Review by C.J. Bunce
Pretty soon we’ll be 50 years since author Max Allan Collins published his novel Quarry’s Deal in 1976. Now he has penned another sequel, Quarry’s Return, available now here at Amazon, the 17th novel chronicling the senior–but hardly less active–years of the Vietnam vet whose return from the service wasn’t at all what he expected–the subject of a Cinemax television series (reviewed here at borg in 2019). The great thing about Collins’ crime fiction? Readers have so many ways to get their fix, including his Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer novels, his Heller and Nolan novels, and at least four other book series and standalone novels, the most popular being his Road to Perdition (browse our reviews of several here). Unlike the Edgar Award finalist Quarry’s Blood (reviewed here in 2022)–this is not so much a nostalgia pulp fix as real-world true crime story. No, this is Quarry today, as he’s just getting to know the daughter he never knew he had, and one of his (and our) favorite partners in crime returns to help him try to rescue that daughter when she’s kidnapped by a serial killer.
Quarry’s Return is the Quarry Christmas story. But it begins just after his daughter, the author Susan Breedlove, has just left his home at Sylvan Lake in Minnesota to head back to her home in the Quad Cities. He opens the door to a knock without checking to see who’s there–the first mistake of several in the story, the kind of mistake he wouldn’t have made in his prime. Pretty soon a guy has pulled a knife on him and Luann, the sometimes partner, sometimes lover “Dragon Lady” saves his skin. Based on what the knife man says, Quarry realizes his daughter is in danger, and Quarry and Luann are soon on their way to the Quad Cities to try to find Susan.
If you’ve only meandered through Quarry stories over the years, you’re probably going to want to pick up Quarry’s Blood first (or catch up with Quarry and Lu in Killing Quarry, or go back to the beginning with their pairing in Quarry’s Deal). There you’ll learn that Quarry didn’t end up with Luann, but another woman he lived a normal life with for 15 years that culminated in her death from COVID in 2020. Just after her death, a young woman appeared on his doorstep claiming to know his entire history, including all the dirty little secrets. It turns out she’s his daughter and she’s been re-writing his exploits as true crime books, books Quarry admits he’s even read, not realizing they were about him. This is doubly odd since Quarry–only a few years younger than author Collins–spent years writing his personal exploits as “sleazy” crime novels. It’s no surprise an enterprising journalist–Quarry’s daughter–figured out how close the stories paralleled the real-life dead bodies stacked up in eastern Iowa. So these final Quarry novels–he hints there may be more in a brief afterword–is Collins having a bunch of fun spinning yarns that are not only breaking the fourth wall, but are very, very meta.
To top it off, Luann was supposed to be dead, so this gives readers a glimpse at what Quarry and Luann would be doing if they as a couple were the “happy ever after” sort.
You’ll want to see Quarry and Luann partnering one more time (they were great when we saw them in Killing Quarry), and see the famous tough guy worry about the daughter he only just met, as he and Luann go undercover to infiltrate local cops and a mega-wealthy corporate creep. Quarry and Luann killing everyone who gets in their way as they race up and down the Mississippi River following clues? It’s as good as it sounds, all peppered with Collins’ extensive, lifelong knowledge of a part of America that never makes it into novels.
We keep hearing each new Quarry novel is the last, but Collins mentions in his afterword that with the success of each new Quarry novel it encourages him to write another. If you have any doubt your purchase of an author’s book, and sharing your thoughts to others, can mean more books from the author, this book is your proof.
Quarry’s Return is all that and more. Artist Claudia Caranfa provides an evocative painted cover for this latest entry in the Hard Case Crime library. Recommended for fans of crime novels, Collins’s writing, the Quarry TV series and novels, and anyone looking for a good read, pick up Quarry’s Return now in its first ever printing, available here at Amazon.
