The First Quarry by Max Allan Collins

The First Quarry (2008) by Max Allan Collins

Having recently taken the plunge into crime fiction, I was excited to check out the Quarry series from prolific author, Max Allan Collins. I have read that Collins’ primary inspiration for Quarry was the legendary Parker book series by Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake). There are immediate similarities in regards to ruthless men doing ruthless acts of crime within a specific code of honor, even as they operate well outside of the law. 

Though it is the 8th in the series as written, as the title implies, The First Quarry details the first mission that our anti-hero protagonist takes on as a young man of 22, recently returned from war in Vietnam. Simply put, Quarry is a hit-man assassin. His mindset is straightforward—if it was acceptable to kill for the government and his country, then he can now kill for personal gain and profit. He justifies this by acknowledging that if someone is willing to pay for a murder to be committed, the mark is already a dead man; whether the instrument for that murder is Quarry or someone else, the end result remains a constant. 

The First Quarry also introduces us to The Broker, Quarry’s business conduit through whom he acquires his targets and receives his payment, as well as the occasional trouble-shooting as needed when a job doesn’t go quite as planned. The Broker sets him on a course to eliminate a college professor who is writing a “non-fiction novel” that will expose a major underworld crime boss. This is further complicated by the fact that the daughter of the mobster is having an affair with the professor, himself a married man with a disgruntled wife whose own agenda may be at odds to Quarry’s own. 

This set-up has lots of unexpected turns and twists as nothing is quite what it seems and things quickly go very sideways. Throughout all of it, Quarry remains an engaging and likable narrator, providing plenty of first-person insight into a clever and highly intelligent, yet brutally efficient killer’s machinations. There’s an abundance of sex and violence to keep things lively and the plot is constantly propelling forward toward the next unexpected development. This was a highly entertaining and especially well-written novel. 

My own bottom line is this: I eagerly look forward to my next adventure alongside Quarry. This gets my highest recommendation.

Review by Steve Carroll