Tom Donaghey's Reviews > Quarry

Quarry (1976) (Quarry #1) by Max Allan Collins. Hard Case Crime publishers have been producing new copies of older works of the crime/noir genre. They have tapped the biggest names in the field, asking them for early examples of their work. Max Allan Collins came up with the Quarry series he wrote while still a young writer. Quarry is the first in a series revolving about the same character.
The book was originally titled TheBroker after the man Quarry works for. The new title character is sort of a lot soul. He came home from Vietnam to no job and no prospect of one. And he finds his wife cheating. No fight, no argument, he merely deals with the situation.
Which gets him noticed below the radar by The Broker, a wealthy man who facilitates arranging for the right people to meet and one of them to end up dead.
In short, Quarry becomes a hit man for hire.
This book tells something of the back story later into it, but it starts with Quarry arriving in a small midwestern town. His partner for this job has been there for a while scoping out the target and the town. The target is Albert Leroy who is as threatening as Casper Milktoast. Quarry wonders why Albert has to be hit, but does the job. Things are going fine until he goes back to meet the partner in the apartment used as a stakeout point. The partner is dead, the money for the hit is gone, and Quarry wants answers.
The one place he can turn is the Broker but he gets no joy from that quarter.
From there out Quarry rams through the rest of the story. I find it difficult to root for a killer but root I did. Quarry is the first novel to feature a hitman as the main character and Mr. Collins has done a wonderful life bringing three dimensions to what could easily have been a stock Hollywood noir character. As the first in the long running series, it leaves me wanting more and more.