(8.00)262 pages. Includes afterword.
I needed a good read while recovering from a dental adventure, and my local library provided this novel – the first in the Quarry series.
Being the first in the series, this provides a complete introduction to Quarry, the Vietnam War ex-sniper turned professional hitman. We meet The Broker, the mysterious man who hires him; and Boyd, Quarry's long-time fieldwork partner.
As the novel begins, The Broker has given Quarry an impromptu assignment to kill a thief before he can board an airplane, and retrieve the 'package' that was stolen. Quarry is offended at being sent on a job that is not his style of work… maybe it is time to work with someone other than The Broker?
Eventually, Quarry moves on to the original assignment: Boyd is already stalking their target in Port City, a little city on the Mississippi. It seems an easy job. The target is a harmless man who lives a simple but routine life. Who would want him dead? But it is not their role to ask why…
Until things go horribly wrong, and Quarry must strike out on his own to wreak vengeance and discover who their anonymous client is!
This novel nicely sets out the basics of the series: Quarry is a hitman. He does bad things. He tells himself it is just a job. He tells himself that women are only for stress relief, yet he typically bonds with someone along the way. Quarry is also, sometimes, a force for justice.
In the afterword, the author succinctly explains how the original novel was part of his degree work, and what his thinking was behind the novel – that it was groundbreaking at the time to have a hitman as a protagonist, to have a protagonist who was not just a good guy in a black hat, and using first-person perspective to shock the reader. He also talks briefly about the ups and downs of the series over the years.
Can you wargame it? Not easily. While there is a lot of action, most of it is one-on-one and difficult to capture on the tabletop. Could work as a solitaire RPG adventure with a mix of sleuthing and tactical action.
Recommended highly, particularly as an entry point to the series. I read the 2015 edition; the novel was originally published in 1976 as The Broker. Note that some of the following novels are set earlier in the timeline than the original novel.
Reviewed by 
Editor in Chief Bill 
.