended to everyone who likes a bit of crime that's entertaining, fun, but still suspenseful.
Part of his brilliance is that he creates characters that we should find repugnant, yet still manages to make us CARE about them. So we have his series featuring the burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, and another, Keller's Greatest Hits, featuring a contract killer, or hit man. This book is the fourth in the Keller series (the three previous volumes have been short story collections) and once again, Lawrence has us rooting for his guy all the way.
Here, Keller is coming up to his retirement, but is tempted to take one last job. This turns out to be a mistake and he finds himself stitched up for a political assassination he didn't commit. There are great swathes of this book where Keller doesn't do anything other than avoid the public's gaze (the baddies have helpfully released his picture to the police and the image is in all the newspapers), and there's also page after page where he talks about or pines for his lost stamp collection. Yet it's never less than completely riveting. It's written with the lightness of touch of an absolute master who stages every scene to perfection and laces the whole thing with a healthy dose of dark humour. And his dialogue is also excellent.
This isn't Block's best book by a long chalk, but it's still unputdownable and a flat out great read. Recommended to everyone who likes a bit of crime that's entertaining, fun, but still suspenseful.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is difficult to review this book without spoilers so suffice to say that I think this is the weakest of the three main strands to Mr Block's career. It's not as gritty as the Matt Scudder series and it doesn't have the humour of the Burglar series, it sort of sits in the middle. I think the concept of the hit man for hire sat more favourably in the early short stories but all in all this novel still stands head and shoulders above 90% of other crime fiction. Block is a master (he's got the awards to prove it) and he has never written a bad story. This is another gem, not because it is particularly thrilling, not because it is any kind of a whodunnit, but because it has characters that truly live in your mind long after you have finished the story
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Daft - but insanely readable
Block's likeable hitman Keller finds himself in a real hole in Hit and Run, and the book is really all about him extracating himself from a nightmare situation and finding light at... Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2009 by Jl Adcock
Started well, but rapidly lost it's way!
Hi,
I bought this book because I read a good review in a newspaper.
The premise sounded interesting: A hitman has one last job to do before he retires (the... Read more
I bought this book because I read a good review in a newspaper.
The premise sounded interesting: A hitman has one last job to do before he retires (the... Read more
Published on 1 Oct 2008 by Mr. J. Lawrence
The Hunter Becomes the Prey
Imagine a world where everything unexpectedly moves in reverse: Doing your job could send you to jail; going home may mean meeting a hit man who is out to get you; instead of... Read more
Published on 14 July 2008 by Donald Mitchell
The Hunter Becomes the Prey
Imagine a world where everything unexpectedly moves in reverse: Doing your job could send you to jail; going home may mean meeting a hit man who is out to get you; instead of... Read more
Published on 14 July 2008 by Donald Mitchell
I hope I age this gracefully
This is absolutely not the right place to start reading the Keller series -- if you are new to it, start back at the beginning with Hit Man. Read more
Published on 2 July 2008 by David Turnbull
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