The Hit - Hardcover

Jere Hoar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1893956342 ISBN 13: 9781893956346

Publisher: Context Books, 2002

Synopsis

Vietnam vet Luke Carr seeks revenge on his ex-lover after returning from the war by plotting to steal her art collection, but his plans are sidetracked by a mysterious request to perform and murder-for-hire.

About this title

About the Author

JERE HOAR is the author of the critically acclaimed short story collection Body Parts, which was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Reviews

Hoar makes a crackling debut (after the story collection Body Parts) with this Southern noir thriller about a decorated Vietnam vet up to no good in Mississippi. Luke Carr is locked away on the psychiatric ward of a VA hospital in the deep South. The diagnosis is post-traumatic stress disorder. The therapy consists of a series of notebooks in which Luke is supposed to tell his story "using colored pencils-pastels when I am unsure, darker colors for certainties." Through these notebooks, Luke records his post-Vietnam downfall, as the bookish, sensitive vet becomes a gun for hire. After returning home from his three tours in Southeast Asia, the solitary, disturbed Luke plots to steal art from Tom Morris, a wealthy businessman and collector. Along the way he encounters Morris's wife, Kinnerly, the former love of his life. Predictably, they resume the affair they'd ended years ago as students at Ole Miss. Within six weeks, the scheming Kinnerly has Luke convinced that offing her husband is the only decent thing to do. But soon another local rich guy, Jeff Ballard, also offers Luke a handsome payment for a hit on Tom. Luke discovers that Jeff and Kinnerly have recently been lovers and suspects something fishy, but agrees to take the job anyway. The hit goes awry when a local farmer catches Luke red-handed and blackmails him. Soon, Luke has to kill him, too. Seduction, betrayal, revenge and surprises lurk around the corner as the lovers plot their getaway. The plot makes rapid switchback turns all the way to the last page. Readers will be rapt.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hoar aspires to the dark heights of James M. Cain with this first novel about a Vietnam vet lured into a murderous plot by a smoldering old flame. He comes close to the bull's-eye in presenting a man too smart to kill for a woman he doesn't trust but too obsessed with her to cut and run. The vet in question, Luke Carr, is perfectly competent in the killing arts, yet fatally flawed in the relationship department. He also has a taste for fine literature, a cool canine companion named Adel, and a penchant for trenchant observation: A cemetery is a "field of human rot," for instance, and people go to their reward with "the empty stare you recognize even if you've never seen death before." Carr makes a fine noir patsy, set loose in a Mississippi backwater where treachery lurks behind every pine tree, bush, and bedroom door. What's more, Hoar treats readers to pitch-perfect accounts of a wide range of human activities--from following trails with tracker dogs and creating a fictitious identity to rigging explosives and selling purloined art. A notable debut. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Context Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1893956342
• ISBN 13: 9781893956346
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 292