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Quarry #1
Quarry
The assignment was stake out the man’s home and kill him. Easy work for a professional like Quarry. But when things go horribly wrong, Quarry finds himself with a new learn who hired him, and make the bastard pay.
The longest-running series from Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition , and the first ever to feature a hitman as the main character, the Quarry novels tell the story of a paid assassin with a rebellious streak and an unlikely taste for justice. Once a Marine sniper, Quarry found a new home stateside with a group of contract killers. But some men aren’t made for taking orders – and when Quarry strikes off on his own, God help the man on the other side of his nine-millimeter…
The longest-running series from Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition , and the first ever to feature a hitman as the main character, the Quarry novels tell the story of a paid assassin with a rebellious streak and an unlikely taste for justice. Once a Marine sniper, Quarry found a new home stateside with a group of contract killers. But some men aren’t made for taking orders – and when Quarry strikes off on his own, God help the man on the other side of his nine-millimeter…
272 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 28, 1976
256 people are currently reading
1541 people want to read
About the author
Max Allan Collins
803 books1,321 followersReceived the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2006.
He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.
Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black
Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ
He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.
Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black
Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 279 reviews
May 15, 2013
Quarry is hired to kill Albert Leroy, a virtual nobody. The job comes off without a hitch but when Quarry gets back to the apartment he'd been using as a lookout, his partner is dead and the money is gone. Quarry needs to know who hired them for the hit and the Broker is suspiciously uncooperative. Can Quarry find his partner's killer and get his money?
The three Quarry books published by Hard Case Crime were entertaining and so was this one. Quarry's a shit but you still end up rooting for him. Like the other Quarry books, the suspense mounts until the orgy of violence at the end. After years of wondering about The Broker, now I know.
As fun as it was to read, there were some holes if you look too close. Quarry goes about doing his detective work with the subtlety of a bull elephant and never once even comes near the law. He also gives out his name on a couple occasions. I noticed four or five typos but nothing to get into a snarl about.
Quarry's a fun read and these Perfect Crime editions look pretty nice on the old bookcase. For Quarry fans, it's a must read despite the rough edges.
The three Quarry books published by Hard Case Crime were entertaining and so was this one. Quarry's a shit but you still end up rooting for him. Like the other Quarry books, the suspense mounts until the orgy of violence at the end. After years of wondering about The Broker, now I know.
As fun as it was to read, there were some holes if you look too close. Quarry goes about doing his detective work with the subtlety of a bull elephant and never once even comes near the law. He also gives out his name on a couple occasions. I noticed four or five typos but nothing to get into a snarl about.
Quarry's a fun read and these Perfect Crime editions look pretty nice on the old bookcase. For Quarry fans, it's a must read despite the rough edges.
February 10, 2018
I killed him. You murdered him.
From the outset, Max Allan Collins establishes his Parker-like character, in hit-man Quarry as a methodical ice cold killer who fears nothing of bringing death to those he's been contracted to do so. A blistering opening sequence in an airport which ultimately sees Quarry carry out a rather clinical murder sets the tone of the character as well as providing a glimpse into the treacherous world of murder-for-hire. From then on in, the plot centers around a single contract brokered by the Quarry's boss Broker in a small town. While seemingly on the level, this presumed by-the-book hit turns sour when Quarry's partner Boyd is murdered mid contract.
With a nod towards the hard boiled PI genre, Quarry dons a slightly different persona from contract killer to investigator as he searches for the truth behind the arranged hit on his accomplice Boyd and Brokers employer.
The book is loaded with interesting characters from the gracefully ageing playboy bunny turned... well, playboy bunny Peg Barker, to the contract target in Albert Leroy and the sinister plotting that issued his death, to Broker - Quarry's boss who has an aura of mob connectivity about him.
It was great to re-read the book that launched the long standing Quarry series, having read all of the subsequent Hard Case Crime books featuring the hit-man with a heart (albeit cold) previously.
My rating: 5/5, Quarry serves as a great introduction to the character and how he came to be a lone operative. Lean and straight to the point, a perfectly paced and well plotted novel not to be missed.
From the outset, Max Allan Collins establishes his Parker-like character, in hit-man Quarry as a methodical ice cold killer who fears nothing of bringing death to those he's been contracted to do so. A blistering opening sequence in an airport which ultimately sees Quarry carry out a rather clinical murder sets the tone of the character as well as providing a glimpse into the treacherous world of murder-for-hire. From then on in, the plot centers around a single contract brokered by the Quarry's boss Broker in a small town. While seemingly on the level, this presumed by-the-book hit turns sour when Quarry's partner Boyd is murdered mid contract.
With a nod towards the hard boiled PI genre, Quarry dons a slightly different persona from contract killer to investigator as he searches for the truth behind the arranged hit on his accomplice Boyd and Brokers employer.
The book is loaded with interesting characters from the gracefully ageing playboy bunny turned... well, playboy bunny Peg Barker, to the contract target in Albert Leroy and the sinister plotting that issued his death, to Broker - Quarry's boss who has an aura of mob connectivity about him.
It was great to re-read the book that launched the long standing Quarry series, having read all of the subsequent Hard Case Crime books featuring the hit-man with a heart (albeit cold) previously.
My rating: 5/5, Quarry serves as a great introduction to the character and how he came to be a lone operative. Lean and straight to the point, a perfectly paced and well plotted novel not to be missed.
July 9, 2024
From 1976
A thoroughly enjoyable story of an assassin with a name that’s not actually his…… With this name situation and other matters, it evokes Richard Stark’s Parker books, which by this time had finished their 1960s to early 70s run. I believe Parker returns in the 90s, but I haven’t read any of those yet. Quarry is dedicated to Donald Westlake, who is Richard Stark…… I do plan to read more in this series.
A thoroughly enjoyable story of an assassin with a name that’s not actually his…… With this name situation and other matters, it evokes Richard Stark’s Parker books, which by this time had finished their 1960s to early 70s run. I believe Parker returns in the 90s, but I haven’t read any of those yet. Quarry is dedicated to Donald Westlake, who is Richard Stark…… I do plan to read more in this series.
