Sunday 18 March 2018

LAWRENCE BLOCK - QUOTIDIAN KELLER (2007)



Synopsis/blurb…..

What best defines a man. His profession? Or his passion?

Keller's profession is murder for hire. He kills strangers for money.

His passion is philately, which is to say that he's a stamp collector.

Once he'd planned to retire from his profession. But how would he fill his time? He wound up returning to his boyhood hobby of stamp collecting, and it promptly ate up much of his retirement fund.

These things happen...

So when a man in Detroit hires him to dispatch another Detroiter, Keller's up for it. Only problem is it has to be done right away, and Keller's got plans for the weekend. He's flying out to San Francisco to attend a philatelic convention and take in an important stamp auction. (Well, important to Keller, if not to you or me.) How can he be in San Francisco and Detroit at the same time?

Turns out he doesn't need to. Because the target will be making the same trip. His name is Sheridan Bingham, and he's a prominent philatelist specializing in issues of the German States, and he'll be in San Francisco, exhibiting some of his stamps at the convention, and bidding in the very same auction as Keller.

But what happens when Keller meets him and finds him a kindred spirit? What happens when he gets to know the man?

Besides being a collector and a killer, Keller is an unqualified Guilty Pleasure for an ever-increasing number of readers. "I don't think I ought to like Keller," readers tell me. "But I can't help myself..."

Quotidian Keller is an extended episode in the third Keller novel, Hit Parade.

The last of the 10 single episode releases from Lawrence Block with Hitman Keller – and I’m kind of glad. Not because I’m tired of reading about him, just because I’ve exhausted my supply of superlatives. Deja-review – deja-vous.

I’ll take Block’s word for it, it’s harder to kill a man once you’ve got to know him.  Lots to like again – an hour or so in the company of a stamp collecting, amiable soul and friendly fellow. One who just happens to be very good at killing, though as usual a bit of lateral thinking is required to ease the passage of our victim into the next life.

Top banana author – top banana tale. Try him for yourself and see.

One minor quibble, I had no idea what QUOTIDIAN means. Block showing off or me an ignoramus?

quotidian
kwɒˈtɪdɪən,kwəʊˈtɪdɪən/ adjective
1. of or occurring every day; daily.
"the car sped noisily off through the quotidian traffic"
2. MEDICINE
denoting the malignant form of malaria.

4.5 from 5

Read in February, 2018
Published – 2007
Page count – 41
Source – Kindle Unlimited
Format - Kindle

5 comments:

  1. That's the thing about an author with Block's talent, Co. Once you've said, 'The best,''Excellent,' etc., what more do you say? Glad that you enjoyed this last Keller outing.

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    1. Cheers Margot. Hopefully, I'll get back to Block later in the year!

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  2. Regarding that word: Me either (or is is neither?), so I looked it up for both our enhanced education. :-)

    quo·tid·i·an
    kwōˈtidēən/Submit
    adjective
    of or occurring every day; daily.
    "the car sped noisily off through the quotidian traffic"
    ordinary or everyday, especially when mundane.
    "his story is an achingly human one, mired in quotidian details"
    synonyms: daily, everyday, day-to-day, diurnal

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    1. And now I see you beat me to it. You remind me of my chemistry teacher in high school, the only class I ever failed. After a valient struggle to understand the subject matter during the first grading period (6 weeks), he told me (and I quote, verbatim), "Helms, you don't need this class credit to graduate. Why don't you bring a library book or use this hour as a study hall?" I was crushed. (Acutally, I was grateful!) :-)

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    2. Michael, cheers. I don't think I'll be slipping this one into my everyday conversations!

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