Quarry in the Middle - Max Allan Collins [61]
“Police?”
“Maybe. I doubt it, but maybe. Anyway, don’t throw any of that money around. Just do your job, shake your titties and booty and make some men happy. Live your little life, then in a month or two, if it’s quiet, you quit, take your kid somewhere and put him in school and go to beauty college and get your life in gear.”
“Jack…oh, Jack.”
And she kissed me. There was sex in it, sure, and gratitude—you can get a hell of a kiss out of girl, when you give her a paper bag full of fifteen grand—but mostly it was sweet. Loving. A hint of maybe what my life could have been like if it hadn’t gone to hell a long time before I came to Haydee’s.
“I got to run,” I said, and gave her a peck of a kiss.
I moved carefully through the little train yard, and the kid kept his eyes on the tube—Sesame Street again—and I was halfway to the Firebird when she called out to me.
“Jack!”
She was framed there in the door, t-shirt, white panties, all the pale creamy flesh a man could ever want, and blue eyes that hid no secrets except the new one.
“You’re an angel, Jack. When they made you, they broke the mold!”
Didn’t they just?
Praise
Acclaim for the Work of Max Allan Collins!
“Crime fiction aficionados are in for a treat…a neo-pulp noir classic.”
—Chicago Tribune
“No one can twist you through a maze with as much intensity and suspense as Max Allan Collins.”
—Clive Cussler
“Collins never misses a beat…All the stand-up pleasures of dime-store pulp with a beguiling level of complexity.”
—Booklist
“Collins has an outwardly artless style that conceals a great deal of art.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Max Allan Collins is the closest thing we have to a 21st century Mickey Spillane and…will please any fan of old-school, hardboiled crime fiction.”
—This Week
“A suspenseful, wild night’s ride [from] one of the finest writers of crime fiction that the U.S. has produced.”
—Book Reporter
“This book is about as perfect a page turner as you’ll find.”
—Library Journal
“Bristling with suspense and sexuality, this book is a welcome addition to the Hard Case Crime library.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A total delight…fast, surprising, and well-told.”
—Deadly Pleasures
“Strong and compelling reading.”
—Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
“Max Allan Collins [is] like no other writer.”
—Andrew Vachss
“Collins breaks out a really good one, knocking over the hard-boiled competition (Parker and Leonard for sure, maybe even Puzo) with a one-two punch: a feisty story-line told bittersweet and wry…nice and taut…the book is unputdownable. Never done better.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Rippling with brutal violence and surprisingly sexuality…I savored every turn.”
—Bookgasm
“Masterful.”
—Jeffery Deaver
“Collins has a gift for creating low-life believable characters…a sharply focused action story that keeps the reader guessing till the slam-bang ending. A consummate thriller from one of the new masters of the genre.”
—Atlanta Journal Constitution
“For fans of the hardboiled crime novel…this is powerful and highly enjoyable reading, fast moving and very, very tough.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Entertaining…full of colorful characters…a stirring conclusion.”
—Detroit Free Press
“Collins makes it sound as though it really happened.”
—New York Daily News
“An exceptional storyteller.”
—San Diego Union Tribune
“A gift for intricate plotting and cinematically effective action scenes.”
—Jon L. Breen, Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers
“Nobody does it better than Max Allan Collins.”
—John Lutz
Other Books By
SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:
THE FIRST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
TWO FOR THE MONEY by Max Allan Collins
DEADLY BELOVED by Max Allan Collins
DEAD STREET by Mickey Spillane
A DIET OF TREACLE by Lawrence Block
MONEY SHOT by Christa Faust
ZERO COOL by John Lange
SHOOTING STAR/SPIDERWEB by Robert Bloch
THE MURDERER VINE by Shepard Rifkin
SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY by Donald E.