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    The Executor
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    The Executor
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    The Executor
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Executor

    Written by Jesse Kellerman

    Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A masterful, inventive thriller from a remarkably assured and always surprising young writer.

    Perpetual graduate student Joseph Geist is at his wit's end. Recently kicked out of their shared apartment by his girlfriend, he's left with little more than a half bust of Nietzsche's head and the realization that he's homeless and unemployed. He's hit a dead end on his dissertation; his funding has been cut off. He doesn't even have a phone. Desperate for some source of income, he searches the local newspaper and finds a curious ad:

    CONVERSATIONALIST SOUGHT.
    SERIOUS APPLICANTS ONLY.
    PLEASE CALL 617-XXX-XXXX
    BETWEEN SEVEN A.M. AND TWO P.M.
    NO SOLICITORS.

    And so Joseph meets Alma Spielman: a woman who, with her old-world ways and razor-sharp mind, is his intellectual soul mate. How is he to know that what seems to be the best decision of his life is the one that seals his fate?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 1, 2010
    ISBN9781101154779
    Unavailable
    The Executor
    Author

    Jesse Kellerman

    Jesse Kellerman is the author of Potboiler, The Executor, The Genius, Trouble, Sunstroke. and with Jonathan Kellerman, The Golem of Hollywood. His books and plays have won several awards and an Edgar Award nomination. He lives in California.

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    Reviews for The Executor

    3.5/5

    86 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Ohhh---good! Creepy in the absolutely complete detail of what was happening but a story that worked in so many ways. The audio was read wonderfully by Kirby Keyborne.
    • 3/5
      My first warning should have been the lengthy flashback that came early in the book and provided a fairly uninteresting backstory for the character. Worse still, the backstory did not impact the overall story to the extent given in the telling. The main character is a snobbish professional student who spends an extraordinary amount of time agonizing over trivia matters. Suddenly, when faced with a life threatening situation, he changes into a cold-blooded killer. The shift is abrupt and so complete as to sound like an entirely different person from one half of the story to the next. Adding to the problems of almost implausible character behavior is the audiobook narrator’s mispronunciation of several words. What saves the story from a single-star rating is the interesting, if self-involved theme, and the old woman who dies.
    • 3/5
      I've read 3 or 4 of Jesse Kellerman's books, and I'm not impressed with his characters. They just don't seem to possess much common sense, and I become impatient with their ramblings where they try and justify their actions.
    • 3/5

      ----- spoiler alert ------- dont read before having read the book.
      Fascinating how the author was able to mix philosophy into the recipe of this dark thriller, as a tool to create a fictional person who is hyper-rationalizing the reality around him. Which is the mistake that the purely philosophical approach to reality always makes: putting all the emphasis on rationality, and therefore missing a huge chunk of life and failing to respect the deep, emotional side of being human. That mistake will cost our protagonist dearly. The psychological aspects are also laid out in a very realistic way: the detachment and the fear of emotions that Joseph suffers from stem directly from having experienced the abuse in his family and the uncontrolled emotions in his home. For that, you shouldn't judge him too harshly for being as annoying as he is.
      Someone mentioned "Crime and punishment": i don't think the author wanted to focus on Joseph's sense of guilt (or rather, lack thereof). Dostoevski wanted to do precisely that, and that's why he presented the murder at the beginning of the novel. Here, the murders are towards the end. What matters most is what goes on inside this guy's mind as a whole, so well described and prepared by the author that the sudden explosion of his instincts at two thirds of the book is exactly what you would expect. His heart is buried under layers of defense mechanisms, and he's not in synch with his own feelings. Before ending up in prison, he had already been living in a "prison" of his own, in his own mind, and I think that is why he feels so much at home when he finally ends up there.
    • 3/5
      Joseph Geist could best be described as a “professional student”. Comfortable in this status he finds a never ending number of reasons to not finish his thesis and graduate. This laziness results in his being kicked out of school, kicked out of his apartment and almost deserted by his friends. At this low point in his life he meets Alma. She seems to be the perfect solution to his problems … even though she is in her eighties. Unfortunately Joseph also meets her nephew, a ne’er-do-well who wants to make sure Joseph does not get what “rightfully” belongs to him.

      My only criticism is that the book loses a bit of its momentum towards the end. It seems the offspring of popular writers are making a name for themselves in today’s book market. This is the second book I have read by the son of Faye and Jonathan Kellerman. Although I have not read their books I certainly have enjoyed Jesse’s.
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings surrounding this book. It started off okay, then got pretty good, then steadily got worse for the last half of the book. Joseph is... annoying. He's immature and the book reads much like I imagine his dissertation did- long and full of tangents. The people in this book don't act like you would expect people to act. The whole think just felt too ridiculous to be an enjoyable book. Joseph's character change at the end was too abrupt and came completely out of nowhere. I liked Yasmina at the beginning, but she turned out to be quite annoying by the end. Joseph's paranoia is tiring, and despite what he says, I feel like he was the one taking advantage of the old woman- not the woman's nephew. He was jealous and petty, and it ruined what could have potentially been an interesting story. It gets three stars for the parts that I really enjoyed.
    • 5/5
      Joseph Geist is a long time philosophy graduate, still trying to graduate with a Harvard PhD after spending seven years trying to write his thesis. His girlfriend has kicked him out, his family life is a shambles and he has no money. Finding a job to suit his intellectual talents and needs seems almost impossible until he answers and ad for a 'conversationalist' and so meets the mysterious Alma, an elderly lady looking for company.All goes well until Alma's nephew shows up demanding money. Joseph becomes progressively more jealous and protective of his new employer. This is a recipe for tragedy and disaster, and Kellerman once again does not disappoint.Despite this being a relatively easy book to get through, it was really well written. There were some marvelous turns of phrase, some pertinent and fascinating thoughts, but most of all, the character development was really wonderful. It is written in the first person, but you are never sure how you feel about Joseph the narrator. This is probably because the author portrays his insecurities so accurately and so well that you almost feel uncomfortable being inside his head. The ending is really appropriate. Without giving too much away, look out for Chapter 21 where the point of view switches so the narrator, although telling his own story, seems to be doing it from one step back. It is eerie and absolutely spot on.
    • 5/5
      Finally the paperback edition of Jesse Kellermans last novel The Executor was released and made its way into my hands. Loving the previous three books of him, I was extremely curious to read his latest output.After taking a psychedelic trip to Mexico (Sunstroke), being pursude by an (self)destructive stalker (Trouble) and hunting down a disturbed and mysterious artist (The Genius), Kellerman now gives us the opportunity to read the autobiography of a philosopher gone mad – Joseph Geist, owner of half of Nietzsche’s head (as the first sentence of the book tells us).The plot: Writing his doctor thesis Joseph has to look out for jobs to pay for his rent. After his girfriend dumped him and kicked him out of her rooms, he has to find something new to make a living. One day he finds an add in a newspaper where a conversationalist is sought. Knowing how to talk, he gets the job and meets with Alma Spielman, an elderly woman from Swiss, philosopher herself. Because of their dayly conversations Geist gets more and more absorbed of Alma’s personality and as she offers him to move into her big cold and dark house, his life seems to have changed for the better. Everything goes well until one day Alma dies leaving all her asset and estate to Joseph. Confused by her death and his newly gained wealth his life will take some unexpected turns and finally winds down into a dark spiral of decisions and consequences.Being a student of Philosophy and German Studies myself, I had the constant feeling that Kellerman’s notes on philosophy are a bit sloppy and short lacking the necessary deepness of thought. But this is easily excused for The Executor is not a philosophical work but a novel for a wider audience and, most of all, the lack of philosophical deepness is not Kellerman’s but Joseph Geist’s who regularly gets absorbed in his wild ideas and constructs leading him to insecureness as well as hubris. Those two elements make him both unable to communicate in a normal fashion with “normal” people and simultaneously let him become a never resting mind for which mere possibilities become absolute facts (e.g. the feeling of him being watched and stalked at every moment). This split in his character is the reason why he’s never able to finish his thesis and why he gets lost in words without meaning. This contrast between sheer written output and the lack of its inherent meaning slowly drives him crazy (as I interpret it) showing him that true philosophizing can’t be forced by institutional regulations but only emerges in easy conversations or isolated from all worldly constraint as he bitterly finds out in the end.That on this way of enlightment he brutally kills two people in cold blood and becomes a frantic maniac ready to explode again every moment is the other side of the book making it more a noir suspense thriller than a philosophical reflection upon the debate about free will - even though both can’t be seperated completely. In the end there also is a nice hint for a second interpretation of the happenings surrounding Joseph Geist, but this is merley indicated and not wholly applicable to the text – but who tells us that Geist is writing nothing but the truth in his autobiography and not only what he thinks has really happened? It’s up to the reader to reflect and deceide.Compared to his previous works The Executor doesn’t feature a sympathetic character, what makes it all the more a noir novel. Joseph Geist isn’t the character to converse with everybody about everything and so he is mostly brusque and unfriendly. But for this is not a lack of talent on Kellerman’s side (as he proved with his other novels) it becomes a defining element of the story and of Joseph’s character. So there is no reasong for me to hold that against The Executor even though I expected something a bit different. What I think was a bit exaggerated was the use of the abrupt change in style at some points of the narrative. I see that this underlines the alternate interpretation suggested at the end of the text, but those scenes in the aftermath of the killings are clearly no indictators of the true talent of Jesse Kellerman. Because of them I will give just a 4.5 out of 5 rating. But overall I’m not surprised that I’m not surprised that the new Kellerman is again a killer of a book.
    • 3/5
      After enjoying 'Brutal art' I wanted to like this novel. I thought first hundred pages were brilliant. But then it just went nowhere. It's a pity since Jesse Kellerman can write.
    • 3/5
      I'm having a hard time putting into words what I thought of this book and I'm not sure why. I really enjoyed it. I found it to be interesting and engaging.I don't know how I would classify this book. It's part mystery, part one man's story. I guess it doesn't really fit into any one niche, but it is good and definitely worth a read.My only complaint is the narration perspective changed in the last little bit of the book which threw me a bit but once I adjusted, I decided it worked okay with the book itself.So I'm going to keep this review short and succinct. If you're looking for a different kind of read, you should consider this book.
    • 4/5
      The blurb says: Things aren't going well for Joseph Geist. He's broke. His graduate school adviser won't talk to him. And his girlfriend has kicked him out of her apartment, leaving him homeless and alone. It's a tough spot for a philosopher to be in, and he's ready to give up all hope of happiness when an ad in the local paper catches his eye. 'Conversationalist wanted', it reads. Which sounds perfect to Joseph. After all, he's never done anything in his life except talk. And the woman behind the ad turns out to be the perfect employer: brilliant, generous, and willing to pay him for making conversation. Before long, Joseph has moved in with her, and has begun to feel very comfortable in her big, beautiful house. So comfortable, in fact, that he would do anything to stay there?Jesse Kellerman writes in clear, crisp prose that gives us an immediate picture of Joseph Geist the protagonist in this thriller. This is a very difficult book to review without spoiling. The philosophical discussions the protagonist has with the woman, and with his girlfriend, and above all with himself, are often almost convoluted. Through them we see a tortured, insecure person who has never managed to accomplish anything in his life except to get out of the mid-West and into Harvard where he has wallowed for 8 years. The conversations are so pompous at times that I actually had to resort to a dictionary. The book has a back cover that says “A masterly inventive thriller from a remarkably assured young writer.”There are 343 pages in my copy. At page 240, I was still waiting for the thriller part to kick in.Then it did, and I haven’t been on a roller-coaster that exciting or terrifying in my life. It is a spectacular story, told so well that even when things are slowly building, you feel the tension, you sense that something is going to happen, you posit several different scenes, and then BAM! Nothing like I expected, but definitely heart-hammering, page–turning good. The author brings the story to a clean concise denouement that leaves the reader with a sense of justice and sadness.It could have been, and I suppose in many ways it is, a depressing and sad book. But it is so well written that I came away only saying WOW, what a great story.
    • 5/5
      There's a basic plot framework that you encounter in Gothic fiction. Our heroine, in straitened circumstances, is forced to find employment. Due to her gentle upbringing she is suitable for only a few positions - governess or ladies' companion. There is a house and a mysterious (and mildly dangerous) man and a dead wife (or maybe an insane one locked up in the attic). There is often a difficult retainer of some kind and an unsavory relative. When it's a heroine in this situation, you get Jane Eyre or Rebecca. Substitute a hero and you've got Sunset Boulevard and it's not hard to guess that someone's going to end up face down in the metaphorical swimming pool.The Executor is a wonderfully formal and classic sort of Gothic novel. Kellerman skillfully sets up the framework we're all familiar with, following the dictum of Chekov's gun ("If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.") and establishing an utterly believable narrative voice. He then proceeds to play with the form and all its elements, somewhat like my cat plays with his toy mousie. It's delightfully done, breathtakingly skillful, and so far exceeds its possible classification as genre that it's not really worth mentioning the word. I enjoyed every moment of this book - from the technical side of its literary framework, to the elegant solutions of its puzzles, to the confident surety of its language. Quite stunning.
