The Killer Is Dying

The Killer Is Dying, an unsatisfying bit of hard-boiled noir by James Sallis, is all atmosphere and no terra firma. The story of a hit man who has a terminal illness, it departs from the usual mystery by being written in a highly literary style, with multiple narrators and a lot of interior monologues. But this ain't no Raymond Chandler.

For one thing, I read the book and I don't even know whodunit. The hit man, who is called Christian, has a target, but someone else tries to kill him before he does. Insatiably curious, he tries to figure out who tried to kill the man. "Why he was doing it remained opaque, impenetrable. Not pride. Not honor. Certainly not a sense of justice. But there it was, the road before him. And finally the why didn't matter any more than the truth of whether or not his tremors had actually stopped." Of course, if the main character doesn't know why he's doing something, it's kind of difficult for us the reader to figure out, and thereby the whole book is kind of a waste of our time.

The book also follows the police investigating the case, notably a detective named Sayles who's wife is dying. Then there's a third thread, involving a teenage boy who has been orphaned and is living on his own buying and selling things on the Internet. I may not have read carefully enough, but I have no idea how he figures in all this. Sallis switches point of view from chapter to chapter, and without warning. There were many times I started reading and realized I had the character wrong. It would have been nice if he could have titled his chapters with the name of the person we're with.

The writing is often quite strong, with good lines like: "Every human interaction, even the most unremarkable, is an economic exchange, he thinks: each side wants something." But the off-the-grid hit man character, with no home, no possessions, and no family, is kind of a cliche by now.

For those who want a straightforward noir mystery, skip this one. There's hardly any action, and while the pall of death is not unusual for noir, this one is positively morbid.