February 5, 2017
By the time we get to the 1970s there’s been a real change in the character of tough guy American fiction. In the immediate post-Second World War period there was still a curious, old school morality to the genre. Yes, there may have been murders, beatings, rape and general mayhem, but there was still a pretty clear binary sense of who was good and who was bad. Mike Hammer may do all types of things to get at his prey, but he is still a good guy and the bad guy (or bad gal, it’s nearly always a woman) is an insane, degenerate killer – or worse, a communist. A Jim Thompson hero may be somewhat morally fluid and do some dreadful things, but he will generally meet his comeuppance. These may be hard and brutal worlds, but they are hard and brutal worlds with certain fixed rules.
Maybe it was Vietnam which changed all that. Maybe it was the release of ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’. Maybe it was Richard Stark’s creation of Parker. Maybe it was Lee Marvin playing his version of Parker in ‘Point Blank’. Whatever it was, by the time we get to the 1970s that moral ambiguity is entrenched. No longer do we have the killers in one corner, and the bad guys in the other trying to stop them – whose corner is whose is now distinctly blurred. The killers might just be our good guys now; the ruthless criminals might be the ones we root for. After all they may call him ‘Good’ in the title of the film, but the evidence of his goodness isn’t particularly present on the screen. The world has moved on, the old orders have been shattered.
And that brings us to Quarry, which is 1970s tough guy fiction deluxe – hard-boiled for so long it must have needed a pressure-cooker. The hitman good-guy who (much like Lee Marvin in a different tough guy thriller, ‘The Killer’) is trying to solve who was behind the murder he himself has just committed. The hitman as the hero is not the only sign the world has changed though. Quarry initially has a gay working partner, one who is treated as a serious criminal and not like a camp caricature (although that doesn’t stop the book having something of a homophobic streak). A former Playboy bunny is now a respectable and resourceful businesswoman, rather than shamed or a disposable piece of fluff; whilst such is the nature of pornography on our society that Quarry observes it – both gay and straight – in a local cab stand. It’s no longer a dreadful sin one of General Sherwood’s daughters would be blackmailed over. Or maybe she still would. It’s the one constant from the older model: that the rich are super ruthless and super unpleasant and will do basically anything to survive. The world may change, moral certainties may change, but those with inherited wealth will always be bastards.
It’s possible here to strip away the tough guy stuff and find a deeply capitalist and classist book here. This is a story about the little guy, the self-made man who has carved a niche out in the world doing the jobs that no one wants to do. He has a manager but is really his own boss, earning enough to get by and have a nice quiet life. And his problems really only begin when he encounters those who were born with a silver-spoon in their mouths, who have never had to work and have no respect for it the way he does. And it’s up to this self-made man to rub these blue bloods noses in it just a little, even as his world is torn apart.
‘Quarry’ is a cracking example of 1970s noir, full of cross and double-cross, and where the men are ruthless bastards, the women are voluptuous stunners with smart mouths, and the treacherous scum deserve everything that comes to them.
Maybe it was Vietnam which changed all that. Maybe it was the release of ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’. Maybe it was Richard Stark’s creation of Parker. Maybe it was Lee Marvin playing his version of Parker in ‘Point Blank’. Whatever it was, by the time we get to the 1970s that moral ambiguity is entrenched. No longer do we have the killers in one corner, and the bad guys in the other trying to stop them – whose corner is whose is now distinctly blurred. The killers might just be our good guys now; the ruthless criminals might be the ones we root for. After all they may call him ‘Good’ in the title of the film, but the evidence of his goodness isn’t particularly present on the screen. The world has moved on, the old orders have been shattered.
And that brings us to Quarry, which is 1970s tough guy fiction deluxe – hard-boiled for so long it must have needed a pressure-cooker. The hitman good-guy who (much like Lee Marvin in a different tough guy thriller, ‘The Killer’) is trying to solve who was behind the murder he himself has just committed. The hitman as the hero is not the only sign the world has changed though. Quarry initially has a gay working partner, one who is treated as a serious criminal and not like a camp caricature (although that doesn’t stop the book having something of a homophobic streak). A former Playboy bunny is now a respectable and resourceful businesswoman, rather than shamed or a disposable piece of fluff; whilst such is the nature of pornography on our society that Quarry observes it – both gay and straight – in a local cab stand. It’s no longer a dreadful sin one of General Sherwood’s daughters would be blackmailed over. Or maybe she still would. It’s the one constant from the older model: that the rich are super ruthless and super unpleasant and will do basically anything to survive. The world may change, moral certainties may change, but those with inherited wealth will always be bastards.
It’s possible here to strip away the tough guy stuff and find a deeply capitalist and classist book here. This is a story about the little guy, the self-made man who has carved a niche out in the world doing the jobs that no one wants to do. He has a manager but is really his own boss, earning enough to get by and have a nice quiet life. And his problems really only begin when he encounters those who were born with a silver-spoon in their mouths, who have never had to work and have no respect for it the way he does. And it’s up to this self-made man to rub these blue bloods noses in it just a little, even as his world is torn apart.
‘Quarry’ is a cracking example of 1970s noir, full of cross and double-cross, and where the men are ruthless bastards, the women are voluptuous stunners with smart mouths, and the treacherous scum deserve everything that comes to them.
April 19, 2020
QUARRY by Max Allan Collins is the first book in the “Quarry” series that actually could have been the last, as the author tells the story the writing of it and other books in the series that might have ended it, but thankfully that isn’t the case as I went on a Quarry binge & now have to catch up on reviewing the first six books in the series; QUARRY, QUARRY’S LIST, QUARRY’S DEAL, QUARRY’S CUT, PRIMARY TARGET, & THE LAST QUARRY.
QUARRY is the name given to a mysterious but highly regarded hit man who finds himself in a lucrative career that he found his way into as a victim of circumstance who’s been blocked off from other avenues that weren’t productive for a Vietnam veteran returning home, only to find the same circumstances that too many others experienced in the well documented poor treatment soldiers returning home found in the States in the 70’s.
