Quarry in the Black

August 8, 2016
The 1972 presidential election provides the backdrop for Collins’s entertaining 13th Quarry novel (after 2015’s Quarry’s Choice). In October of that year, the Broker, who’s the “buffer between the respectable people who wanted someone dead and the disreputable types who made them that way,” meets Quarry at the hit man’s home in Wisconsin to offer him the job of eliminating the Reverend Raymond Wesley Lloyd, a charismatic civil rights activist who’s campaigning for McGovern. When Quarry says he doesn’t kill good people, the Broker assures him that Lloyd is largely funded by gangsters and is using the campaign tour to distribute drugs. Quarry drives to St. Louis, where Lloyd has his headquarters, and soon learns that white supremacists are also out to get Lloyd. Memorable scenes include a cross burning that turns violent. Series fans will cheer as Quarry bests his opponents with commendable ease. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.