The New York Times has a stellar book review section. It's frankly one of my favorite sections of the paper to read. Usually they have a dedicated page of mystery/thriller reviews that pique my interest. Flush with a tax refund, I ended up ordering several of those books one day. At around 210 pages, Quarry's Blood by Max Allan Collins was a perfect quick read.
It's the latest in the Quarry series and, while I think I would have benefited from starting at the beginning, there wasn't much that wasn't explained from past books. Quarry is a former Vietnam vet/sniper turned professional contract killer turned old dude who wants to be left alone. He's in his 70s now and living out his life managing a little lodge resort in Minnesota. It's mainly set in current (COVID) times but we do get a flashback to the 80s to further set the plot in motion.
Ever the hyper alert former killer, even with bad knees, he's prepared when he gets an unexpected visitor to his cabin. Susan Breedlove is a youngish (to 70+ Quarry, at least) author who has written a book about him and his exploits in the past. Now she wants to do a sequel and wants his help. But wait, how does she find him?? Turns out his pasttime was writing "heavily fictionalized" books about his killings. WTF, man. That's not living in obscurity!
He sends Susan away and tries to get back to his life.
But wait! Someone is trying to kill him!
That escalated quickly.
Despite the bad knees and prior heart surgery, Quarry is pretty badass still at staying alive. He teams up with Susan to figure out who has a grudge against him (um....everyone?) and ends up traveling around to meet people, maybe kill them, and get his questions answered. There's a lot of corpses.
A lot of corpses. A lot of sex and strip clubs and sleazy hangouts and shady dudes. Just want you want in a hard boiled crime novel.
I'm off to read the back catalog.
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