Quarry’s Blood

Quarry’s History

I did not expect to be writing this novel.

The genesis was a conversation between Hard Case Crime editor/publisher Charles Ardai and myself about possible future Quarry novels. Charles thinks, rightly, that a long-running series needs something special in each new entry for the readers (and book buyers on the corporate side) to get excited about.

I said, “What about, Quarry Meets the Bowery Boys? Or Son of Quarry?”

I was kidding, of course, but Charles said, “I like that — Son of Quarry.”

And I said, “Or maybe Quarry’s Daughter.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I would rather have written Quarry Meets the Bowery Boys.

A problem I had with the idea (the daughter one, as opposed to the one with Slip and Sach) was that it seemed logically to need to occur after The Last Quarry (2006), which I intended to be the last book chronologically in the series.

Well, honestly the last book about Quarry period.

Quarry’s history is a convoluted one. He began at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1971. He was based in part on a friend of mine who served multiple tours in Vietnam and who came home to a cheating wife — he was a funny, sweet guy who had learned to kill, which fascinated me. I had also long been interested in Audie Murphy, the most decorated combat soldier in the European Theater, who had gone on to be a movie star, with a private life that evidenced what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

And I felt Vietnam had changed America — it had numbed the nation by way of news coverage over TV dinners of body bags being loaded up, and kids being clubbed at the Democratic National Convention and shot on college campuses.

Finally, I was looking for a way to go beyond the anti-hero movies and novels typified by Richard Stark’s Parker (and the film Point Blank in 1967). I had written Bait Money (1973), a virtual pastiche of Stark (a pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake), and indulged in the same safe manner of civilians never being killed and creating a distance between the anti-hero and the reader by way of third-person prose. Instead, I would write about a killer and in the first person. In the very first chapter, he would do something terrible, and if a reader couldn’t take the heat, they could get out of Quarry’s kitchen.

I was very proud of the concept — two concepts, really: the first-person protagonist as a hitman who initially had to solve the murder he committed, and that of the “list,” which was my way of developing a series out of what had been conceived as a one-shot novel. The idea of a former hitman who hires out to the targets of current hitmen, to stop them and find out who hired them, still seems to me one of my best noir notions.

The original four Quarry novels were published by Berkley Books as paperback originals in 1976 and 1977. The first novel was written between 1971 and ’73, and took a while to sell. When it did, and I was asked for three more novels about Quarry, I thought I might be developing my signature character — perhaps making my mark. Quarry struck me as unique, and frankly still does.

But I was not asked for further entries, and — considering those four books just another busted series — I went on about my business, returning to my Nolan series and starting the Nathan Heller historical saga. During that same period, however, I began getting fan letters about Quarry and, at Bouchercon and other mystery conventions, found myself approached by readers who were enthusiastic about my hitman. Quarry was clearly becoming a cult favorite.

I was chastened, however, by my mentor Don Westlake’s dictum: “A cult success is seven readers short of the writer making a living.”

Nonetheless, after the early success of True Detective (1983, the first Nathan Heller novel), I had the opportunity to write one more Quarry, which I did (Primary Target, 1987, republished by Hard Case Crime as Quarry’s Vote). The publisher of that novel, responding to Quarry’s cult success, also republished the first four novels with my preferred titles (Berkley had provided their own titles without bothering to run them past me — welcome to the world of the paperback-original author in the ’70s). This was literally ten years after the initial four-book run.

Then Quarry went back to sleep, waking up only for an occasional short story. One of these, “A Matter of Principal” (1989), was much anthologized, and became a short film of the same name (2003) that I wrote and co-produced. Its success on the festival circuit led to a feature film version, The Last Lullaby (2008), which I co-wrote.

Around the time of the two films, I had been approached by Charles Ardai (who had collected the first two Nolan novels as Two for the Money) about the possibility of a new Quarry novel. My decision to say yes had in part to do with Charles promising to hire Robert McGinnis, the acclaimed artist of ’50s and ’60s paperback covers (and a James Bond movie poster artist), to do the cover.

But I also relished the opportunity to provide a definitive conclusion to the Quarry series. To write one more book...

Which I did, utilizing my initial, solo script for what became The Last Lullaby. And, surprisingly (to me anyway), the book did rather well, getting some of the best reviews of my career, including a rare Entertainment Weekly notice. At some point Charles said, “It’s too bad you wrote the last book in the series. It would be nice to do another.”

And I said, “What about The First Quarry?”

Since signing on with Charles, I’ve done a total of ten additional Quarry novels and one graphic novel for Hard Case Crime. An HBO/Cinemax TV series has happened (Quarry, 2016), which led to the five early books being repackaged and reprinted by HCC. The TV show, for which I wrote a script, became a sort of origin story, taking Quarry back to his hitman days. Initially, I had written only about Quarry’s last contract killing and segued into the “list” idea. Because of the TV show, I backtracked to a number of his jobs for the Broker, including Quarry’s Choice (2015), introducing Luann in one of my two favorites in the series (the other is The Wrong Quarry, 2014, a “list” novel).

I have attempted, as best a math-challenged person like myself is capable, of maintaining Quarry’s continuity while jumping around chronologically. I am sure there are goofs. I am not perfect, and Quarry is not necessarily a reliable narrator.

My reluctance to do a book following The Last Quarry, which was after all meant to be the last Quarry, was mirrored by Charles wanting a new Nolan novel, a series I had ended with Spree (1987). But then I got a notion for a sort of coda for Nolan, which became Skim Deep (2020) and spurred the idea to do the same for Quarry. For various reasons, the daughter needed to show up after The Last Quarry, and a coda made that possible, without disrupting my perverse desire to give my hero (and I consider him a hero, not an anti-hero) a happy ending.

Is this second “last” Quarry novel the last Quarry novel? We’ll see...

Which leads me to needing to thank a few people, and Charles Ardai is at the top of that list. He cajoles, he reasons, he drives one crazy, but in a good way. Thank you, Charles.

My wife, Barb — with whom I write the cozy Antiques mysteries — was as usual both a helpful editor and a great sounding board. Her story sense is stellar and her ability — when I am considering options for a scene or even a chapter — to guide me in the best direction is uncanny.

Thanks also to my frequent collaborator, Matthew V. Clemens and our “forensics” guy, Chris Kauffman, who aided us on the CSI novels. And my usual, but no less sincere, thanks to my friend and agent, Dominick Abel.

One last note. You need not point out to me that one of Quarry’s aliases, Keller, is the name of Lawrence Block’s hitman character. This is neither homage nor theft. The first Keller novel came out after its first use in my story “Guest Services,” although Larry’s hitman appeared in a short story before that in Playboy. Unfortunately I did not always read Playboy for the articles, or the stories, and was unaware of this. I used the name here for consistency’s sake.

In my defense, I know Larry was aware of Quarry because he read the first book on its initial publication, loaned to him by Don Westlake, who passed along Larry’s comments to me. And, for that matter, his Keller once came to my hometown, Muscatine, Iowa, to fulfill a contract. I think he may have knocked on my door...

Max Allan Collins

February 2021