Finding himself without options as a result of nothing in the way of work being available, lack of support from family and others, and the stigma attached as a veteran in a war those at home wanted to forget, his lack of prospects leaves him pondering his next move.
Opportunity arises when Quarry is approached by a mysterious well-dressed business man who seems to know everything about him and his past, and after convincing him that he is without any other opportunity for a career as things stand, sets him on his path as gun-for-hire along with giving him his alias name.
Several things occur that makes Quarry question his employer and others in his employ, and he realizes that he must uncover the truth about who Broker is and how he operates his business, and what risks he faces in his assignments from both his target and his employer.
Disclaimer: I’m a sucker for books and series based on hit men, Lawrence Block’s “John Keller Series” being the being the most notable; so it’s really no surprise that this book and following novels in the series appeal to me and as in my other favorite series I’ll probably end up reading every book featured involving Quarry.
QUARRY is a solid entry into the series, and if your tastes are similar to mine you’ll want to read this and the other books in the series as well.
4 stars.
QUARRY is the name given to a mysterious but highly regarded hit man who finds himself in a lucrative career that he found his way into as a victim of circumstance who’s been blocked off from other avenues that weren’t productive for a Vietnam veteran returning home, only to find the same circumstances that too many others experienced in the well documented poor treatment soldiers returning home found in the States in the 70’s.
Finding himself without options as a result of nothing in the way of work being available, lack of support from family and others, and the stigma attached as a veteran in a war those at home wanted to forget, his lack of prospects leaves him pondering his next move.
Opportunity arises when Quarry is approached by a mysterious well-dressed business man who seems to know everything about him and his past, and after convincing him that he is without any other opportunity for a career as things stand, sets him on his path as gun-for-hire along with giving him his alias name.
Several things occur that makes Quarry question his employer and others in his employ, and he realizes that he must uncover the truth about who Broker is and how he operates his business, and what risks he faces in his assignments from both his target and his employer.
Disclaimer: I’m a sucker for books and series based on hit men, Lawrence Block’s “John Keller Series” being the being the most notable; so it’s really no surprise that this book and following novels in the series appeal to me and as in my other favorite series I’ll probably end up reading every book featured involving Quarry.
QUARRY is a solid entry into the series, and if your tastes are similar to mine you’ll want to read this and the other books in the series as well.
4 stars.
February 10, 2017
I got this book recommended based upon my taste for Richard Starks' Parker and Blocks' Keller both tough men that life on the other side of society. the less legal side one could say.
When we meet Quarry he is doing his job and killing a target at an airport, a job of opportunity as Quarry was around and this job needed to be done. Much to Quarry his chagrin he does the job well and makes his objections known to his boss "The broker". He then hget to his job he originally came for which is in essence the killing of an apparent nobody. Boyd his longtime partner on assignments has been keeping an eye on the target and on the night when Quarry does his work he ends up with two dead men and an attack on himself.
Quarry needs to find out if his employer or Broker is involved in this brutal attack and decides to remain in the town and find out what is going on. And then there is a former playboy bunny that needs some loving attention. Before in the end Quarry finds out what he really wanted to know and some answers were not the one he was looking for.
A decent first installment of series that started in the '70's and is easy to read but nothing special really, I will consider it the foundation to read some more books by Collins to see if this character improves. Unlike Keller and Parker who started off very strong.
But I admit I enjoy the genre in itself and Collins is no bad writer. I did enjoy his book written about Mike Hammer in cooperation with Mickey Spillane a tad more.
When we meet Quarry he is doing his job and killing a target at an airport, a job of opportunity as Quarry was around and this job needed to be done. Much to Quarry his chagrin he does the job well and makes his objections known to his boss "The broker". He then hget to his job he originally came for which is in essence the killing of an apparent nobody. Boyd his longtime partner on assignments has been keeping an eye on the target and on the night when Quarry does his work he ends up with two dead men and an attack on himself.
Quarry needs to find out if his employer or Broker is involved in this brutal attack and decides to remain in the town and find out what is going on. And then there is a former playboy bunny that needs some loving attention. Before in the end Quarry finds out what he really wanted to know and some answers were not the one he was looking for.
A decent first installment of series that started in the '70's and is easy to read but nothing special really, I will consider it the foundation to read some more books by Collins to see if this character improves. Unlike Keller and Parker who started off very strong.
But I admit I enjoy the genre in itself and Collins is no bad writer. I did enjoy his book written about Mike Hammer in cooperation with Mickey Spillane a tad more.
June 15, 2018
I love the concept of the Hard Case Crime Series. In older, rediscovered pulp classics like Lawrence Block’s Grifter’s Game, or in neo-noir like Ken Bruen and Jason Starr’s Bust, they go after the aesthetic of the hardboiled tough guy as American philosopher-angel. When it works, it’s a little bit like watching Mitchum pull out a cell phone, a little incongruous but something you can get used to anyway.
This one, I’m afraid, doesn’t really work.
I’m a fan of Collins going way back. I enjoy his Heller novels very much; he used some of them to write about my gangster relatives and when I had the chance to meet him quickly he was generous and interested in what I had to say. I also like what he did with Dick Tracy (which I wrote part of my dissertation on), and I admire Road to Perdition even if – I realize now with a start – I never did read the whole thing.
So I’m disappointed not to be able to give this Hard Case/Collins a better recommendation. Still, if Heller felt like lighter weight E.L. Doctorow, this feels like Mickey Spillane retread. I have no problem if you try to write like Hammett and fall short; when your model is as unimpressive as Spillane, well, hit or miss you still fall short.
As I understand it, the twist in this series was that Collins made an amoral hit-man his protagonist. That’s not a bad idea, and maybe he was the first to do it, but it’s been done since and done better (by Lawrence Block among others). After that, this is a series of clichés and clumsy plot devices.
Any time Quarry needs a clue, there’s a character who conveniently tells it to him. Any time he has to be one step ahead of someone, he is, effortlessly and with a Mike Hammer like arrogance that gets tiresome quickly.
