John Keller Mysteries
4 total works
When Keller gets the call to make a hit on a man in Des Moines, he's tempted to pass. So far he's been lucky in his chosen profession, and he's pretty much got enough stashed away to retire. Just one more, he thinks. But he quickly finds that this job might not just mark the end of his career - it could be the end of him, period. After three days in a Des Moines motel room he realises he was never meant to make the hit - he was just supposed to take the fall when a prominent politician was gunned down by someone else. Suddenly he's on the run, all the evidence pointing the cops his way and literally nowhere to go.
New York hit man Keller is a law unto himself, and when a situation goes awry - which despite his best-laid plans it so often does - he makes some surprising judgement calls to provide a twist in the tale. It's not all drudgery in the life of an assassin. Keller's jobs allow him access to all sorts of sporting events - following a baseball team round the country, providing the insurance for a fixed horse race, attending a basketball game in Indiana and playing golf in Arizona. He even gets to mix his passion for stamp-collecting with a hit on a famous philatelist. Wisely, Keller always travels for his work. New York is home, and he doesn't want to mess on his own doorstep. But the jobs are drying up, and he needs money. So he breaks the rule - and regrets it. His cover is at risk - he is even followed home - and Keller has to use all his remarkable skill to make sure he can continue doing what he does best.
A gripping insight into the life of a paid assassin from the author of the Matt Scudder mysteries The hit man of the title, Keller, tells his story episodically job by job. His tasks come as and when and with little warning. The call comes, he visits his paymaster to collect instructions, he travels to the hit's home city, does the job, returns. Often he likes the town he visits - enough even to look into real estate prices, but he always returns to New York City, to the chance of another job. Nothing changes until he begins visiting a therapist - a man who after a number of visits works out what our hero does for a living. He proposes a hit - he wants a woman killed. But in doing his job, Keller realises that he has been used and returns to take revenge on the therapist. The upshot is that in killing his therapist Keller orphans a dog. The dog needs a home, Keller provides 1, prompting the next major change in his life. When he goes away Keller needs a dog walker...finding a suitable candidate is easy enough, but before long she's resident in his flat and a whole new set of life rules are looking Keller in the face.
Can he keep his job - can he keep his dog and his lover once they know what he does for a living?
Can he keep his job - can he keep his dog and his lover once they know what he does for a living?