Review by Booklist Review
Quarry is a pro. He learned to kill in Vietnam, and thanks to his employer, known only as the Broker, he has found a way to keep doing what he does best. It's strictly business, of course, killing only those who would be killed anyway, if not by Quarry then by somebody else. In, out, and on to the next job. Naturally, there are sometimes complications, as in his latest assignment: the Broker is not just the middleman this time but also the client. A mobster in Biloxi, Mississippi, has made an attempt on the Broker's life, and the Broker wants Quarry to kill the would-be killer with a little help from the vic-to-be's second in command, who covets the top job. It smells wrong from the start: Quarry doesn't like to know the client (that's the whole point of the broker's brokering), and he sure doesn't like getting to know the victim, as he must do this time. Quarry really shouldn't worry. His creator is also a pro's pro, one of the best thriller plotters in the business nothing too elaborate or multifaceted or, God help us, literary; no, just violent, fast-moving, clever storytelling, in the John D. MacDonald and Lawrence Block vein. Collins spins a story in the same no-nonsense way Quarry kills people (seven of them this time around, in the course of about 250 pages): There's life in you, and then there isn't. --Ott, Bill Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Mickey Spillane fans will relish Collins's 11th novel featuring the hard-hitting hit man who goes by Quarry (after 2014's The Wrong Quarry). In 1972, a year after Quarry finished his tour of duty in Vietnam, he's settled into his new career as a murderer for hire, working for a middleman known as the Broker. After a failed attempt on the Broker's life, he himself becomes Quarry's client, setting the mercenary on the trail of a Dixie Mafia leader, Jack Killian, whom the Broker believes wants him dead. Quarry finds getting close to Killian easy, but the assignment becomes an emotional challenge as his target becomes human to him, as does a hooker with the clichéd heart of gold . A few twists bolster the fairly predictable story, as dolean prose and well-constructed action sequences. Impressively, Collins manages to make his violent, brutal, and efficient killer somewhat sympathetic rather than merely repellent. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