There’s also an uncomfortable take on homosexuality. To Quarry/Collins’s credit, there’s an explicit credo of live-and-let-love to the question, but there’s also an implicit sense that “those people” are simply too different. [SPOILER] Quarry’s gay partner brings disaster to their ‘job’ when he falls for a sadistic predator, and Quarry is willing to tolerate such difference so long as it doesn’t get in his way. In other words, it could be worse – and it may have been progressive for the early 1970s – but it isn’t anything we really need to revive.
Anyway, I’ll try to get to Road to Perdition one of these days, and I might go back to one of the early Hellers – True Detective actually features a photo of my great-uncle as the heavy who walks into a bar on page one – but I’m certainly done with the Quarrys. Collins went on to do some solid work, but as far as I’m concerned it isn’t happening here.
This one, I’m afraid, doesn’t really work.
I’m a fan of Collins going way back. I enjoy his Heller novels very much; he used some of them to write about my gangster relatives and when I had the chance to meet him quickly he was generous and interested in what I had to say. I also like what he did with Dick Tracy (which I wrote part of my dissertation on), and I admire Road to Perdition even if – I realize now with a start – I never did read the whole thing.
So I’m disappointed not to be able to give this Hard Case/Collins a better recommendation. Still, if Heller felt like lighter weight E.L. Doctorow, this feels like Mickey Spillane retread. I have no problem if you try to write like Hammett and fall short; when your model is as unimpressive as Spillane, well, hit or miss you still fall short.
As I understand it, the twist in this series was that Collins made an amoral hit-man his protagonist. That’s not a bad idea, and maybe he was the first to do it, but it’s been done since and done better (by Lawrence Block among others). After that, this is a series of clichés and clumsy plot devices.
Any time Quarry needs a clue, there’s a character who conveniently tells it to him. Any time he has to be one step ahead of someone, he is, effortlessly and with a Mike Hammer like arrogance that gets tiresome quickly.
There’s also an uncomfortable take on homosexuality. To Quarry/Collins’s credit, there’s an explicit credo of live-and-let-love to the question, but there’s also an implicit sense that “those people” are simply too different. [SPOILER] Quarry’s gay partner brings disaster to their ‘job’ when he falls for a sadistic predator, and Quarry is willing to tolerate such difference so long as it doesn’t get in his way. In other words, it could be worse – and it may have been progressive for the early 1970s – but it isn’t anything we really need to revive.
Anyway, I’ll try to get to Road to Perdition one of these days, and I might go back to one of the early Hellers – True Detective actually features a photo of my great-uncle as the heavy who walks into a bar on page one – but I’m certainly done with the Quarrys. Collins went on to do some solid work, but as far as I’m concerned it isn’t happening here.
January 16, 2024
He had a face “full of no morality” so many great lines in this book but I’m reading the real PB so no kindle notes 😵💫
This is the perfect pulp novel. Written in 1976 and been on my TBR for an eternity. I decided in 2024 I’m finally going to read the Quarry series.
This was pretty enlightened for 1976 with a few missteps. Quarry is an assassin and a good one. He knows his latest job isn’t right. You learn he’s also a good detective. People tell him things that they probably shouldn’t AND he’s obviously an anti hero but likable enough that you want him to get away with his crimes. This intro to this character makes me think that I’ll enjoy the rest of this series… off to read book 2….
This is the perfect pulp novel. Written in 1976 and been on my TBR for an eternity. I decided in 2024 I’m finally going to read the Quarry series.
This was pretty enlightened for 1976 with a few missteps. Quarry is an assassin and a good one. He knows his latest job isn’t right. You learn he’s also a good detective. People tell him things that they probably shouldn’t AND he’s obviously an anti hero but likable enough that you want him to get away with his crimes. This intro to this character makes me think that I’ll enjoy the rest of this series… off to read book 2….
October 5, 2017
I enjoyed the first few Hard Case Crime books I tried, but I've been having bad luck more recently. The writing in this one is terrible, the story is uninteresting, and the main character and narrator is an empty bore. Almost did not finish.
June 12, 2020
Quarry is not a nice person. He's a competent person at what he does, maybe even gifted.
What does he do? Oh, he kills people.
Now Quarry is a pro and he does what he does. He's not interested in being involved in drugs or any other "line of work" and he's really not interested in being used, not even by someone he's worked with for a long time. Quarry just wants to do his job and get paid...but now there's something, in the wind. It's something that smells bad, maybe like...well that could be a spoiler.
Quarry's quarries are changing.
If you like action reads, if you like Victor the Assassin you may also like, Quarry. I can recommend it.
What does he do? Oh, he kills people.
Now Quarry is a pro and he does what he does. He's not interested in being involved in drugs or any other "line of work" and he's really not interested in being used, not even by someone he's worked with for a long time. Quarry just wants to do his job and get paid...but now there's something, in the wind. It's something that smells bad, maybe like...well that could be a spoiler.
Quarry's quarries are changing.
If you like action reads, if you like Victor the Assassin you may also like, Quarry. I can recommend it.
June 30, 2020
Max Allan Collins tribute to Richard Stark's (Donald E. Westlake) far superior 'Parker' series. In my Kindle edition, Collins gives a rather long-winded, self-congratulatory, redundant explanation (perhaps it could be seen as an apology). Regardless I would rather read Stark's novels again, than another watered down Quarry/Parker imitation of the original.
On further reflection 3* may have been a little too generous.
On further reflection 3* may have been a little too generous.
Want to read
October 29, 2016Currently my favorite show on TV!
Can't wait to start this series!!
QUARRY trailer
August 18, 2025
When Quarry comes back from Vietnam, he discovers his wife in bed with another man named Williams and is able to suppress his rage long enough to wait two days and confront him at his house. Unfortunately for Williams, Quarry finds him working underneath a car, and promptly kicks the jack out from under it and kills him. While Quarry narrowly avoids jail-time for the murder, he is unemployable due to the local prejudice against Vietnam Veterans. Until a man known only as "The Broker" offers to set him up with murders for hire, in exchange for a cut of each contract.
