Lawrence Block's Hit Man Keller Is Back In HIT LIST
Lawrence Block has been busy at both typewriter and computer for years, turning out enough titles to fill a small library . . . one of those titles being THE BURGLAR IN THE LIBRARY. In the process, he has accumulated the title Grand Master, as well as three Edgar Awards, four Shamus Awards, and a Nero Wolfe Award. His latest, HIT LIST, reprises "Hit Man" Keller, and is available from Harper Audio. He is also narrating and self-publishing an unabridged audio of TELLING LIES FOR FUN AND PROFIT, his how-to book for writers. So as both teacher and Master entertainer, it is appropriate that we interview him for Mystery month. Now let's stick our heads into the classroom, and ask a few questions from the hallway . . . while he's busy "chopping" student manuscripts down to readable size.
Jonathan Lowe: You've been prolific over the years as a crime novelist. How did you begin writing, and what's the fascination for you with crime fiction?
Lawrence Block: Well, I started when I was too young to know better. I just knew I wanted to be a writer. The stories that worked out best tended to be in the crime fiction field, and eventually it became clear that I'd become a crime fiction writer. But, like most writers, I don't think all that generically. Classifying the works is more the job of the librarian and the critic. I just write the suckers.
Lowe: Do you have a favorite novel, one which you're most pleased with, or shouldn't we be making such lists?
Block: I'm usually the fondest of the most recent. That said, WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES seems to me to do a little more than most.
Lowe: In your latest, HIT LIST, the idea seems to be to utilize hit man Keller's droll and humorous conversations with the woman who sets up his hits, Dot, to show how they both look at what they're doing as just another job. Keller is more concerned with his stamp collection, and sees the money from this job as a means to buy new rare stamps. The tension comes from a third party, another hit man who wants to eliminate Keller in order to score more work in the trade for himself. As Woody Allen might say, it's a great job -- you get paid well, travel, meet interesting people, and you're your own boss. My question is: can they sleep at night unless they're sociopathic?
Block: Well, sociopath is a term we've coined to label a person who can sleep at night after all that. I've known a couple of them over the years. Nobody quite like Keller, however. And he doesn't seem sociopathic to me. Just your basic Urban Lonely Guy.
Lowe: But not one Steve Martin might play in the movies . . . or would he? About Keller's obsession with stamps, I had a stamp collection as a kid, but not since, unless you count working for the Postal Service. Did you ever have a stamp collection, yourself?
Block: As a kid and young man, yes, and I've taken it up again in recent years. I collect what Keller collects, too -- worldwide before 1940.
Lowe: You enjoy the art in stamps, like Keller? I notice that artists wander into HIT LIST, and talk about other artists like Mondrian, as in the novel from your burglar series THE BURGLAR WHO PAINTED LIKE MONDRIAN.
Block: I do. My wife's an artist, and my mother and stepfather were both accomplished painters. And I painted a Mondrian of my own almost 20 years ago, figuring I'd never be able to own an original, and how hard could it be? That's what gave me the idea for that book.
Lowe: In HIT LIST Keller has a humorous episode where he does jury duty. I like the line about how you can't trust the intelligence of twelve people who couldn't get out of jury duty. As a crime novelist, though, I'd think you'd want to be on juries. Have you ever served?
Block: I spent three days on a panel but didn't get picked, which is sort of an honor, because they consistently picked the most clueless people. They prefer it that way; figure they're easier to manipulate. Whenever people walk out of a courtroom after a trial, they all reassure each other that the system works. Well, the hell it does. If you can look at recent court decisions and think the system still works, you're dumb enough to be on a jury.
Lowe: If you could compose a "hit list" of other writers you'd like to eliminate from the competition, who would they be, and why? Who influenced you, and whom do you admire?
Block: Oh, that won't work -- the fellows I'm apt to be envious of are ones I wouldn't dream of eliminating, because then I'd have nothing to read.
Lowe: One of my favorite readings of your work on audio is A STAB IN THE DARK, narrated by William Roberts for Chivers. He's one of my favorite readers, and also did the Highsmith novel STRANGERS ON A TRAIN for Isis. Do you ever listen to your own audiobooks, or others?
Block: I love the whole idea of audiobooks, and have warm feelings for their audience, and very much enjoy doing the narration . . . but I don't listen to them, really, mine or anybody else's. Although I have narrated my own.
Lowe: Do you have anything going to film soon?
Block: HIT MAN is in the works as a film, to be called "Keller," with Jeff Bridges slated to star, and A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES is being adapted for Jersey Films, and BURGLARS CAN'T BE CHOOSERS is being adapted for George Clooney at Warners.
Lowe: Now that's being prolific. Sounds like great casting, too. Congratulations. Did they consult you on the scripts? I hope you have some form of control.
Block: Richard Rubenstein of New Amsterdam Entertainment has consulted me on the screenplay for "Keller," and Scott Frank, who's doing the adaptation of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES, will be coming to New York for a Scudder's-eye tour of the place. But I don't have any control, and shouldn't -- a screenwriter needs a free hand. It's a different medium.
Lowe: Any thoughts on the future of crime writing? How about a crime writer who's a criminal?
Block: Well, we all are. I thought you knew that.
Lowe: I do. And by the way, thanks for your time, it was nice talking to you. Now please just wait right there, and I'll be right over with a silenced 9 mm.
Block: I'll look forward to it. But do me a favor -- when you leave your house, don't look behind you.
For rent or sale of most audiobooks, visit Earful.com, or call 1-800-532-7385. Reviewer Jonathan Lowe is author of POSTAL, an Earphones award-winning suspense novel read by Frank Muller and endorsed by John Lutz and Clive Cussler, who called it "mystery at its best." Now BlueMurder's new audiobook director, Jonathan is hard at work on the upcoming and exciting premier BlueMurder audio CD project, SIX FOR THE ROAD, with award winning narrator Dick Hill and sound engineer Jeff Davis.