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Quarry #6
Quarry's Greatest Hits
New York Times bestselling authorAn icon of noir anti-heroes, Max Allan Collins's taciturn hit man known only as Quarry made his mark in more than a dozen novels in the 1970s and '80s. Along the way he gained a popular following and appeared in a few short stories as well, mostly after his retirement from the contract killing game. Here, collected for the first time, is every Quarry short story ever written, along with the novel Primary Target, the paid assassin's last novel-length appearance.
261 pages, Hardcover
First published September 2, 2003
1 person is currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
Max Allan Collins
811 books1,325 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
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 23, 2014
The book starts with one short story that is about the first chapter of one of "The Last Quarry", a book by HCC that I read. It's great as a short story & would be wonderful for an intro to Quarry. He does a good deed, but gets paid for it.
Next comes a novel "Primary Target". Quarry is retired, but forced to go back to work. Great story with some wonderful twists & a great ending, which I've come to expect.
Then there are two more short stories, both excellent. It was a great, quick read & I'm tickled I got it. Lots of fun.
Next comes a novel "Primary Target". Quarry is retired, but forced to go back to work. Great story with some wonderful twists & a great ending, which I've come to expect.
Then there are two more short stories, both excellent. It was a great, quick read & I'm tickled I got it. Lots of fun.
September 27, 2025
Featuring the older version of the character after he’s lost it all but taken his revenge for it and shows that despite his retirement from the hitman business, his skills never quite dull and are, like his wit, always sharp.
March 5, 2010
You ever known one of those people who retire, but become bored and restless and throw themselves into some kind of hobby or project? Or maybe they get another job, even if it’s being a greeter at Wal-Mart. Quarry is one of those people. Even though he retired at a relatively early age (around 40) and owns a small hotel/restaurant on a lake, he still can’t seem to stay away from his old business. And his old business was killing people for money.
Max Allan Collins had a cult following for Quarry in the ‘70s-80s and apparently had retired him with a few short stories and a short novel about Quarry’s activities after he officially left the hit man business. But Quarry has found new life with Collins coming up with some fresh tales of Quarry’s past for Hard Case Crime. Now they just need to do some reprints so that those of us who discovered the joys of Quarry via the HCC books can read Quarry’s old adventures for a reasonable price.
Quarry isn’t a psychopath with no conscience, but he is also unsentimental and pragmatic to the point of ruthlessness. This collection shows how he’ll occasionally scratch his itch to deal with someone using his old skill set or how his past comes back to haunt him once he seems to have finally left his old life behind.
Great reading for hard boiled crime fiction fans.
Max Allan Collins had a cult following for Quarry in the ‘70s-80s and apparently had retired him with a few short stories and a short novel about Quarry’s activities after he officially left the hit man business. But Quarry has found new life with Collins coming up with some fresh tales of Quarry’s past for Hard Case Crime. Now they just need to do some reprints so that those of us who discovered the joys of Quarry via the HCC books can read Quarry’s old adventures for a reasonable price.
Quarry isn’t a psychopath with no conscience, but he is also unsentimental and pragmatic to the point of ruthlessness. This collection shows how he’ll occasionally scratch his itch to deal with someone using his old skill set or how his past comes back to haunt him once he seems to have finally left his old life behind.
Great reading for hard boiled crime fiction fans.
February 24, 2025
I'm a big fan of Max Allan Collins and his hardboiled writing style. This is my fifth book featuring Quarry, the hitman who targets other hitmen (and assorted bad guys), three short stories and one full length novel.
The first short story involves Quarry being the good guy (?), rescuing a young kidnapping victim, or does he?
Then we get to "Primary Target", the novel. Quarry is retired, living the good life, even got himself married. But as we all know, the past can never really stay in the past. Quarry is offered a million dollar job, to kill a third party fringe candidate for president. He turns the offer down, but people who ask for these kinds of favors don't like taking "no" for an answer. They realize Quarry is now a loose end, and they try to tie up this loose end with far-reaching consequences. Now Quarry is out to identify the conspirators and exact his revenge.
Two more short stories follow, about catching up with an old Vietnam buddy and Quarry's retirement job of managing a hotel. Nice little snapshots of what the man has become, a reguoar guy until he is pushed.