We first meet Quarry five years later, well into his tenure as a hitman, and killing a man in an airport right on the bridge of the Mississippi. He kills with detached efficiency and then returns to his airport hotel and goes for a swim. We then meet a woman (the first of many in the series), who's been sleeping off the first preliminary round of sex with Quarry, is up for round two before her husband comes back from work, Quarry obliges, as much for the alibi as for the sex itself.
Then things start to go wrong for Quarry. He starts to lose faith in The Broker. He has doubts about his current partner that he's been working with for close to five years. his latest killing goes wrong and he goes looking for.... Well.. he's not entirely sure. Answers? Revenge? Money? A way out of the job?
Thoughts and Review:
Full disclosure, I loved this book.
Quarry isn't your typical hero, not in the slightest. Quarry makes Keller (The other literary hitman with his own book series) look like a real sensitive guy with a White Knight complex. Quarry is just as deadly as Keller but he doesn’t believe in rescuing anyone but himself. Keller may have a moment of sympathy and save someone, not Quarry. He’s a man who knows that he’s hollow inside. He kills because it pays well and he’s good at it. He swims because when he swims he doesn’t have to think. He has sex with women who he sees primarily as what he describes as accessories for his own self-abuse.
Yet quite astonishingly, you find yourself really rooting for Quarry to win. That's the aspect of this novel I admire the most, through Quarry's first person narration, Collins is able to make him an incredibly charismatic and endlessly fascinating character.
Quarry’s relationship with the ex-Playboy Bunny-girl and owner of a bar and club shows him at his most human. This is a woman who says that, for her, a long-term relationship is one that lasts a week and who is attracted to Quarry because she felt that when he looked at her he saw a woman and not a piece of meat. Quarry seems to feel protective towards her. He even fantasizes about making a life with her. But at the same time, he uses her to get what he wants and is willing to walk away from her if it becomes necessary.
5/5; As I'm writing this I just finished the third book and already debating if I should just jump into book 4, I really can't recommend this series highly enough.
We first meet Quarry five years later, well into his tenure as a hitman, and killing a man in an airport right on the bridge of the Mississippi. He kills with detached efficiency and then returns to his airport hotel and goes for a swim. We then meet a woman (the first of many in the series), who's been sleeping off the first preliminary round of sex with Quarry, is up for round two before her husband comes back from work, Quarry obliges, as much for the alibi as for the sex itself.
Then things start to go wrong for Quarry. He starts to lose faith in The Broker. He has doubts about his current partner that he's been working with for close to five years. his latest killing goes wrong and he goes looking for.... Well.. he's not entirely sure. Answers? Revenge? Money? A way out of the job?
Thoughts and Review:
Full disclosure, I loved this book.
Quarry isn't your typical hero, not in the slightest. Quarry makes Keller (The other literary hitman with his own book series) look like a real sensitive guy with a White Knight complex. Quarry is just as deadly as Keller but he doesn’t believe in rescuing anyone but himself. Keller may have a moment of sympathy and save someone, not Quarry. He’s a man who knows that he’s hollow inside. He kills because it pays well and he’s good at it. He swims because when he swims he doesn’t have to think. He has sex with women who he sees primarily as what he describes as accessories for his own self-abuse.
Yet quite astonishingly, you find yourself really rooting for Quarry to win. That's the aspect of this novel I admire the most, through Quarry's first person narration, Collins is able to make him an incredibly charismatic and endlessly fascinating character.
Quarry’s relationship with the ex-Playboy Bunny-girl and owner of a bar and club shows him at his most human. This is a woman who says that, for her, a long-term relationship is one that lasts a week and who is attracted to Quarry because she felt that when he looked at her he saw a woman and not a piece of meat. Quarry seems to feel protective towards her. He even fantasizes about making a life with her. But at the same time, he uses her to get what he wants and is willing to walk away from her if it becomes necessary.
5/5; As I'm writing this I just finished the third book and already debating if I should just jump into book 4, I really can't recommend this series highly enough.
March 22, 2025
A quick read, and very entertaining. It also leaves the reader with something to think about - a society getting more and more self-centered, unemotional, and cruel. Yeah, that's pretty extreme - but that's how it left me. In spite of that, Collins creates a sympathetic character in Quarry. That's a neat trick to pull off.
Even more remarkable is that this was originally written in 1976. This could even be considered a ground-breaking novel for the crime genre, but I won't go that far. Written in the classic style of hard-boiled detective fiction, QUARRY differs in that the main character is not a private detective. He's a contracted hitman, a freelancer (although he was getting the majority of his work through The Broker.)
If I had read any of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels (on my to-be-read list) I would probably be comparing Collins to Spillane. I'm just guessing that they are similar, based on some critiques of Spillane that I have read.
This isn't quite on the same level as the brilliant Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe novels, but it does bear comparison. Both Chandler and Collins write about the excesses of high society, the moral depravity of the elite who feel themselves entitled. Except this isn't Los Angeles, it's a small fictional Midwestern town (based on where Collins grew up).
Here's an example of passages that I really liked, and also how I suspect Spillane writes:
Anybody I ever hit was set to go anyway. I saw to it that it happened clean and fast. It was something like working in a butcher shop, only my job pays better, the hours are shorter and there isn't the mess.
And, this one that reminds me of Chandler:
Outside the thunder rumbled, crackled. She joined me at the window and looked out. The gray streaking rain reflected on her pink flesh, as though someone were projecting a film and using her as a screen.
Even more remarkable is that this was originally written in 1976. This could even be considered a ground-breaking novel for the crime genre, but I won't go that far. Written in the classic style of hard-boiled detective fiction, QUARRY differs in that the main character is not a private detective. He's a contracted hitman, a freelancer (although he was getting the majority of his work through The Broker.)
If I had read any of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels (on my to-be-read list) I would probably be comparing Collins to Spillane. I'm just guessing that they are similar, based on some critiques of Spillane that I have read.
