Home of Brick Pickle Pulps
Fresh off a successful Deep Valley Book Festival, we’ll have some of our books at this weekend’s Twin Cities Book Festival at the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul.
The weather looks cold and rainy, so a great day to find some books to get you through another Minnesota winter!
Killing Quarry by Max Allan Collins * Publication Date 11/12/19 * 5/5 stars * Published by Hard Case Crime
Everyone’s favorite professional killer is back in Killing Quarry, the 15th adventure of the Vietnam sniper turned hitman by Max Allan Collins.
This adventure falls into the “list” era of Quarry adventures when he is searching out other professional killers and eliminating them — for a fee. It’s a return to the early days of this series that first started in the 1970s, but with a twist. When Quarry tracks this killer, he ends up following him back to his Wisconsin stomping ground and finds that he is the target. It seems someone has figured out his scheme and is tired of their killers and clients getting offed.
As I wrote that last paragraph, I realized just how absurd this premise is. It requires a pretty big suspension of disbelief to accept that Quarry would just happen to track the right killer at the right time. In fact, that points to just what a skilled writer MAC is at this point. Yeah, it bothered me a little at the back of my mind as I read, but the story was moving at such a pace, it’s easy to toss that aside and follow the story.
A female killer from Quarry’s past shows up at an opportune time to help Quarry, and there’s the typical death and sex to keep you reading. Still, what appears to be a relatively straightforward tale has enough twists and turns to keep the story going to a satisfying conclusion.
The decision to have Quarry as the target pays off in some nice ways as it leaves Quarry off his game throughout the book and ups the stakes for our hero(?). That helps to keep the book feeling fresh, something that’s never easy to do in a series that has extended across this many books and more than 40 years.
If you’re in Minnesota, we’ll have some of our books at two upcoming book festivals:
The Deep Valley Book Festival is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. October 5 at the Loose Moose Saloon & Conference Center in Mankato. Admission is free.
The following week, we’ll be at the Twin Cities Book Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. October 12 at the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul. Admission is free for this event, too.
Speaking of Lust by Lawrence Block
Grade: A
“Speaking of Lust” is Block’s contribution to the anthology of the same name that he edited, but also available in a standalone e-book. It was the first of what Block planned to be seven books, each themed around each of the deadly sins. The series seems to have been abandoned after the second, “Speaking of Greed.”
Lust is the story of five men telling their tales of lust collected over their careers as a priest, policeman, doctor, soldier and “old man,” each offering their own insights into the subject. It’s a quick read, not only because of it’s length but also because of Block’s typical breezy writing style. A great way to pass an hour or so.
As promised, our new collection, Pulp Adventures on the Moon, is being published in time for the annual PulpFest show, kicking off next week in Pittsburgh.
2019 is the 50th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon. But long before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot on our celestial neighbor, writers did just that in the pages of the pulps. This collection includes 10 stories and two articles from the pulps envisioning what might be waiting for Earthly explorers on the lunar surface. Includes contributions from Jonathan W. Sweet, R.L. Farnsworth, Henry Kuttner, W.E. Thiessen, Frank Belknap Long, Noel Loomis, Oliver Saari, Victor Rousseau, Alexander Samalman, George Whitley, Charles E. Fritch and James Blish.
This new collection will be available at PulpFest, or for order through Amazon (in both print and ebook formats) or other bookstores.
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