KELLER’S GREATEST HITS

Keller, the urban lonely guy of assassins, wistful and introspective and lethal, is as unlikely a series character as I can imagine. I can only say that I didn’t plan it this way. I wrote a short story, "Answers to Soldier," and I figured that was that. Playboy published the story, MA shortlisted it for an Edgar, and all of this made me very happy, but I didn’t see a future for Keller.

Then a couple of years later I wrote "Keller’s Therapy," and at its end he had a dog. Who would take care of it when he was on assignment? I wondered about that, and wrote "Dogs Walked, Plants Watered." And around that time I realized I was writing a novel on the installment plan. Nine of that novel’s ten chapters were published as individual short stories, most of them in Playboy. Then I put them together, and the result was…

1

HIT MAN. William Morrow, 1998. Hit Man was published without any fanfare. No advertising, no promotion, and no great expectations on anyone’s part. But people really seemed to take to Keller­—I don’t know what this says about him, and I’m afraid to think what it says about you—and the book generated no end of word of mouth, and sold like crazy. Publishers like it when this happens, and, I have to admit, so do I. And the result, inevitably, I suppose, is. . .
2

HIT LIST.  William Morrow, 2000. Because I knew from the jump that I was writing a whole book, Hit List is rather more a novel and less a collection of stories than its predecessor. It's still episodic in structure, as it would almost have to be. Keller, after all, has an episodic kind of a life. You go somewhere, you kill somebody, you come home—end of episode. But Keller finds out that he's managed to get on somebody else's hit list. Somewhere out there, somebody's trying to hit the hit man.

   

3
 
HIT PARADE.  William Morrow, 2006.  The third Keller novel, of which Booklist says: "Block's legions of fans will savor his subtle wit, his consummate narrative skills, and his idiosyncratic method of celebrating the lives of working folks in America."  Really? Keller as working-class hero?
   

4
 
   
HIT AND RUN. William Morrow, 2008. Keller’s in Des Moines, waiting for the client to give him the go-ahead. Then a charismatic political figure is gunned down, and Keller’s set up to be the fall guy. His car is hot, his credit cards are no good, his agent’s phone is dead, and he just spent the last of his cash on five Swedish stamps.
   

And the novelette, “Keller in Dallas,” destined to be the opening sequence of the fifth Keller novel, and meanwhile eVailable for Kindle or Nook…