This isn't quite on the same level as the brilliant Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe novels, but it does bear comparison. Both Chandler and Collins write about the excesses of high society, the moral depravity of the elite who feel themselves entitled. Except this isn't Los Angeles, it's a small fictional Midwestern town (based on where Collins grew up).
Here's an example of passages that I really liked, and also how I suspect Spillane writes:
Anybody I ever hit was set to go anyway. I saw to it that it happened clean and fast. It was something like working in a butcher shop, only my job pays better, the hours are shorter and there isn't the mess.
And, this one that reminds me of Chandler:
Outside the thunder rumbled, crackled. She joined me at the window and looked out. The gray streaking rain reflected on her pink flesh, as though someone were projecting a film and using her as a screen.
October 22, 2025
A man who values survival, with a face that makes the coldest stoic reveal their inner thoughts, Quarry also sees Life and Death as meaningless. The military paid him peanuts to kill in Vietnam. He gave his wife's lover a free trip to the Beyond. So with all that, maybe if somebody could pay him good to practice his talent without emotion, life could be good. Right? Survival is an end in itself.
This story scratches that itch for a quick pulp read. There wasn't much in the way of morals or hope. It was good for wanting to see the worst characters get their just desserts. It was good for a little bit of violent action and a stroll down memory lane for the era it was written. The sex wasn't gratuitous in comparison to what is out there but it also says what it means. I'm not opposed to going to the next installment but it isn't a priority for me with other options.
This story scratches that itch for a quick pulp read. There wasn't much in the way of morals or hope. It was good for wanting to see the worst characters get their just desserts. It was good for a little bit of violent action and a stroll down memory lane for the era it was written. The sex wasn't gratuitous in comparison to what is out there but it also says what it means. I'm not opposed to going to the next installment but it isn't a priority for me with other options.
January 11, 2011
If Max Allan Collins hadn’t written his Nolan novels, then Quarry would probably be known as his last-name-only homage to Richard Stark’s Parker. Collins freely admits that Nolan was a Parker rip-off, but he explains (in his afterword to the recently reissued Quarry) that with his Quarry novels he wanted to “take it up a notch” from the Parker/Nolan novels in two ways: First, Quarry would be a professional killer (rather than a professional thief). Second, Quarry would tell his own story in the first person (rather than the more detached third person of Parker/Nolan).
The plot contours of Quarry follow the typical Parker novel almost exactly: The book begins quickly and violently, then slows down as Quarry and a confederate plan a job. The job seems to go well at first, but then turns sour. At this point, if Quarry were smart, he would cut and run, but can’t bring himself to do it. He stays in town to make things right, which means, in part, recovering the fee for his job, which was stolen from him. The novel ends with Quarry at home, making contact with a woman he met while on the job. In sum, it’s a Parker novel.
As for Collins’ changes to the formula: The switch from thief to killer is not much of a change, given how much killing Parker does in the course of his work. Indeed, if you compare Quarry to The Hunter (the first Parker novel), there is nothing in Quarry half as chilling as the scene in The Hunter in which Parker accidentally kills the owner of a beauty shop, and the overall carnage in The Hunter is greater. As for the switch to a first-person narrative (and Collins’ decision to make Quarry “somebody just like [himself], just a normal person in his early twenties”), the result is that Quarry is more human and thus a less frightening character than Parker. The switch to first person also has the effect of simplifying the storytelling in Quarry. Among the most consistently entertaining aspects of the Parker novels are Stark’s clever and surprising shifts in time and point of view, which would be difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish in the first person.
All of this is not to criticize or condemn the Quarry books; rather, it is just to say that they exist very much in Parker’s shadow. As for the first Quarry book, Quarry is well worth reading. If you’re familiar with the Parker books, then Quarry will seem familiar too, but if you kept reading the Parker books after you read the first few, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t give the first Quarry a try.
The plot contours of Quarry follow the typical Parker novel almost exactly: The book begins quickly and violently, then slows down as Quarry and a confederate plan a job. The job seems to go well at first, but then turns sour. At this point, if Quarry were smart, he would cut and run, but can’t bring himself to do it. He stays in town to make things right, which means, in part, recovering the fee for his job, which was stolen from him. The novel ends with Quarry at home, making contact with a woman he met while on the job. In sum, it’s a Parker novel.
As for Collins’ changes to the formula: The switch from thief to killer is not much of a change, given how much killing Parker does in the course of his work. Indeed, if you compare Quarry to The Hunter (the first Parker novel), there is nothing in Quarry half as chilling as the scene in The Hunter in which Parker accidentally kills the owner of a beauty shop, and the overall carnage in The Hunter is greater. As for the switch to a first-person narrative (and Collins’ decision to make Quarry “somebody just like [himself], just a normal person in his early twenties”), the result is that Quarry is more human and thus a less frightening character than Parker. The switch to first person also has the effect of simplifying the storytelling in Quarry. Among the most consistently entertaining aspects of the Parker novels are Stark’s clever and surprising shifts in time and point of view, which would be difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish in the first person.
All of this is not to criticize or condemn the Quarry books; rather, it is just to say that they exist very much in Parker’s shadow. As for the first Quarry book, Quarry is well worth reading. If you’re familiar with the Parker books, then Quarry will seem familiar too, but if you kept reading the Parker books after you read the first few, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t give the first Quarry a try.
January 6, 2017
According to Max Allan Collins' afterward, This book was the first to be written of the Quarry series. It was re-released a few years later by his publisher with a different title: The Broker, a change he was unaware of, so when the opportunity to bring it out once again came around, he changed the title back to its original.
I like the Quarry series, but you can tell this was an early, unpolished work. Quarry's character is unsettled, and you get the feeling that Collins was struggling a little to make him into a bad guy with few redeeming traits. Collins admits he was "ripping off" Westlake's Parker, but in this book (not so much in the later Quarrys) the protagonist lacks Parker's sense of irony, as brutal as he may be.
Quarry is sent by the Broker to kill an apparently innocuous man in a small town along the Mississippi (patterned after Muscatine, Iowa but we don't get a good sense of place). He's also charged with taking out a man at the airport who is carrying a load of heroin. Quarry abhors having anything to do with drugs so he sets up the Broker who ordered the hit by hiding half of the load which he later uses to his advantage. When things start to go wrong, contrary to all good sense, he decides to find out who the original purchaser of the hit was.
