Keller in Dallas – Lawrence Block

Now this is the Lawrence Block I know and love – giving us readers a well written short story he self-published on Amazon with no cover for $1.98. A couple of days ago I’d asked the author on Twitter if there was another John Keller story in the works. The author pointed me to “Keller in Dallas” as a continuation from the last book “Hit and Run” that gives us a glimpse of what life has been like for our former and likable but lonely hit man for hire first introduced in a collection of short stories in Hit Man in 1998. Well, Keller now lives in New Orleans with his wife and young daughter. He works for a company that helps finance and restore dilapidated homes in the aftermath of Katrina.

One day Keller gets a call from his old partner, Dot, asking him if he’s interested in an assignment. Dot had someone lined up but it didn’t work out. Keller and Dot argue and talk like an old married couple. I enjoy their dialogue/exchanges. Anyway, the timing couldn’t be better. Business has dried up and Keller hasn’t had any work for a while. He’s been focusing a lot of his time adding to his stamp collection. He’s an international collector and it’s his passion. He almost always has with him the tools for his hobby including a perforation gauge and his bible on stamp collecting: the Scott’s Catalog.

In this short novella (33 pages on my Sony reader), Keller goes to Dallas to do a job. While there he attends a stamp auction, looking to own that elusive stamp, Obock J1*, that’s worth about $7,000. The main conflict for Keller is…does he still want to do this kind of work? Can he still do hits? Before he left this life, Keller had a way of distancing himself from his targets or victims. He had a methodical system in place that allowed him to be cold and ruthless to get the job done without remorse. It’s been two years since he’s done this kind of work so it’s a struggle for him. Of course I’m not gonna say whether he does it or not but I will say that the story ended with a nice little twist.

Keller as an anti-hero – he’s a very likable character. Hard to explain how an author can make a killer into a sympathetic character. I only know that it works and besides writer Jeff Lindsay manages to do the same thing except his character is a serial killer. Lindsay actually wrote an op-ed piece discussing why people tend to enjoy serial killers in “Sympathy for the Devils.” But I digress. I guess you could say the author has made Keller human to me? by sharing his thoughts, his vulnerabilities and how he rationalizes his actions. No, I don’t like what he does for a living but this is fiction and the stories are entertaining.

What made this story really nice is even though I don’t collect stamps, I still find the details of this hobby fascinating to read. The attention to detail the author goes into stamp collecting might bore some readers but not me. The formatting for $1.98 digital book is done well. The story is short and I enjoyed it for what it’s worth. My grade, B. I started this series with the last book and if his short stories are this good, I need to go back and read the rest.

Postal history of Obock, the first French colony
Books featuring John Keller: Hit Parade (2006), Hit Man (1998), Hit List (2000), Hit and Run (2009). All are unaffiliated links.

Edited: removing spoilers