Funny, quick, fast-paced. A great Hard Case crime story

books:


	• The Last Quarry (Hard Case Crime) Max Allan Collins Hard Crime Case, 2006 - 201 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Noir Gold

This is the best of the Hard Case Crime books. Period. It's got everything a noir should have. Tight narrative. Sexy broads. Guns. Pain. Plot twists. Yup, this is how a book ought to be.

Read it.

Quarry is as hard as they come

I generally read most anything Max Allan Collins writes (especially under the HARD CASE CRIME banner) and THE LAST QUARRY was no exception.

I'd never heard of Quarry before picking this one up and felt like I'd missed the boat big-time when I'd finished. Easily one of the best hitman characters I've ever read and it just bummed me out this was the last one.

I finished this one in about 2 hours and I consider myself a slow reader. Great hardboiled fun.

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Funny, quick, fast-paced. A great Hard Case crime story

Hard Case Crime books come in all types. Some are old classics republished, some are old books rewritten for the series. Others are brand new offerings. All that I've read feature a tough, flawed hero in a gritty story of crime, sex, murder and moral depravity. The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins is one of the best I've read in the series. The action moves fast, and the plot features many twists and turns. This book also had more sex and bad language than any of the others I've read. Collins writes in a fast, quick humorous style as he brings one of his characters out of retirement for one last assignment.

Quarry, not his real name, is retired and managing a resort for a friend in the back woods of Wisconsin. While making a midnight run to a convenience store, he spots a thug he used to know stocking up on food, and other products only a woman would need. Suspicious, he follows the thug to a remote cabin, where he finds the thug and his pal are holding a beautiful young woman hostage. Quarry rescues the girl, and opens the door to a final assignment he never really wanted. The girl is the daughter of Jonah Green, an incredible rich media magnate. He hires Quarry for one last job, and Quarry's biggest danger on this assignment will be falling in love.

This is an amusing, quick read. Fans of Hard Case Crime books should enjoy it. It was funny, but also quite vulgar, even for a book of the genre (whem compared to the admittedly few that I have read.)

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Reviewing: The Last Quarry

Quarry was a hit man and very good at his job. These days he is retired and not so good at that. He retired not because his conscience was getting to him, but because he had amassed enough money to live comfortably and not kill for money any more. So, he quit and through a contact he started managing a small resort that may or may not he located along Sylvan Lake in Minnesota.

Life is pretty good all things considered. But, he is having a small issue with insomnia. The fact that it is winter and everyone is gone except the maintenance guy, José, doesn't help. With the place closed and nothing to do except keep an eye on things, he is bored out of his mind. Very late one night he takes a 10 mile trip to the nearest convenience store for a little junk food and instead finds a contract killer who knows him. That killer, like a domino in a long line of dominoes, provides a way to deal with his insomnia and ultimately one last job.

According to the multi page author's note, this book was originally inspired by his anthologized short story "A Matter of Principal" (which is also a short film in the "Shades of Noir" collection and his short story "Guest Services." Fortunately for the author and readers, Charles Ardai wanted to not only reprint some of his earlier books, he also wanted an original Quarry novel for Hard Case Crime.

That request ultimately became this book which is a fast read at 194 pages and features distinctive cover art by the legendary Robert McGinnis. In those 194 pages, Max Allan Collins showcases an anti-hero of sorts who is what he is and accepts that with no excuses. He knows what he is and how he became what he is and when he makes a mistake, Quarry accepts it and moves on. This is a guy who does his job, expects others to follow through on their part of the contractual bargain and is perfectly willing to enforce compliance as well as accept his change of plans should the need arise. The result novel is an engaging tale that pulls no punches as it touches on the themes of murder, deceit, familial love and jealousy and the plain simple truth that some folks just need killing.

Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2008

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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