Synopses & Reviews
Mike Hammer has been away from New York too long. Recuperating in Florida after a deadly mob shootout, the private eye learns that an old mentor on the New York police force has committed suicide. Hammer returns for the funeral—and because he knows that Inspector Doolan would never have killed himself. But Manhattan in the 1970s no longer feels like home. Hammer’s lovely longtime partner, Velda, has disappeared after he broke it off for her own safety, and his office is shut down.
When a woman is murdered practically on the funeral home’s doorstep, Hammer is drawn into the hunt for a cache of Nazi diamonds that makes the Maltese Falcon seem like a knickknack, and for the mysterious beauty who had been close to Doolan in his final days. But drug racketeers, who had it in for the tough old police inspector, attract Hammer’s attention as well. Soon he is hobnobbing with coke-snorting celebrities at the notorious disco Club 52 and playing footsie with a sleek lady D.A., a modern female on the make for oldfashioned Hammer. Everything leads to a Mafia social club where Hammer and his .45 come calling, initiating the wildest showdown since Spillane’s classic One Lonely Night.
Review
"The violent death of his old cop mentor calls Mike Hammer back to New York and more of the same death-dealing intrigue he first made his specialty in I, the Jury 64 years ago. According to Capt. Pat Chambers, all the evidence indicates that Insp. Bill Doolan, retired and facing the end stages of cancer, shot himself in the heart. But Mike (The Big Bang, 2010, etc.) isnt buying it, and its not long before new evidence bears him out. A waitress is killed in a senseless mugging only a few blocks from Doolans funeral. A friendly hooker who has dinner with Mike is struck by a hit-and-run driver who was obviously aiming for her companion. The waitresss ex-boyfriend, who supposedly left town years ago, turns up dead. What can an aging private eye do? "I was older. I was jaded. I was retired," reflects Mike. "But I was still Mike Hammer." Naturally, hes lionized by everyone in the Big Apple, from rookie Congressman Alex Jaynor to kinky ADA Angela Marshall to reformed crime-family scion Anthony ("dont call me Little Tony") Tretriano, to hot Latina chanteuse Chrome, who sings in Anthonys club, to Alberto Bonetti, the druglord whose son Sal Mike killed in self-defense. Sal will be followed into the great beyond by over two dozen souls, most of them sent hither by Mike. Working from an unfinished novel by the late Spillane, Collins provides the franchises trademark winking salacity, self-congratulatory vigilantism and sadistic violence, topped off with a climax that combines the final scenes of two of Mikes most celebrated cases." —Kirkus Reviews
Review
PRAISE FOR MICKEY SPILLANE
"Mike Hammer is an icon of our culture."The New York Times
"A superb writer. Spillane is one of the centurys bestselling authors."The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) PRAISE FOR MAX ALLAN COLLINS
"Max Allan Collins is the closest thing we have to a 21st century Mickey Spillane."ThisWeek (Ohio)
"Collins witty, hardboiled prose would make Raymond Chandler proud."Entertainment Weekly
Synopsis
In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers are not so lucky. Hammer considers the rescue a one-off, but someone has different ideas, as indicated by a street-corner knife attack.With himself for a client, Hammerand his beautiful, deadly partner Veldatake on the narcotics racket in New York just as the streets have dried up and rumors run rampant of a massive heroin shipment due any day. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men,meeting changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance. Originally begun and outlined by Spillane in the mid-sixties, and expertly completed by his longtime collaborator Max Allan Collins, The Big Bang is vintage Mike Hammer on acid . . . literally.
Synopsis
In the mid-seventies, Hammer, recovering from a shootout with the Mob, returns to a changed New York to investigate an old friend's death.
Synopsis
Mike Hammer stalks disco-era drug-runners and a fortune in Nazi diamonds in this two-fisted new Spillane novel.
Synopsis
Mike Hammer stalks disco-era drug-runners and a fortune in Nazi diamonds in a two-fisted new Spillane novel.
Praise for Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
“Spillane is a master in compelling you to always turn the next page.”—New York Times
“Collins’ witty, hardboiled prose would make Raymond Chandler proud.”—Entertainment Weekly
“[The Big Bang is a] classic Spillane detective tale . . . Collins has a good ear, and his additions to Spillane’s words are seamless.”—Post and Courier
Synopsis
“Entertaining . . . proof of how well Max Allan Collins has managed to mimic Spillane’s style.” —
The Onion, A. V. Club
Mike Hammer has been away from New York too long when he learns that an old mentor on the New York police force has committed suicide. Suspicious, Hammer returns for the funeral. When a woman is murdered practically on the funeral home’s doorstep, he gets drawn into the hunt for Nazi diamonds, a mysterious beauty who was close to Doolan in his final days, and a gang of drug racketeers. Soon Hammer is hobnobbing with coke-snorting celebrities at a notorious disco. Everything leads to a Mafia social club where Hammer and his .45 come calling, sparking the wildest showdown since Spillane’s classic One Lonely Night.
“[Spillane’s and Collins’s] risks pay off on the page, resulting in some of the finest novels of their respective careers . . . Kiss Her Goodbye is a throwback in the best sense of the word: it reminds us why Spillane was so good in the first place; and Collins, too . . . This is action-mystery par excellence.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
Synopsis
Conceived and begun at the height of Spillane's creative powers in the 1960's, and set in that tumultuous period as well, THE BIG BANG marks the return of vintage Spillane.
Synopsis
The bestselling American mystery writer of all time brings back his world-famous PI Mike Hammer for his biggestand most dangerouscase.
In the midst of a Manhattan snowstorm, Hammer halts the violent robbery of a pair of college sweethearts who have stumbled onto a remarkable archaeological find in the Valley of Elah: the perfectly preserved femur of what may have been the biblical giant Goliath. Hammer postpones his marriage to his faithful girl Friday, Velda, to fight a foe deadlier than the mobsters and KGB agents of his pastIslamic terrorists and Israeli extremists bent upon recovering the relic for their own agendas. A week before his death, Mickey Spillane entrusted a substantial portion of this manuscript and extensive notes to his frequent collaborator, Max Allan Collins, to complete. The result is a thriller as classic as Spillanes own I, the Jury, as compelling as Collinss Road to Perdition, and as contemporary as The Da Vinci Code.
About the Author
MICKEY SPILLANE (19182006) sold hundreds of millions of books. He introduced Mike Hammer to readers in 1947 with
I, the Jury and was named a British Crime Writers' Association Grand Master in 1995.
MAX ALLAN COLLINS is the author of Saving Private Ryan and the bestselling graphic novel Road to Perdition, among other works. He lives in Muscatine, Iowa.