Quarry’s Greatest Hits

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I’ve always tried to imagine how the pitch went when Max (Al) Allan Collins called his agent and told him that he’d like to write a series about a guy named Quarry.

Al: Well, see, he’s a killer.

Agent: Ah, yes, an avenger. Like The Executioner. He’s a man on a moral mission.

Al: Well, not exactly. He’s just trying to turn a buck.

Agent: He kills people for money?

Al: Uh-huh.

Agent: People he doesn’t know? Doesn’t have anything against personally?

Al: Uh-huh. A paid assassin.

Agent: But he probably feels pretty bad about it, right? Guilt eating him alive?

Al: No. No guilt. It’s just a job to him.

Agent: So let me get this straight. He kills people for money and doesn’t feel bad about it.

Al: Right.

Agent: And you want to want him to be the lead character in this series?

Al: Right.

Agent: But it’s never been done before.

Al: I know. That’s why it’s going to be so much fun. The Quarry series sold quickly. This was back in the seventies when Vietnam had skewed a whole lot of things in the United States, especially our sense of right and wrong. An ex-Vietnam vet who was a contract killer for various criminal kingpins? Yeah, why not? It was a very nihilistic time.

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