Keller, the World''s Most Engaging Hit Man, Is Back on the Job

This is another very entertaining collection of stories featuring a hit man named John Keller. Like his creator, Keller is a New Yorker through and through, and his love of the city shows through here, particularly as Keller wrestles with the aftermath of the 911 attacks on the city. The attacks take an emotional toll on Keller, who responds by volunteering to feed meals to those responding to the crisis. The attacks also impact Keller professionally, though, because the new security measures that go into effect after the attacks will make it much harder for him to move around the country as he works professionally.

Keller's associate, Dot, lives in White Plains and every once in a while, Keller takes the train up to see her and Dot gives him a new assignment that she has accepted, usually through a series of intermediaries that act as shields to protect the two of them. In this book, Keller takes a variety of assignments involving a wide range of targets, including an aging baseball player, a couple of businessmen, a few adulterers, and even a dog that has been attacking and killing other peoples' pets.

Keller's been at this game for a while now, though, and both he and Dot are thinking about retirement. An avid stamp collector, Keller has been spending his money on stamps in recent years about as fast as it's been coming in, and he has no nest egg to speak of. Suddenly concerned about his future, he asks Dot to step up his "bookings" so that he can accumulate enough money to fund his retirement.

This flurry of activity will expose Keller to some risks that he would usually avoid, but he remains as nimble and as quick-thinking as usual and so generally manages to still get the jobs safely done. In a conventional world, we should be appalled at the idea of rooting for a man who is a cold-blooded murderer, but Keller is such an engaging character that you can't help but enjoy the time you spend in his company, watching him work and listening to him reflect on the world around him. These stories are treasures.