Quarry's Choice: Quarry

"Quarry's Choice" is the eleventh novel in Collins' Quarry series, which was first published in 1976 in the aptly titled "Quarry." However, Collins does something surprising in this latest entry to the series and, instead of an older, graying protagonist, the reader is returned nearly to the beginning of the series and, chronologically, this book is the second in the series. More importantly, the story takes the reader back to the mid 70's and to small town Southern bars and strip clubs. You can definitely hear the Southern rock playing in the background throughout this book. Quarry, if you are not familiar with the series, was a hitman before it became popular to be a hitman. A former Vietnam Vet who returned home to find his fiancé with another guy. Naturally, Quarry kicked over a jack holding up the car over this guy, ending him. After he got out of that jam, the Broker hired him to do the only thing he had ever been trained to do. Quarry is a hardboiled series with a violent killer as its hero. The tone is sardonic. The books are chockfull of action as Quarry negotiates his way through numerous obstacles. These books often take Quarry into small towns, singles bars, nightclubs, and the like. This one,too, has a lot of action taking place in clubs where the women wear hot pink hot-pants and matching halter tops. Quarry is warned though that he's in a swamp filled with snakes and gators and inbreds that will mess him up if he's not on his toes. He gets plenty of action in every sense of the word here. At times, the pace is deliberately slow, but at other times, the action is just plain crazy with the body count piling up, waitresses wielding claw hammers, and rednecks wielding blowtorches. Quarry's Choice is most of all a fun read and a great addition to the series.

Quarry novel have been come a staple for me, they come out, I read them and thoroughly enjoy them. A guilty pleasure if you will. That said, and this should come as no surprise, they are becoming a little too obviously formulaic. I almost knew where this one was headed before it went there, almost every step. I prefer a little guessing to the story. Certain points of the story I wondered at Quarry's obviously stupid decision to do something, something so obviously dumb that there was no way our favorite hitman would make that mistake. Mentally I chalked this up to this story taking place early in his career, maybe the author was trying to show us he made mistakes (later on in his career he almost never seems to). Then later when this exact mistake comes full circle and literally falls into his lap...ah, it was almost too much. If you are a Quarry fan definitely read this. If you are not, pick up another one of the books are start there. This isn't a bad novel, just the others seem more...fresh, this one feels like the last season of your favorite TV show, you know the characters, you know the story line, you know the tried and true paths they are going to take, and you know how it is going to end

I have a lot of memories of the late 1960s and 1970s, and most of those memories are tied to books I read in those years. I discovered Tarzan of the Apes, Doc Savage, the Shadow, and others. Those books became the building blocks of my own writing career. I learned a lot about plot and characterization. Back then I was a sucker for the tough guy hero. In many ways, I still am. Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe and Robert B Parker’s Spenser were my hard boiled heroes. But I read Mack Bolan and the Destroyer as well as many other series in the plethora that Pinnacle Books put out in those years. I discovered Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) and his anti-hero thief Parker and loved those books. It wasn’t long before I discovered a writer named Max Allan Collins. Al, as he is known to his friends, created two of my favorite hardboiled anti-heroes: a professional thief named Nolan, and a professional hit man named Quarry. In the early books (publication wise, and that will be explained as we go along), Quarry is a truly hard guy, someone who was amoral on the surface, but a guy who had his own rules. He also has a wicked sense of humor, which definitely appealed to the younger me. For a time, Quarry went away and Al went on to write a great many other books. Or many other great books. Those statements are interchangeable. A couple more Quarry books came out a few years later, but it wasn’t until Hard Case Crime came into being that Al’s hit man anti-hero down renewed life—at the expense of other, unsavory people. Now getting a new Quarry is almost a yearly event, and I’m happy about it. And this “renewed” series, Quarry’s life is open for revelation. So far we have seen Quarry’s last hit, his first professional hit, met his ex-wife whose betrayal started our anti-hero down this path, and adventures in between. The latest book is more of the same that longtime readers have seen, but it’s got an interesting twist as well. There are a lot of shenanigans and double-crosses and the Dixie mafia to deal with. Quarry is up to his eyebrows in sudden death, a sex kitten, and southern fried lethal intentions. Quarry’s trademark humor is in play as well as his deadly skill set. But the thing I enjoy the most these days is the way the Al makes those days come alive. Throughout the narrative, music is mentioned and becomes a soundtrack to the story. During different scenes, those songs played through my head. I was at once in my chair reading, and transported back to the 1970s, not only in Quarry’s story, but also bumping up against my own memories. Quarry’s Choice is a compact book that rolls right along, filled with danger and surprises. I enjoyed seeing Quarry in his element in watching the relationship develop with the Broker. I hope Al eventually digs more deeply into the Broker and, eventually, the Broker’s wife. There are still a lot of good stories to tell, and I’m looking forward to them. Now, if only there could be a new Nolan novel…

It's HCC so it's going to be a good read.

Fun read. Hard to put down.

This is the latest in the series about contract killer Quarry. This time Mr. Collins have placed the story in the 1970s. As usual we meet a very cold hearted contract killer with a background as sniper in the Vietnam War. Quarry is a person that has no problems killing both men and women as long as he gets paid. Somewhere inside him there is the residue of a moral process but it is so deep inside of him that it seldom comes to the surface and interferes in his "job". The Story is about infiltrating the Dixie Mafia and as a result of that kill initially one but as the story progresses there are several more "tasks". It is very well written in the typical hard style that suits the story. The Story flows along very well and the people in the story are believable. The Only problem I have with Quarry is that he never misses a shot no matter how difficult a target and if you want to know how to overcome two armed gangsters if you are naked and the only "weapon" you have is a tiny light bulb, try to remember how Quarry did it! I hope this series continues.