The Last Quarry

Never say never when it comes to being a hired hitman. You may not want to kill for money anymore, but if you are anything like Quarry in The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins you may just end up getting in a situation that relies on your old skills and if you get paid for it all the better. This may be named the final Quarry book, but any fan of the stoic killer will know that he returned a few times, so why not read this reissued version to see why there should never be a last Quarry book. 

Quarry is retired from the killing game and instead spends his time being the manager of a high-end resort on a remote lake. The off season is boring enough for Quarry to get an itchy trigger finger, so when he sees an old acquittance in a local convenience store, Quarry’s interest is piqued. Quarry soon finds himself in the same old trouble when he is hired to kill someone, someone who turns out to be a knockout. 

The Quarry books have always been about an anti-hero, but at times it is hard to even have the hero element. Quarry is not a nice person, a killer for hire who for years had no issue with murdering people. Now in his 50s, he may have settled, but the sociopathic tendencies are still clear. As soon as an opportunity to get involved in his old ways comes up, Quarry does not take long to decide to get back into the game, at least temporarily. 

The difference now is that he is a little older and slower. Quarry is such an efficient killer and, in his own way, tactician, that age is not an object to dealing out death. It has not stunted his appeal with the ladies either. I can see for a man used to using a pistol that shooting a person is just as easy in your 50s as in your 20s, but seducing a young woman? There is plenty of seduction in Last Quarry and a lot of Quarry’s old-fashioned misogyny. That is all part of the characters flaws, and appeal, but getting the girl/s seems a little more farfetched nowadays! 

Fantasy on several elements is what makes Pulp so fun to read and Collins is a master of the format, and I do love the Quarry character. It is fantastical that he can kill for so many years and get out of scrapes, and it is also a fantasy with all the woman that surround him. There is an old-fashioned appeal to the book and the character that will have the more sensitive reader running for the hills. 

The plot of Last Quarry is classic for the character and does follow a similar pattern to other books in the series, but as a fan this is what you want to read. The story is very solid, full of darkly humorous language and some killing. This is a re-release of the story and fits in the latter timeline of the characters life. You also get a couple of short stories that acted as part genesis for the longer novel. Last Quarry is unapologetically a throwback to a pulpy dime novel mindset and captures this wonderfully. Quarry is such a darkly appealing character that any fan of pulp will enjoy this book and the series.