Q is for......
Quarry by Bill Pronzini - the 19th book in his long-running Nameless PI series
I've read maybe the first dozen or so in the series, so this one whenever I get back to it isn't too far ahead of me.
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| Quarry (1991) |
Publisher's Weekly
Pronzini's ( Breakdown ) brisk, efficient, action-packed mystery is set on the earthquake-ravaged San Francisco waterfront and in the now-arid salad-bowl country to the south. Here the Nameless Detective hunts for a methodical, brutal stranger who is pursuing withdrawn Grady Haas, 31, daughter of rancher Arlo Haas, the detective's old friend. Secretive Grady won't tell why she has suddenly left her job as an insurance adjuster specializing in marine claims and returned to the Salinas Valley . Nameless finds that her San Francisco apartment has been thoroughly tossed. All he has to go on are the three claims Grady had been investigating and her ex-boyfriend's savage beating by a stranger seeking Grady's whereabouts. Nameless may lack a moniker but he's full of character, describing himself as a ''throwback--the kind of man who hates progress, mistrusts technology, and never quite feels comfortable in any place where he can't see or touch some small piece of the past.'' Still haunted by the horror described in Shackles (1988), in which he was chained for three months to the wall of an isolated mountain cabin, Nameless now must endure a new ordeal, being locked inside a burning building. The book's exciting final scene nicely plays on the title's double meanings.
Q is for......
Quarry again!
Quarry is also the lead man in a series by Max Allan Collins.
I've enjoyed the first few ..... Quarry, Quarry's List, Quarry's Deal - Quarry's Cut will be the next one up
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| Quarry's Cut (1977) |
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| 6 from a series of about 15! |
When a hitman shows up at retired gunman Quarry's refuge, who is the target? Is it Quarry? Or is the assassin on a different mission--and if so, can Quarry foil it for revenge and profit?
Q is for.....
Quinlan - author Patrick Quinlan.
I read a few from Quinlan a long time ago (before I blogged) and enjoyed them - Smoked (2006), The Takedown (2007), The Drop-Off (2008).
I've kind of lost track of his books after 2009's The Hit - one I still have to read.
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| The Hit (2009) |
A gripping and twisting treat of a novel for fans of Tarantino and Elmore Leonard. Handsome ladies' man Jonah Maxwell is working as a bounty hunter for El Gordo (the Fat One), who picked up his nickname from an admiring prostitute. Gordo has a plan: to catch a runaway felon who's worth $250,000 to the City of New York. The guys are in hot pursuit of Davis Foester, a social misfit with a bad habit of murdering little old ladies, and a gift for his pursuers, when they come across Tyler Gant -- Vietnam vet, weapons expert and secret serial killer. Foester is working on a murderous plot for Gant, and the attentions of Jonah and Gordo are seriously unwelcome. Trailing Foester to Key West, the two are set for a violent showdown on a houseboat on storm-tossed seas. Not just their own lives but those of Tyler Gant's countless targeted victims are at stake...
Q is for....
I was hoping for a location book something from either Quebec, Queensland or Queens in New York but I struggled to find anything in my collection that i could readily lay my hands on. Pretty sure I have something from Louise Penny somewhere that would have fitted the bill. Ditto John Farrow. I'll settle for......
Q Road by Bonnie Jo Campbell - maybe more general/literary fiction the crime or mystery, but nevermind
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| Q Road (2002) |
Welcome to Q Road, in Greenland Township, where the old way of life is colliding with the new. On the same acres where farmers once displaced Potawatomi Indians, suburban developers now supplant farmers and Q Road (or "Queer Road," as the locals call it) has become home to an unlikely mix of people. The neighbors include a sixth-generation farmer and his rifle-toting child bride, an evangelical bartender, a tabloid-reading agoraphobe, a philandering window salesman, and an asthmatic boy who longs for the love of a good father. These folks all smell the pig manure from the Whitby farm and share the same grand views of the Kalamazoo River and the oldest barn in the township--until one disastrous October afternoon.
Bonnie Jo Campbell's first novel combines offbeat humor, eccentric characters, and unique insights into modern rural America, where family traditions have flown the coop and only the cycle of the seasons remains. At the heart of this tale are three characters so integrally connected and devoted to the Harland farm that they might not survive anywhere else; their lives, their livelihoods, and their sometimes violent love for one another are all rooted in the soil of this square mile.
Previous Alphabet entries.....
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ....... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - H IS FOR ....... HAMBURG, HAMMETT, HIDDEN RIVER
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - I IS FOR ....... ICE, ICELAND, IZZO
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - J IS FOR ....... JAPAN, JACK CARTER. JELLO SALAD
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - K IS FOR ....... KING, KOREA, KEEPER
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - L IS FOR ........ LE CRIME, LEONARD, LOS ANGELES
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - M IS FOR ........ MIAMI, MACKAY, MUCHO MOJO
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - N IS FOR ........ NORWAY, NISBET, NEMESIS
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - O IS FOR ........ OWEN, ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS, OXFORD
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - P IS FOR ........ PARKER, PHILADELPHIA, PAYDIRT
You've got a few interesting ones there, Col. It's hard to go wrong with Pronzini, of course. And I ought to read more Collins than I have, so it's good to have that nudge. I've been enjoying this trip through the alphabet!
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot, sorry for the delay in replying. Normal service to be resumed some time soon! Can't beat Pronzini can you? An I do like books from Collins that I've read so far.
DeleteWell done for finding some Qs for the project...
ReplyDeleteThanks Moira.... a few down the road might be a challenge!
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