Hit & Run (Keller #4) – Lawrence Block

Keller is in Des Moines, Iowa awaiting instructions on when to complete a hit when an urgent news bulletin breaks showing the sudden assassination of the state’s governor. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem for Keller considering he had nothing to do with it but when he spots his picture on television identified as the culprit, things take a drastic turn for the worse. On the run and desperate to connect with Dot, Keller has to somehow keep under the radar while coming up with a plan.

This is a very different novel than the preceding three Keller adventures. Gone are the scenes of Keller and his taskmaster Dot jawing over iced tea, gone are the self-reflective moments wherein Keller plays with his stamps in his New York City apartment, gone are the multiple assignments with Keller jet-setting across the country. What we’re left with is a cat-and-mouse dynamic with Keller trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities while he tries to figure out what in the hell just happened.

Block takes a crowbar and smashes Keller’s world to bits and I’m just supposed to sit here and take it? What gives, man! How dare you mess with a good thing? I guess I should have given Block more credit when things go pear-shaped because he knew just exactly what he was doing. I kept trying to figure out just how Keller was going to get himself out of this mess and of the multiple scenarios in my head, Block still happened to give me one I didn’t exactly see coming.

There is a moment late in the novel that made me think a little less of one of the characters but then I quickly remembered exactly who these people are. They’re the baddies! There’s no switch they flip and all of sudden they’re upstanding members of society. I suppose Keller has been able to do that on a few occasions, but Block rarely lets his audience forget who Keller is at his core.

I know there’s another book and another novella yet to read, but if this was the end of Keller’s run, Block couldn’t have picked a better ship for Keller to sail away on. On to book five!