QUICK SHOTS: Quarry #2: The Broker's Wife by Max Allan Collins

I've long been a fan of Max Allan Collins work. A couple of his novelizations were some of the first "grown-up" books I read when I made the switch from Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes to the harder stuff. I read quite a few Nathan Heller's in my teenage years and read through some of his comic book work but Nolan and especially Quarry eluded me for a long time. First off, I think I just never ran into them at the used books stores I used to haunt. I picked them up when I saw them, but they were all out of order. And I knew I'd like them, so I wanted to read them through the right way. 

When I did get my hands on the first Quarry, I read it quick and guess what? I liked it a lot then the series sorta became one of the ones that I decided to "savor" waiting for the right time when I needed a sure-fire treat. Since I'm still getting over the reading slump I was in that I talked about in the last review I wanted some sure-fire hits. And I don't think I'll be waiting too long to tackle any more of them.

The Broker's Wife has Quarry, a mid-western hitman who is in quasi-hiding after being around when his boss, The Broker got dead. He's mostly just bored, so when two hired killers come and try to take him out, he's relived to be back in the fray. Along the way he tackles with more killers, shady lawyers and, obviously, the titular Broker's Wife. This is a clean book man; everything works and isn't showy about it. Max's style is sparse and wryly funny. The twists are laid out before and waiting for you to remember about when he lets you in on the REST of the story. Never fails to make you smile. 

Quarry himself is a lot fun too. He's a tough guy, sure, a 'Nam vet who has no qualms about murdering people for money, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have a sense of humor. The humor element is a little stronger here and I think it grows a little more as the series goes on. All-in-all, you just sorta like Quarry, he seems like a good guy to have a soda pop with, as long as you don't cross him.

So, The Broker's Wife (also published as Quarry's List) is a fun time, halfway through I paused my reading and watched The Last Lullaby, a feature film based on the Quarry short story A Matter of Principle. The movie was written by Max and stars Tom Sizemore as Price (Quarry) who does a pretty good job, his Quarry isn't quite as relatable/funny but its solid casting. The movie is an indie joint so adjust your expectations. It's a sturdy adaptation with some flair and really nice acting by Tom and Sasha Alexander. It also seems to take a little from the ending of The Broker's Wife, so I could sorta see where this book was going after a bit. Didn't affect the enjoyment any though. 

So, this one's got like the easiest and highest recommendation. All the Quarry books are easy to get too with Hard Case Crime republishing and publishing the new adventures of Quarry, which isn't always the norm in the books I review here. So, you got no excuse not to pick one or all of them up. 

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!

Quick Shots: Diabolik: Fight Against Time

Diabolik is a world wide phenomenon...except for America, where if he's known at all it's for the awesome Mario Bava film, which is where I was first introduced to the utterly cool Diabolik and Eva Kant. Diabolik was created in 1962 by two sisters, Angela and Luciana Giussani in digest-size comics. Diabolik himself is a total anti-hero, a near ruthless criminal only out for the loot, pulling off daring heists and staying one step ahead of the law in a skin-tight back body suit and only his knives to protect him. A lot of source cite him as some sort of Italian Batman, but I don't buy it. Maybe in popularity, but other then a dark costume and cool gadgets there's not much in common. Diabolik is much cooler too. 

There hasn't been many English translations, a couple in the 80's from Pacific comic and six in the early 2000's by Scorpion comics. I have two of the Scorpion releases and wish I had hundreds more English translations to dive into, but alas life isn't fair. There are some original Italian issues on my shelves and I can get the gist of them from the artwork, but it's not quite as satisfying. The Scorpion comics are newer story's, probably fairly recent from when they were published, I would love to get my hands on the early issues where Diabolik is even nastier. With the waves of European comics making their way to the U.S. it boggles my mind why this and the also fantastic Dylan Dog and Martin Mystery comics haven't had a least more issue's translated.

In this issue, Inspector Ginko who's Diabolik's chief antagonist has his girlfriend kidnapped for revenge and it ties into a diamond heist Diabolik was on.  It's a comic issue, so there's not a mountain of story, Diabolik and Ginko work together in a tight spot, Eva Kant does a daring scuba rescue, there's baddies out for revenge and Diabolik's customary disguises and of course Diabolik gets away with it. It's all done professionally and cleanly, but I did prefer the other issue "Terror Aboard the Kamima," which was a lot more thrilling. Diabolik doesn't even wear his costume in this tale and kinda of takes a backseat to Ginko.

I'm a fan of Diabolik. Comics like this make me pine for a more and more. I was a big comic reader when I was a kid and teen but I'm fairly bored with superheroes and the like, it's nice an refreshing to have a nice crime tale but still told in the slightly fantastic comic-book-y way. I don't think Diabolik is for the majority of American comic readers though, they seem to like their men in tights to be a bit more grandiose and heroic. I'll take a couple of knives and a black suit any day.