It's a fun read, but not up to the level of the later books in the series. For a truly memorable "hitman" series read Lawrence Block's Keller books which set the standard.
I like the Quarry series, but you can tell this was an early, unpolished work. Quarry's character is unsettled, and you get the feeling that Collins was struggling a little to make him into a bad guy with few redeeming traits. Collins admits he was "ripping off" Westlake's Parker, but in this book (not so much in the later Quarrys) the protagonist lacks Parker's sense of irony, as brutal as he may be.
Quarry is sent by the Broker to kill an apparently innocuous man in a small town along the Mississippi (patterned after Muscatine, Iowa but we don't get a good sense of place). He's also charged with taking out a man at the airport who is carrying a load of heroin. Quarry abhors having anything to do with drugs so he sets up the Broker who ordered the hit by hiding half of the load which he later uses to his advantage. When things start to go wrong, contrary to all good sense, he decides to find out who the original purchaser of the hit was.
It's a fun read, but not up to the level of the later books in the series. For a truly memorable "hitman" series read Lawrence Block's Keller books which set the standard.
October 23, 2014
It was great to finally read this, the first of the Quarry books. While I knew the high points of what happened, it was great to finally get all the details. I think this was one of Collins' first books & it's pretty good, but certainly not one of his best. Still, it introduces us to Quarry.
It's important to note that the next two books were published out of order. They are correctly ordered here on GR in the series:
http://www.goodreads.com/series/50490...
but on Fantastic Fiction, they are ordered in published order. You really want to read Quarry's List (aka The Broker's Wife) before reading Quarry's Deal (aka The Dealer).
It's important to note that the next two books were published out of order. They are correctly ordered here on GR in the series:
http://www.goodreads.com/series/50490...
but on Fantastic Fiction, they are ordered in published order. You really want to read Quarry's List (aka The Broker's Wife) before reading Quarry's Deal (aka The Dealer).
January 9, 2020
I had read a few reviews saying that this book isn't the best of the Quarry books, but I chose to read this one first anyway. If they only get better from here, then I think I will end up liking this series a lot!
To me, Quarry is like a Mack Bolan novel that has been put in a blender with healthy helpings of mystery, noir, and maybe even a tiny pinch of pulp. Quarry himself is sarcastic, mean, and largely lacking a moral compass. Despite this, you can't help but root for him.
To me, Quarry is like a Mack Bolan novel that has been put in a blender with healthy helpings of mystery, noir, and maybe even a tiny pinch of pulp. Quarry himself is sarcastic, mean, and largely lacking a moral compass. Despite this, you can't help but root for him.
May 10, 2022
This first book in the quarry series introduces the nihilistic hitman as a Vietnam vet who acted as a hitman.
When a job is botched, and his partner killed, Quarry tries to find out what happened. Who hired a hit on a small town nobody? His boss, The Broker, doesn't like this at all.
Great 70s sleaze.
When a job is botched, and his partner killed, Quarry tries to find out what happened. Who hired a hit on a small town nobody? His boss, The Broker, doesn't like this at all.
Great 70s sleaze.
December 8, 2016
3 stars.
Glimmers of brilliance in this book from early in Max Allan Collins' career. Not a whole lot to the plot, pretty typical 70s noir.
Glimmers of brilliance in this book from early in Max Allan Collins' career. Not a whole lot to the plot, pretty typical 70s noir.
October 13, 2020
'Quarry' is the story of an amoral, emotionally distant man who became acquainted with killing in Vietnam and carried on the habit when he returned home and found his wife had taken a lover. After he kicks away the jacks holding up the car his wife's lover is working under, he discovers two things: that he lost no sleep over it and that he got away with it. So he lets himself be recruited by The Broker as an assassin for hire.
We first meet Quarry five years later, killing a man in the airport of a small town on the Mississippi. He does this with dispassionate efficiency and then returns on foot to his airport hotel and takes a swim. A woman approaches him and we learn that she's been sleeping off an early session of sex with Quarry and is now wants to fit in a second session before her husband returns. Quarry obliges, as much to consolidate his alibi as for the sex itself.
Quarry makes Reacher look like a sensitive guy with a White Knight complex. Quarry is just as deadly as Reacher but he doesn't believe in rescuing anyone but himself. He's a man who knows that he's hollow inside. He kills because it pays well and he's good at it. He swims because when he swims he doesn't have to think. He has sex with women who he sees primarily as what he describes as accessories for his own self-abuse.
Then things go wrong for Quarry. He loses faith in The Broker. He has doubts about his partner that he's been working with for five years. His latest killing goes bad and he goes looking for... well he's not entirely sure. Answers? Revenge? Money? A way out of his present life?
Watching Quarry unravel his life and deal with the people he feels have let him down is like watching a shark tear through prey.
The plot is linear but compelling, with bits clicking into place for Quarry as if he were reassembling a gun in the dark. The writing is muscular, direct and cliché-free and yet delivers a strong sense of place and time. What I admired most about the book was the way Collins uses Quarry's direct to camera thoughts to draw a clearer and more complex picture of him for the reader than Quarry is capable of seeing for himself.
Quarry's relationship with the ex-bunny-girl owner of a bar and club shows him at his most human. This is a woman who says that, for her, a long-term relationship is one that lasts a week and who is attracted to Quarry because she felt that when he looked at her he saw a woman and not a piece of meat. Quarry seems to feel protective towards her. He even fantasises about making a life with her. At the same time, he uses her to get what he wants and is willing to walk away from her if it becomes necessary.
For me, what makes 'Quarry' is much more than an entertaining piece of pulp fiction is its honesty about how people behave How they deceive themselves. What they are willing to do to hold on to what they have. How they let their subconscious make their decisions and spend time later rationalising them.
I think that I can only take Quarry in small doses - being in his company is like constantly having an itch - but I'm also sure I'll be back for more.