Fun stories, some a bit more serious than others in the series.
The first short story involves Quarry being the good guy (?), rescuing a young kidnapping victim, or does he?
Then we get to "Primary Target", the novel. Quarry is retired, living the good life, even got himself married. But as we all know, the past can never really stay in the past. Quarry is offered a million dollar job, to kill a third party fringe candidate for president. He turns the offer down, but people who ask for these kinds of favors don't like taking "no" for an answer. They realize Quarry is now a loose end, and they try to tie up this loose end with far-reaching consequences. Now Quarry is out to identify the conspirators and exact his revenge.
Two more short stories follow, about catching up with an old Vietnam buddy and Quarry's retirement job of managing a hotel. Nice little snapshots of what the man has become, a reguoar guy until he is pushed.
Fun stories, some a bit more serious than others in the series.
October 29, 2017
Excellent short stories and a full novel that goes places Quarry never has before - adding depth previously unhinted at without ret-coning the established stories or betraying the character, two very difficult feats to pull off.
February 10, 2019
Very Good; Continuing character: Quarry; a series of stories about the hitman, spanning his career
December 26, 2019
8/10
265 pages
265 pages
December 14, 2024
A collection of short stories featuring series character Quarry.
July 21, 2017
Quarry's Greatest Hits is basically Quarry's Vote (entitled Primary Target here) and several short pieces to round out the collection. The first selection A Matter of Principal is a great little piece about a pair of gay mobsters who have kidnapped a young teenager and what happens when Quarry runs into them. For those of us who have already read The Last Quarry, it is a familiar story since it eventually became the first chapter of that book.
In Quarry's Vote, originally published as Primary Target, Quarry is retired and running a small motel/resort on a small lake in rural Wisconsin. He lets himself drink and get pudgy over the long winters and has even married a sweet young blonde girl, who he originally had shacked up with as a one-night stand, but it morphed into something else after her parents were killed in a car wreck. It is an idyllic life and, in his early thirties, Quarry is embarking on a calm life. Only, and you knew this was coming, someone from his old life looks him up and proposes a job, the job of a lifetime, really. One million dollars for one hit. It's a political hit on a third-party presidential fringe presidential candidate. Quarry ponders the money, but decides he is retired from that life and turns it down. Quarry also explains that, with a political hit, like Oswald, you are never safe. You are a loose end that someone has to deal with.
Seeing a car parked nearby with a lone man sitting in it, Quarry realizes that he may have turned the job done, but he is now a loose end that must be dealt with. He is now being hunted by those who would have hired him.
Quarry then puts the clues together and heads to the Quad Cities area of Iowa/Illinois to find out who has put the hit on him.
Although the idea of Quarry doing a political hit makes the book sound hokey, it is actually another great work in the Quarry line with Quarry playing detective to find out who is behind it in the complicated political world of third-party politics.
Along the way, the story is told with typical Quarry dead-pan humor that makes it an absolute pleasure to read.
Quarry is like a one-man army invading a political war camp. No one is who they seem in the Quad Cities and they are all inter-connected.
Primary Target (Quarry's Vote) is followed by short pieces. One of these pieces involves Quarry, retired, hanging in a bar with a old buddy from Vietnam, who jokes that they are now in the same business. Quarry, who had been drinking a bit, starts at that, wondering if his buddy is also an assassin, but his buddy merely meant the motel business. This piece is so familiar that I think Collins incorporated it into a later Quarry novel. I just can't remember which one.
All of the pieces in this collection are worthwhile. Highly recommended. Indeed, I recommend each and every book in the Quarry series.
In Quarry's Vote, originally published as Primary Target, Quarry is retired and running a small motel/resort on a small lake in rural Wisconsin. He lets himself drink and get pudgy over the long winters and has even married a sweet young blonde girl, who he originally had shacked up with as a one-night stand, but it morphed into something else after her parents were killed in a car wreck. It is an idyllic life and, in his early thirties, Quarry is embarking on a calm life. Only, and you knew this was coming, someone from his old life looks him up and proposes a job, the job of a lifetime, really. One million dollars for one hit. It's a political hit on a third-party presidential fringe presidential candidate. Quarry ponders the money, but decides he is retired from that life and turns it down. Quarry also explains that, with a political hit, like Oswald, you are never safe. You are a loose end that someone has to deal with.
