In this brand-new novella, Keller, everyone’s favorite assassin for hire, is Chicago-bound on Amtrak's City of New Orleans, ready to do what he does best.

For almost three years, novelist and short-story writer Lawrence Block’s monthly column, “Generally Speaking,” was one of the most popular features in Linn’s Stamp News. A general collector of pre-1940 issues, Block had the entire world of stamps as his subject, and he turned in 33 columns before he decided it was time to stop.

Keller is your basic urban Lonely Guy. He makes a decent wage, lives in a nice apartment.Works the crossword puzzle.

Keller is a regular guy. He goes to the movies, works on his stamp collection. Call him for jury duty and he serves without complaint. Then every so often he gets a phone call from White Plains that sends him flying off somewhere to kill a perfect stranger.

Like the rest of us, Keller's starting to worry about his retirement. After all, he's not getting any younger. (His victims, on the other hand, aren't getting any older.)

Keller's a hit man. For years now, he's had places to go and people to kill. But enough is enough. He's got money in the bank and just one last job standing between him and retirement.

A man named Nicholas Edwards lives in New Orleans renovating houses, doing honest work and making decent money at it. Between his family and his stamp collection, all his spare time is happily accounted for. Sometimes it's hard to remember that he used to kill people for a living.