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NoirNovels.com - A unique repository for all things noir
The Hit
Reviewed By Steve Nester Adam and Eve? She done him wrong. Samson and Delilah? She done him wrong. James M. Cain?s femme fatales? They done the poor saps wrong, each and every one of ?em. Meet Kinnerly Morris, a slatternly southern belle who?ll leave your ears ringing. Kinnerly has done many a man and many a man wrong in Hoar?s debut novel The Hit. Mississippi Queen Morris is reunited with her college lover, Vietnam War veteran Lucas Carr, who narrates what ought to be the happy second act of a painful life. Instead, things turn out poorly for just about everyone. Written in the first person, in the form of notebooks kept while confined in a mental hospital, Luke recounts his plan to steal the artwork of Tom Morris, Kinnerly?s wealthy husband. Neither can make a claim for fidelity or chastity, nor can Kinnerly and Luke keep their hands off each other or their minds off all the money they might have if only Tom were dead. Kinnerly is always thinking, and when dirt-poor Luke balks at foul play Kinnerly makes one thing perfectly clear: no money, no me. Luke and Kinnerly aren?t the only ones who want Tom dead, and some are even willing to pay Luke for the service of assassination. Just about everyone who walks through the pages of The Hit is involved with Kinnerly or connected to the murder of Tom Morris. And when blackmail becomes part of the plot, Luke must act again. The character motives in The Hit don?t overreach the boundaries of human greed, depravity, or reader disbelief. What we see Kinnerly and Luke and the others do we?ve seen done before. How Hoar has them do it--in terse, simple, poetic prose--and in a narrative line unencumbered by yesterday?s red herrings and dead end plot and character development, makes The Hit a book to read and admire. Not a word is wasted, not a character movement is without a purpose. The element of surprise is ever present and looming. The reader knows he or she is being suckered, that something is happening, but what? To find out, either dust off your library card or better yet, open your wallet and head to the nearest bookstore. |
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