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 pe...