Seeing a car parked nearby with a lone man sitting in it, Quarry realizes that he may have turned the job done, but he is now a loose end that must be dealt with. He is now being hunted by those who would have hired him.
Quarry then puts the clues together and heads to the Quad Cities area of Iowa/Illinois to find out who has put the hit on him.
Although the idea of Quarry doing a political hit makes the book sound hokey, it is actually another great work in the Quarry line with Quarry playing detective to find out who is behind it in the complicated political world of third-party politics.
Along the way, the story is told with typical Quarry dead-pan humor that makes it an absolute pleasure to read.
Quarry is like a one-man army invading a political war camp. No one is who they seem in the Quad Cities and they are all inter-connected.
Primary Target (Quarry's Vote) is followed by short pieces. One of these pieces involves Quarry, retired, hanging in a bar with a old buddy from Vietnam, who jokes that they are now in the same business. Quarry, who had been drinking a bit, starts at that, wondering if his buddy is also an assassin, but his buddy merely meant the motel business. This piece is so familiar that I think Collins incorporated it into a later Quarry novel. I just can't remember which one.
All of the pieces in this collection are worthwhile. Highly recommended. Indeed, I recommend each and every book in the Quarry series.
January 7, 2014
I really like Quarry!!! These tales, 3 short stories and 1 full length novel, do nothing to dilute that like! He is just so fun to read about! This collection is all in the time period that finds Quarry "retired", living lake side, and managing/running resorts. Then tragedy strikes him, and he finds himself un-retired! Great tales in this book, and I especially liked the revenge motivation in "Primary Target"! My only regret is that I read "The Last Quarry" before I read this, and the first short story, "A Matter of Principal" is sort of the beginning of that book! Oh well, there are far worse things than re-reading any adventure of Quarry's!
August 16, 2012
#6 in the Quarry series. Collins delivers workman-like prose in detailing the exploits of his workman-like hitman.
Quarry is a paid killer, a careful, efficient guy who believes in a day's work for a day's pay. This anthology brings together three Quarry short stories and one novel. The latter, Primary Target, was written in 1987. The three stories included here reflect Collins' sardonic humor and his extraordinary ability to take his plots on an unexpected detour or two. They are: A Matter of Principal (1989); Quarry's Luck (1994); and, Guest Services (1995).
Quarry is a paid killer, a careful, efficient guy who believes in a day's work for a day's pay. This anthology brings together three Quarry short stories and one novel. The latter, Primary Target, was written in 1987. The three stories included here reflect Collins' sardonic humor and his extraordinary ability to take his plots on an unexpected detour or two. They are: A Matter of Principal (1989); Quarry's Luck (1994); and, Guest Services (1995).
November 20, 2014
QUARRY'S GREATEST HITS collects three short stories and a hard-to-find, at the time, novel.
The three shorts concern a rescue, in Quarry's own style, of a spoiled rich girl by two old enemies of our favorite hit man, a remembrance of an old case where Quarry is teamed with a green partner who nearly screws things up, and a fat, disgusting rich man who abuses his wife at the motel Quarry manages.
The novel, Priimary Target, retitled Quarry's Vote for the most recent release, where he hunts down old enemies that kill his wife.
The three shorts concern a rescue, in Quarry's own style, of a spoiled rich girl by two old enemies of our favorite hit man, a remembrance of an old case where Quarry is teamed with a green partner who nearly screws things up, and a fat, disgusting rich man who abuses his wife at the motel Quarry manages.
The novel, Priimary Target, retitled Quarry's Vote for the most recent release, where he hunts down old enemies that kill his wife.
April 4, 2014
This is a Quarry collection that can easily be skipped unless one has not read Primary Target already. The short stories included were reworked and expanded into The Last Quarry as part of Hard Case Crime imprint.
July 20, 2014
A novella and some short stories present a broad picture of hitman, Quarry. A likeable anti-hero (in the extreme) whose thought processes are rather interesting as presented by Max Allan Collins. Overall, entertaining and immediately engaging.
DD@Phila
DD@Phila
February 25, 2019
More good Quarry stories
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews