Killshot

Killshot, the 1989 novel by author Elmore Leonard, tells the story of a married couple who find themselves in Cape Girardeau, Missouri while on the run from a pair of hitmen.

Plot introduction

A couple of innocent bystanders to a crime figure the Witness Protection Program is the ultimate hiding place — until they find that they're the ones locked up, the killers are on the loose, and protection isn't in the federal repertoire.

Plot summary

Armand Degas is a Mafia hit man the guys call Blackbird. He is cool and composed and knows a good score. So when punk crook Richie Nix tells him about his surefire scheme to extort $10,000 from a middle-of-nowhere Michigan real estate agent, Armand signs on. What the two thugs don't count on is Carmen Colson and her ironworker husband, Wayne, being in the real estate office when they go in to collect. Now Carmen and Wayne know too much and Armand has no intention of letting them survive to tell about it. But Wayne's sure the local cops are going to fumble the manhunt, and the best the feds can offer is the Witness Security Program. Now it's come down to one man, one woman, and two killers ... and someone's bound to end up on the wrong end of the gun.

Characters in "Killshot"

Armand Degas – the Mafia hit man, protagonist
Richie Nix – a crook
Carmen Colson –
Wayne Colson – Carmen's husband

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

It is being made into a movie, which should be released in 2006. It is due to star:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Richie Nix
Diane Lane - Carmen Colson
Mickey Rourke - Armand "Blackbird" Degas
Thomas Jane - Wayne Colson
Rosario Dawson - Donna
Johnny Knoxville - F.R. Britton

Trivia

"The Killshot" is also the name of a deadly future solar flare predicted by Major Ed Dames.

External links