Book Review: The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins
Quarry is a professional killer, a hitman if you will. He was good at the job, too. He tried retiring once, only to have political enemies track him down and kill his wife. They’re very dead now. At loose ends, he accepted an old friend’s (from his Vietnam days) invitation to help run a vacation lodge in Northern Minnesota. Which was pretty great during the tourist season, but it’s the middle of winter now and Quarry’s getting bored.
Deciding that some junk food might help, Quarry goes to a convenience store. While there, he spots someone he knows from his active criminal days, buying an item he knows that man would ordinarily have no use for. Intrigued, Quarry tails the man back to the cabin he’s sharing with his partner…and the woman they’ve kidnapped.
As he has an old grudge against the kidnappers, Quarry inserts himself into the case, scoring some revenge and spare cash. Unfortunately, the latter proves a poor choice as it allows the woman’s rich father, a Chicago media mogul. to track Quarry down.
Seems the mogul needs someone killed, and is willing to pay enough to pull the hitman out of retirement for “one last job.” So Quarry is off to a certain small mountain town. The target is a youngish, pretty librarian who is very different from Quarry’s usual prey. (They’re usually mobbed up guys or other criminals.) While surveilling his target, Quarry discovers she’s being stalked by an abusive ex.
Before he realizes it, Quarry has made the professional killer’s number one mistake: getting emotionally involved with the target.
This is part of the Quarry series by prolific crime author Max Allan Collins, whose books Strip For Murder and The Secret Files of Dick Tracy I’ve covered in previous reviews. Despite the title, it’s only the sixth book in the series as it resparked the author’s interest in the character. (Subsequent books do not take place in chronological order.)
The story is told in first person by Quarry, in a hard-boiled style, apparently as a memoir. He reminds the reader that he’s changing all the names involved, and may not even actually live in Minnesota (though the context clues do match that area.) Quarry’s an interesting protagonist, callous about his job of killing people, even a bit proud of how good he is at it, but with loose ethical standards that sometimes force him to act in ways that are not conducive to efficient killing.
The tale is exciting, with good tension. There is one section that is transparently withholding information to ratchet up the emotional stakes, which will be obvious to experienced genre fans.
My printing of the book includes an afterword from the author about how the novel came to be written, and two short stories he’d mined for parts of the longer tale. “Guest Services” also has Quarry working at his friend’s resort, and deciding to do something about a guest’s abusive husband. “Quarry’s Luck” uses his resort work to frame a story about a previous job where Quarry was saddled with a rookie partner who screws up the hit by taking new instructions from the client mid-assignment.
Content note: Murder and other physical violence, some a bit gory. Domestic abuse. Extramarital sex. Voyeurism (Quarry likes describing women in skimpy outfits or nude.) The only gay characters are villains and shortly dead. Rough language.
This was a quick, exciting read. You don’t need to have read any other books from the series as the first chapter tells you all the background necessary. Recommended to hard-boiled crime fans.