I picked up 'Quarry' after watching the TV series from Cinemax. I can see that the series draws upon multiple books about Quarry and that it has gone onto a path of its own. much as the Trueblood series diverged from the Sookie Stackhouse books. I've never understood the point of that. Why buy the rights to something and then make it into something else?
Even so, the TV series was fun - dark, violent and depressing - but fun.
We first meet Quarry five years later, killing a man in the airport of a small town on the Mississippi. He does this with dispassionate efficiency and then returns on foot to his airport hotel and takes a swim. A woman approaches him and we learn that she's been sleeping off an early session of sex with Quarry and is now wants to fit in a second session before her husband returns. Quarry obliges, as much to consolidate his alibi as for the sex itself.
Quarry makes Reacher look like a sensitive guy with a White Knight complex. Quarry is just as deadly as Reacher but he doesn't believe in rescuing anyone but himself. He's a man who knows that he's hollow inside. He kills because it pays well and he's good at it. He swims because when he swims he doesn't have to think. He has sex with women who he sees primarily as what he describes as accessories for his own self-abuse.
Then things go wrong for Quarry. He loses faith in The Broker. He has doubts about his partner that he's been working with for five years. His latest killing goes bad and he goes looking for... well he's not entirely sure. Answers? Revenge? Money? A way out of his present life?
Watching Quarry unravel his life and deal with the people he feels have let him down is like watching a shark tear through prey.
The plot is linear but compelling, with bits clicking into place for Quarry as if he were reassembling a gun in the dark. The writing is muscular, direct and cliché-free and yet delivers a strong sense of place and time. What I admired most about the book was the way Collins uses Quarry's direct to camera thoughts to draw a clearer and more complex picture of him for the reader than Quarry is capable of seeing for himself.
Quarry's relationship with the ex-bunny-girl owner of a bar and club shows him at his most human. This is a woman who says that, for her, a long-term relationship is one that lasts a week and who is attracted to Quarry because she felt that when he looked at her he saw a woman and not a piece of meat. Quarry seems to feel protective towards her. He even fantasises about making a life with her. At the same time, he uses her to get what he wants and is willing to walk away from her if it becomes necessary.
For me, what makes 'Quarry' is much more than an entertaining piece of pulp fiction is its honesty about how people behave How they deceive themselves. What they are willing to do to hold on to what they have. How they let their subconscious make their decisions and spend time later rationalising them.
I think that I can only take Quarry in small doses - being in his company is like constantly having an itch - but I'm also sure I'll be back for more.
I picked up 'Quarry' after watching the TV series from Cinemax. I can see that the series draws upon multiple books about Quarry and that it has gone onto a path of its own. much as the Trueblood series diverged from the Sookie Stackhouse books. I've never understood the point of that. Why buy the rights to something and then make it into something else?
Even so, the TV series was fun - dark, violent and depressing - but fun.
February 28, 2024
Our narrator is a Coke chugging, lady killing, anti drug Vietnam vet who is a hired killer by trade. Is he a ladies man? Of course. Is he always ready with a sarcastic remark or an icy cold reply? Inevitably. Maybe I'm jaded but this was boring.
Oh and it suffered from a terrible case of set detailing/ overly descriptive when it comes to appearances which always gives me weird chills of paranoia that I am stupid because after half a paragraph of it, I still have no idea what anybody looks like!
Oh and it suffered from a terrible case of set detailing/ overly descriptive when it comes to appearances which always gives me weird chills of paranoia that I am stupid because after half a paragraph of it, I still have no idea what anybody looks like!
December 26, 2025
A fifty year old slice of hard boiled noir . The first featuring anti hero hitman Quarry. There is no messing about here , a stripped back tale of murder and double cross which sets up the character nicely for a superb series of books
February 22, 2017
Early Max Allen Collin's gets a 3.5 star rating. I have some more books in the series on my Nook and will read them sometime soon just to see the improvement in Collin's writing. Having read his run on Batman and Ms Tree I know his writing level from those efforts. Quarry thd character is a hired Killer and as expected in a hard boiled mystery is not a very nice guy.
September 23, 2017
So excited to be revisiting this series! I have the newest Quarry novel, QUARRY'S CLIMAX, coming on October 10th (thanks to Titan Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review).
Reading these reminds me why I love these old noir/pulp fiction Hard Case Crime books!
Reading these reminds me why I love these old noir/pulp fiction Hard Case Crime books!
August 2, 2020
I really don't understand why some books work for me and some don't. Max Allan Collins books work for me. He writes real absorbing books that are mixture of illustrative and action. He writes without effort and puts down on paper real characters, and his stories are complex yet believable. In the Quarry series he introduces the reader to a tough pulp fiction hitman, Quarry. Quarry takes orders from the Broker in this hard case crime mystery that has enough sex and violence to keep fans of pulp fiction happy. Things go wrong for the assassin Quarry, when he is double crossed by the person that hired him. These stories are fun to read, fast paced, non-stop action, and its a great can't put me down crime mystery. I'm hooked it was great read and I can't wait to read the next one in this series.
July 28, 2017
All in all, another great Quarry story that I started and finished all in the same day. Somehow all the Quarry stories include Quarry swimming in the pool at a motel and a woman in a black bikini introducing herself as he comes up out of the water.
For those of you who have read other Quarry stories, the plot line might be familiar, but it is so well-written and engrossing that it doesn't matter.
Highly recommended.
For those of you who have read other Quarry stories, the plot line might be familiar, but it is so well-written and engrossing that it doesn't matter.
Highly recommended.
August 19, 2016
Good book. Right in the beginning I felt that MAC was overdoing the Parker imitation but soon enough the narrative captured me and I continued. All my criticisms were acknowledged by MAC in his afterwords. this was an early book and he was honing his chops.
December 4, 2022
This was a great antihero book. Quarry being a hit man was hard to root for. You like him and hate him at the same time. The book takes right off in the first chapter. It was a fast paced ride and I enjoyed it! It had a nice twist. The characters were fun. And a pink Ford mustang! Whats not to love!
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