My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I stumbled across Lawrence Block when I was a young man, one of the Burglar novels. I read all of the ones I could find, and anything else I could find by him, mostly in libraries and used bookstores. (I eschewed the Matthew Scudder novels, however, as I couldn’t find the first one and didn’t want read them out of order). As a result, Block ended up having a fairly significant influence on me as a reader. Books had to be clever without being too self-indulgent, serious without being maudlin and amusing without being silly.
As a reader, I’ve grown since then, more than willing now to read self-indulgent, maudlin, silly nonsense. But when I saw that Block is to have a new Hit Man book out this month, I decided to go back and re-read the other Keller books. Just breezed through Hit Man #1 in less than 24 hours, and it was a good read.
Block’s gifted at matching his prose style to the personality of his character. Keller is simple, straightforward, almost plain, with a few idiosyncrasies to keep you interested. Same is true for the book itself— what amounts to a connected collection of short stories about a paid killer. There’s not much in the way of character development, or plot for that matter. It’s just an easy read, fun while it lasts, and done when it’s done.
Except, of course, it’s not done—I recall I did read at least one other Keller back then, before moving on and getting a degree in English and having reading ruined for me for a good ten years. I’m diving into Hit List next, and then all the rest. I’m not expecting fireworks, but then I’m not staying up past my bed time, either.