QUARRY’S RETURN
By Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime
213 pgs
One has to wonder at
the twists and turns of fate when a writer of the baby-boomer generation (post
World War II for you youngsters) is still writing about a hired gun well into
his seventies. That’s Quarry, one of three series Collins whipped up a long…long…long
time ago. That it is still around, never mind getting better like aged bourbon,
is no small literary feat. Our best guess as to why; two things. One, Collins
is such a damn good writer and two, his loyal readers know it and aren’t going
anywhere.
In his last novel
featuring his Quarry tale, Collins introduced his Vietnam veteran protagonist to
the adult daughter he’d never known. After an awkward start, filial emotions
rose to the surface when they were forced to save each other’s lives from some
very bad people. In this follow up tale, Quarry learns Susan, his crime-writer
daughter, has disappeared while doing research on a serial killer. This he
learns from an old lover-colleague, a beautiful Japanese gal named Lu; his equal
in death-dealing. The two of them make Bonnie and Clyde look like Hansel and
Gretel.
It becomes obvious that
Susan has run afoul of the very fiend behind the so-called Cheerleader Murders she
is investigating. Unless Quarry and Lu can find her quickly, Susan will become
the killer’s fourth victim. Collins weaves a fast-paced tale as his wonderfully
mature couple question and shoot their way through a twisted puzzle, each well
aware that the stamina and zeal of their youth exist only in melancholy
backward glances.
“Quarry’s Return” continues the quality of this series offering up both the drama and action we’ve come to expect from a master storyteller now at the height of his craft. Oh, if only more writers weren’t afraid of growing old.
