Quarry is coming to Cinemax in the form of a new television series! Because of this, Hard Case Crime is re-issuing all the classic books by Max Allan Collins. These books are from the 1970’s and follow the exploits of Quarry, a Vet who has returned from Vietnam, but some of Vietnam has stayed with him. Not able to get a regular job, Quarry has become a professional hitman.

This book, the second in the series, takes place 4 or 5 month after the events of the first book. Because of those events Quarry is relaxing at his lake house when two professional hitmen come to his house to kill Quarry. Quarry of course survives, but he needs to find out who sent these killers and why. An old partner of Quarry’s is the only lead he has.

This book has a beautiful blond, is she a femme fatale? We also get one of Quarry’s ex-partners that is an entertaining character, I hope he shows up in future books. There is also a mob lawyer who seems to have a piece to the puzzle Quarry is trying to solve. This is another fun book in this enjoyable series. A series worth checking out for any noir fiction fan.

I highly recommend you read Quarry, the first book in this series, before you read this one. This is a direct sequel to that book and knowing the events of the first book will make this book that much more enjoyable. Here is my review of Quarry:

https://everythingnoir.com/2015/11/21/book-review-quarry/

I must say, I am loving this series so far and look forward to continuing to read the books and also looking forward to the new T.V. series coming soon.

Favorite Tidbit: The new edition of this book by Hard Case Crime has an afterword by Collins where he talks about when these books where first printed, the publisher picked the titles.  Quarry was titled The Broker and this book was titled The Broker’s Wife(the title is a bit of a spoiler). He never liked these titles and re-named them with the titles they go by today on subsequent printings.