The First Quarry

I admit, I'm a bit on the fence on this one, sort of a literary mugwump. As I read the book, I told myself I shouldn't like it, that the character of Quarry was repellant, and, yet, I kept on reading through to the very end. I was reminded of my many trips to the zoo as a lad. Once through the gates, I made a beeline for the reptile house, and, once there, watched the actions of the two-headed snake. Sure, it was a freak of nature, something that should not exist in an ordered universe...yet there it was, capturing my full attention through its elegant grotesqueness. Such were the feelings I harbored about the character of Quarry, professional hitman.Quarry first made an appearance back in the mid-Seventies, but in this book, written a full three decades later, the author takes us back to Quarry's fist assignment as a professional killer in the employ of the enigmatic and urbane Broker. Quarry is a returning Vietnam vet, come home to an America in social chaos and hated by society for what he did in those faraway jungles. For his own part, Quarry is in need of employment, so when the Broken comes to him with a proposition to continue doing what he did all too easily in Vietnam he eagerly accepts. All he has to do is kill a loathsome university professor. Of course, if it were as easy as that, it would be a pretty slim book; besides, even the best laid plans are prone to go awry, complicated by the libertine life led by the targeted man, so even as Quarry works to keep down the level of collateral damage, the body count begins to rise, and therein lies the rub about this book.It's not unusual in crime fiction for protagonists to be darkly motivated, sometimes brutal and vicious, or to be out-and-out criminals flying against all of society's conventions. What usually makes them palatable, however, is either a sense of personal honor (in Richard Stark's Parker books, Parker is a bad guy but everyone he kills is worse, and usually trying to kill him) or an epiphany in which the protagonist recognizes the dark karma with which he has imbued his life, usually just before he is caught or killed by the agents of ordered society. With Quarry, however, his victims are either as bad as him or are clueless creeps who don't realize they've stepped on a rattlesnake. And no epiphany of redemption is likely to manifest itself in Quarry's personal universe...he kills because he's good at it, and he does so without either passion or hesitation.And, yet, despite Quarry's repellent nature, his bloodless philosophy of life and death, his totally amoral existence, there is a vibrant quality to his narrative. He does evil things, but it's difficult to think of him as evil. A tornado leaves destruction in its path, but it's just a force of nature. And so is Quarry. The narration moves with the velocity of a freight train, impossible to stop, and the reader is caught along for the ride. So, despite what you might feel about Quarry, once you start reading, you might not be able to put it down. As far as picking up another in the series, well, that might take some self convincing...but I always did like the two-headed snake.

I love when the prolific Max Allan Collins writes an original mystery or crime novel, as opposed to the many movie novelization/tie-in books he's been doing the past several years. Not that those tie-in books are bad (they aren't), but when writing his own stories and using his own characters, he's the best. Take my word for it and look for some of his "Nolan", "Mallory", or "Quarry" titles (most out of print, alas, but easy enough to find with a little resourcefulness on the computer), as well as diverse titles like "The Titanic Murders", "Strip for Murder", and "A Killing in Comics" (all still in print). My first three examples are part of the "hardboiled" school of mystery/thriller, and the others are more straight-up mysteries, but not without some toughness. Mr. Collins even writes decent "cozy" mysteries in conjunction with his wife, Barbara Collins, under the name Barbara Allan. "Antiques Roadkill" is a good one from that group.And there just isn't time right now to go into Mr. Collins' award-winning "Nate Heller" series of historical mysteries, but those are wonderful, too.Anyway, enough background. Thanks to paperback publisher "Hard Case Crime", there's now a venue for Mr. Collins to trot out some of his past series characters who've been underutilized of late, due to a limited market for "tough" stories. "The First Quarry" is the latest entry in his cult-favorite "Quarry" series, about a professional hit man. This one's a prequel to the other books in the series, concerning Quarry's first assignment from his mysterious and stylish boss, known simply as The Broker.Here Quarry (that's all we know him as) is given the task of killing a college professor who's making trouble for a Chicago mob boss, because he's writing a book about the mob boss and bedding the boss' fetching and rebellious daughter. A pretty good premise, huh? Soon complications ensue, confrontations abound, and we even get broadsided by a surprise or two. The 200 pages or so fly by.Just be warned, engrossing or not, this is hardboiled stuff. You know how some reviews say things like "the book has everything, a little violence, a little sex, something for everyone"? Well, "The First Quarry" has a LOT of violence and a LOT of sex and makes no apologies. Hard Case Crime's mission, after all, is to deliver truly tough, non-PC tales of crime and mystery, and that's exactly what's delivered here. And, reading the story, you can tell Mr. Collins enjoyed working without constraints as he delivered the tough, involving story his publisher wanted.And, just so you know, Quarry is a pretty interesting character to boot, kind of funny and sarcastic, and only violent when he needs to be. But when he needs to be, watch out.Thriller fans shouldn't pass this one up.

A highly enjoyable pulp thriller about a 70's Vietnam vet who becomes a hitman. Excellent plot and various twists made me read it within a couple of days. I have now purchased another three Quarry novels (the excellent Robert McGuinness covers are a bonus)

A great prequel to his previous books. In The First Quarry we go onto Quarry's first assignment for the Broker and pretty much everything that could go wrong does. Its only a short book, but the author doesn't try to weigh the story down with too many characters. Some of the details/descriptions of the 70's are a bit over the top, but it doesn't detract from the story.

Good of its kind, well plotted and sustained with amusing characters and dialogue.The cover complements the always intriguing genre. Not up with the greats but a good read.

Enjoyable, as are all the novellas in this series

Max Allan Collins ist namentlich eher unbekannt, seine Werke kennen allerdings die meisten. Er schuf u.a. die Vorlage zu "Road To Perdition", führte die Comicserie "Dick Tracy" weiter, schrieb Drehbücher für diverse CSI-Staffeln und zeichnet sich sogar für einen Batman-Comic verantwortlich. Er schrieb aber auch mehrere Krimiserien um unterschiedliche Helden. Einer davon ist Quarry.In den frühen 70ern verfasste Collins die ersten vier seiner Romane um den Auftragskiller Quarry. In der Zwischenzeit kamen dann einige Kurzgeschichten dazu, ehe er sich der Reihe 2005 wieder in Romanlänge zuwendete.Dieser 2008 erschienene Band wurde extra für die Hardcase-Crime-Reihe veröffentlicht. Es ist der bisher neueste, handelt aber von Quarrys erstem Auftrag. Quarry erzählt uns aus der Ich-Perspektive von seiner Rückkehr aus Vietnam, seiner Rekrutierung als Killer und seinem ersten Auftrag, der einfach klingt und ungeahnt kompliziert wird.Die Hardcase-Crime-Reihe ist etwas für Liebhaber des Pulp-Genres. Schwer erhältliche Werke werden hier in attraktiver Form (Titelbilder!) auf den Markt gebracht. Das Englisch ist aufgrund der meist simplen Sprache leicht verständlich.Zur Wertung: Collins orientiert sich sichtlich an seinen (selbsterwähnten) Vorbildern Mickey Spillane und Donald Westlake, ohne aber deren Tempo, Atmosphäre und Kompromisslosigkeit zu erreichen. Trotzdem ist "The First Quarry" ein kurzweiliges Lesevergnügen, ohne großen Anspruch für zwischendurch oder zum Abschalten gut geeignet. 3 Sterne.