The ninth Quarry novel (after Quarry in the Middle) finds Jack Quarry, hit man with a difference, still going down a list of planned hits from his former boss, the Broker. He tracks down the Broker's targets and offers to remove the threat... for a fee. This time out it's 1980 and Quarry's in Boot Heel, Nev., a small gambling town where the latest target, director Arthur Stockwell, is filming an action movie. Quarry knows who the hit men are, but he doesn't know who ordered the hit. Suspects abound: Stockwell's betrayed wife, a spurned starlet, the mob boss financing the film. Quarry is discreet and up to the task, even when his own hated ex-wife turns out to be married to Stockwell. Fans will enjoy the violence, sex, and glimpses into Quarry's past in this perfect piece of sardonic pulp noir. (Oct.)