Hit Me 

Author:Lawrence Block

Pounce upon prose stalks the reader, delivers a lion’s roar as Lawrence Block presents the possible last sequence in the Paul Keller series.  There is no one better than Lawrence Block in my opinion: he is an expert constructionist with characters that never fit the crime “niche.”  Keller is no exception; he has quit his old job with Dot as a call upon hit man and is now married with a new daughter.  Of course, he is still an expert philatelist, and is comfortable sitting in his office with the newest addition to his extensive collection telling his young daughters about the different countries and what the stamps represent.  His wife is alluring complex.  Now the co-owner of a construction business in New Orleans, Keller is for the first time experiencing a financial strain with the ecomony tanking in the building industry.  So when his old partner in the assassination business, Dot, calls, Keller decides to take a job or two.  When he tells his wife, she finds it – sexy.

And Keller can now fund some new acquisitions to his stamp collection.

As Keller goes through the new assignments, he maintains his calm and poise, and interestingly, his empathy and compassion.  The beauty of Block is that he is not predictable, and his characters are full or charm, normality, and decisions that create a cacophony of chaos on the outside.  And Keller never reveals anything but concise compartmentalization of his job, his family, his construction business, and most of all, his love of acquiring new and expensive stamps to fill in his collection.

It will be a shame if Block quits writing: he has kept me reading for years.  I always find him the best of the best.

Hit Me (Keller) is available at your neighborhood bookstore as well as Amazon.com

Ratings are based on a 5-star scale

Overall:  5

Review by Broad “A” – Ava

We received a copy of this title for our book review. All opinions are our own