4 out of 5

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I think the most common way I describe Max Allan Collins as a novel writer is: solid. Especially when it comes to pulp (which is certainly the dominant genre in his prolific career), he knows his scene, he writes it well, and is able to churn out at a consistent pace without his various plotted crimes and capers ever seeming forced.

Solid doesn’t necessarily imply that these books are the best things on the scene, though. I know I can go to MAC for something competently written and involving, and while I don’t think a genre book needs to be mind-bending to be considered a classic, I’d also say I’ve rarely considered a Collins book to be particularly deep. ‘The Wrong Quarry’ – another continuation of hitman’s hitman Quarry, in his “list” phase, working through his old contractor’s list of assassins and essentially blackmailing their marks for money to kill their potential killers – is also not deep, but it comes at a point where the character is so seasoned, and Collins so familiar with him, that the depth is felt in terms of how engrossing the narrative is, and how naturally the mystery rolls out over its pages. The plotty webs of a Quarry book are, again, reliably solid – from the first entry to the latest – but going back to that descriptor of solidity, there’s an understandable use of formula where you can play pick-the-killer a bit, and/or occasions where the cast and concept are within a realm of “normal,” and you’re just enjoying it playing out. With ‘The Wrong Quarry,’ Collins sort of uses that comfort to twist things around, playing out the case of the missing cheerleader – and the man who’s been targeted as the likely culprit by some rich, likely assassin-hiring townsfolk, Richard Vale – in such a way where we realize we’re playing along as usual, just like Quarry, only for certain details to not quite line up.

Into this, Collins also inserts an interesting romantic lead, Jenny, who also is a nice subversion, initially fitting into a particular kind of sex-ready fatale who appears in many MAC books, but gets fleshed out into a fuller, more compelling character along the way. We get twinges of the emotions of the man behind the assassin, and hints of his eventual future, somewhat after this life, and because of the roundabout way this is written – that these elements are sneaked into to the larger narrative – it comes across very naturally; very rewardingly.

And then: the other Collins tropes: excessive sex scenes. I’m admittedly not a big fan of this stuff in general, often finding it way extraneous to the story or characters, but I accept it as part of the genre, and as part of the genre – some writers do it in a way that works for me. But Collins’ versions of this tend to feel a bit skeevier than others, and though I recognize that some of that is to characterize Quarry and the world in which he operates, there’s just this gross vibe of an older man writing about “barely legal” teens baring all. And that characterization justification only extends so far: it sometimes feels like we’re supposed to be, like, high-fiving Quarry for this stuff; it’s a bit of a fantasy, which adds to the old man skeeviness. Given that the majority of the book feels like a cut above normal Quarry fare, when Collins sinks into this style, it stands out even more than usual, which is also true for some of the slower connective tissue in the text.

But – I should, and do expect that stuff by now. Which still means that The Wrong Quarry still gets to stand out, up through its really wild final scene and affecting epilogue, as all that we know Max Collins does well, all that we know he indulges in, but then an extra bump of personality that makes it one of the character’s and author’s best outings.