Read: "Quarry in the Middle" by Max Allan Collins

Read: Quarry in the Middle by Max Allan Collins, 2009, 9780843961249.

Quarry has been making a living by following paid killers, warning their marks and trying to get hired by the marks to kill the would-be assassin and then go after the person who paid the assassin.

It's the mid-'80s Quarry ends up in an Illinois river town on the Mississippi run by a couple opposing crime lords who run gambling houses and girls. The two sides don't especially like one another but they do get along. Both are under the control of the outfits in Chicago.

Quarry follows killer and follows killer's advance man. Quarry kills advance man and uses body to help convince would be victim, one of the bosses. Quarry kills killer. Quarry bangs older gal who is ex-wife of new employer, the crime boss. Quarry and new employer figure other crime boss as the culprit. Quarry gets caught by other boss and is viciously beaten, rescued by local stripper, screws local stripper. Quarry is captured again and escapes by killing captors. Quarry kills other crime boss. Quarry makes off with a load of cash and gives it to the stripper. Twist at end is not much of a twist.

Good book. I took this home after reading the first page or so.