Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer series draws to its chronological end (there are some books set earlier yet to come) with this post 9-11 tale of terrorists, politics and two youngsters stumbling upon the archeological find of the new century -- Goliath's oversized femur. Sort of a Phillip Marlow me...
A tough-guy mystery to please even the most bloodthirsty of fans!
Tough guy detective Mike Hammer is back from the grave, almost literally, for one last adventure. It begins with getting shot to pieces and left for dead at what was supposed to be a hit on the last of the big-time Mafia dons, arranged by one of the don's sons. After Hammer put a bullet in the fa...
It has been well over forty years since I read this novel. I did a re-read before tackling The Consummata, due out in October from Hard Case Crime.Morgan The Raider had been convicted of stealing forty million in new bills the Treasury was transporting. He'd been caught up in a sweep of a cheap ...
So after Mike Hammer does Agatha Christie (in the previous volume ‘The Twisted Thing’), we return most definitely to Mike Hammer does Mike Hammer. ‘The Body Lovers’ is the classic formula. Hammer is out on the streets on New York one night when he stumbles across the corpse of a beautiful woman (...
Boy, this book was a task to get through. There were no clear goals or obstacles to overcome, no clear story, and a lack of strong characterization. This book read like a draft that was still being tweaked; ideas from a brainstorm. Even the title doesn't have anything to do with the 'story.'The m...
Mike Hammer is the most tough guy of tough guy detectives, just as Micky Spillane is the most hard-boiled of hard-boiled writers. A Mike Hammer book does not start with someone bringing him a case, instead a person he knows will die and he'll swear revenge and set about taking it. Noses are broke...
As I wrote in another review, the first Mickey Spillane novel I ever read was THE ERECTION SET, a shameless, over-the-top potboiler of a thriller with plenty of steamy sex and cold, satisfying revenge. When I reached its end, which figuratively and literally came with a bang, I once and for all u...
A tough-guy mystery to please even the most bloodthirsty of fans!
Around the time I entered my thirties, I had a sudden memory blindside me as if I were deliberatley speeding through red lights and only briefly realized what I was doing and should slow down, ease the pace a bit. For whatever reason, men's adventure novels were part of that memory. There was th...
A tough-guy mystery to please even the most bloodthirsty of fans
Is Mickey Spillane still worth reading, and if so, why?I found myself pondering that question recently after working my way through My Gun is Quick, a 1950 book that is one of Spillane's earlier novels.The relatively simple story line follows an arc familiar to those who have read any of Spillane...
A tough-guy mystery to please even the most bloodthirsty of fans
"Counter-espionage ace Tiger Mann battles Russian agents and seductively dangerous women in a race against time to find the missing genius who wired our ICBM circuit with a by-pass...with one little button that can destroy the entire U.S. missile system and leave the country defenseless against a...
That was the heart of their case against me, after all. The shipment of currency from the Washington mint to New York consisted of forty million dollars in common bills, a paper volume that filled a medium-sized armored truck. Why the G had made me for the heist was simple—I had pulled similar sc...
Ethel was still there, lying curled on her side up against me. Sometime during the night the fire had gone down and she had gotten up to get a blanket and throw it over us. Somehow I got to my feet without waking her up. I pulled on my clothes, found my gun sling and my jacket on the floor. I rem...
He came in stamping the snow off his shoes and blowing like a bull moose. When he shed his coat and hat he threw a briefcase on the desk and drew up a chair. “What are you looking so rosy about, Mike?” “The snow. It always gets me. How’d you make out today?” “Fine,” Pat said, “just fine and dandy...
Down stairs some of the habituals would still be drifting between the tables, eyes red-rimmed from lack of sleep and their minds blurred with too much alcohol, but the rest of the world outside had buried itself, like Count Dracula, away from the morning sun. Across the stillness a rooster crowed...
The pictures were there showing the guy on the ground and the one in the car. The accompanying story identified them as Tommy (Chum) Williams and the driver as Max Sweiber, both known hoods with police records whose regular base of operations was Chicago. I put in a call to Thomas Watford and, wh...
I hadn’t heard him at all. He was already framed in the doorway when I noticed him. But then, he was the kind you didn’t notice. Eight stories down, on the streets of New York, there were thousands like him, quiet people, utterly uncommanding souls who could pass unnoticed anywhere. They could be...
M.A.C. COPS ALWAYS COME IN TWOS. One will knock on the door, but a pair will come in, a duet on hand in case you get rowdy. One uniform drives the squad car, the other answers the radio. One plain-clothes dick asks the questions, the other takes the notes. Sometimes I think the only time they go ...
All feeling was gone, but there was still the knowledge of what had happened. There were still sounds from outside, vehicle sounds and people sounds. There was knowledge that my mouth was open and the incredible sour dirt taste of floor filth was on my tongue. There were things stumbling over me,...
Moriarty’s steak and chop house on Sixth and Fifty-second, Velda and I sat in the bar across from Hy Gardner in a booth we were lucky to have. Mid-evening, the endless line of stools was full and the restaurant beyond was hopping, producing a drone of conversation punctuated by clinking glass and...
The city would escort the cortege to the county line and the motorcycle squads would pick it up from there. At the gravesite there would be rifles fired over Doolan's casket, bugles blowing, and somebody would present a flag to his granddaughter. Then it would be over and everybody would go home ...
The story inside was accompanied by a full-face photo of a lovely girl in her late twenties with soft, flowing hair curling down around her shoulders highlighting a sensual, full-lipped smile. The picture was one taken from a wallet she had in her suit jacket and the brief news account stated tha...