    • 5/5
      Nothing is a better read than a slow descent into madness. In this story, the lure of undeserved wealth causes a somewhat ineffective, but certainly harmless, post graduate student to murder two people (rather brutually). Of course, throughout the story, the main character Joseph justifies every single step he takes to commit the crime and then to cover it up. There are brief moments where Joseph appreciates his depravity of his actions and the collateral consequences, which are scenes brilliantly written by Kellerman.
    • 4/5
      An excellent character study. While I enjoy his parents' books (Jonathan and Faye Kellerman), Jesse's writing is much more literary. He has a way with words and characters that you don't see in most murder mysteries. When I first started reading this book, I hated the main character. He represents everything I despise in a human being. And yet I was enthralled with the character's thought processes and rationalization of his actions. Cannot wait for Jesse Kellerman's next book!
    • 3/5
      First, my thanks to Putnam publishers for sending me this book.The Executor is very different, very slow paced right up until the end where the action kicks into gear, and more of a character-driven novel rather than plot. The main character, Joseph Geist is a career student who came from a dysfunctional family. He's taken too long to produce any results from his PhD research in Philosophy and the powers that be at Harvard have had enough. His girlfriend, whose family doesn't like Joseph anyway, kicks him out of their apartment. He's on the edge of broke, with nothing to show for his life. Looking for work, he comes across an ad that reads "Conversationalist Wanted," posted by an enigmatic and elderly woman named Alma, herself (many years ago) a philosophy student during her life in Austria. He takes the job, and Alma offers him part of her apartment as living space. The situation seems fine until Alma's bad-boy nephew Eric enters the scene. Eric is Alma's only relative, and on his visits she doles out money that never seems to last, as he is usually back for more within short spaces of time. Joseph takes an instant dislike to Eric; whether it's because he's jealous of him or because he sees through him right away is difficult to understand. Joseph goes for a brief visit home to honor the anniversary of his brother's death, and returns to a nightmare.Joseph is an interesting character. He's a man of extreme inaction for most of the story, so it's interesting watching the story progress to the point where he feels he must finally take an active role in his life. Growing up, he was passive, unable to do anything when his father was abusive to his brother, and he watched his mother fade as a person, standing by and letting his father control the entire family. The anniversary of his brother's death, and the realization that nothing had changed over the years he'd been away, seemed to spark some sort of latent anger that rose to the surface when his new situation came under threat. Yet, given all of that, Joseph remains a largely unsympathetic character, one for whom it's difficult to feel any pity at times.I like the slow pace of Kellerman's writing here and I think his work shows a high level of cleverness. However, I had to actually go back to a point in the novel and reread it where it switched from the very slow, steady pace to where all of a sudden there's a rush of action and things move extremely fast, because the switch was distracting and seemed so out of character for Joseph that I was actually taken aback. It was a "huh" moment. After the steady build up getting to know and understand Joseph, the end was really rushed. That's my only major complaint about this book. A lot of times I think that authors pad way too much and probably could have deleted the fluff to stay with the heart of their stories, but for a change, it seems that this novel was too short. I'm sure Kellerman has his reasons for ending the book quickly, but it was a bit out of step with the rest of the story. If you are expecting a novel along the lines of something written by Jonathan or Faye Kellerman, this one doesn't even come close. I've read my fair share of both of their books and they're okay for a quick read. But Jesse Kellerman's style is very different, not a series book, not in the cozy realm, and there's no quick-witted detective or psychologists. I'm not saying this as a negative, but it wouldn't be fair to lump parents and son in the same category of writing styles. This book is very intense and it reminded me a little of Andrew Wilson's book The Lying Tongue in that you sense all the way through the story that something horrible is going to happen and you have no choice but to watch it play out. I probably would recommend it to readers who want something just a notch above ordinary suspense novels. It's not a mystery, but rather a suspenseful study into one man's mind.
    • 2/5
      Clever, fanciful, suspenseful, enjoyable, but the entire premise and plot execution seemed more like an intellectual game than a novel. I liked it well enough to read it quickly (what would happen next?) and found the ending implausible but at least in keeping with the character of Joseph, the protagonist. Would I recommend it? Probably no, regrettably.