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Mike Hammer #12
The Killing Man
Private eye, Mike Hammer, goes on the warpath when he finds his lovely secretary, Velda, lying battered on his office floor next to the mutilated body of a would-be client. The author has also written "The Girl Hunters," "The Body Lovers" and "Survival...Zero."
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 17, 1989
29 people are currently reading
352 people want to read
About the author
Mickey Spillane
316 books447 followersMickey Spillane was one of the world's most popular mystery writers. His specialty was tight-fisted, sadistic revenge stories, often featuring his alcoholic gumshoe Mike Hammer and a cast of evildoers who launder money or spout the Communist Party line.
His writing style was characterized by short words, lightning transitions, gruff sex and violent endings. It was once tallied that he offed 58 people in six novels.
Starting with "I, the Jury," in 1947, Mr. Spillane sold hundreds of millions of books during his lifetime and garnered consistently scathing reviews. Even his father, a Brooklyn bartender, called them "crud."
Mr. Spillane was a struggling comic book publisher when he wrote "I, the Jury." He initially envisioned it as a comic book called "Mike Danger," and when that did not go over, he took a week to reconfigure it as a novel.
Even the editor in chief of E.P. Dutton and Co., Mr. Spillane's publisher, was skeptical of the book's literary merit but conceded it would probably be a smash with postwar readers looking for ready action. He was right. The book, in which Hammer pursues a murderous narcotics ring led by a curvaceous female psychiatrist, went on to sell more than 1 million copies.
Mr. Spillane spun out six novels in the next five years, among them "My Gun Is Quick," "The Big Kill," "One Lonely Night" and "Kiss Me, Deadly." Most concerned Hammer, his faithful sidekick, Velda, and the police homicide captain Pat Chambers, who acknowledges that Hammer's style of vigilante justice is often better suited than the law to dispatching criminals.
Mr. Spillane's success rankled other critics, who sometimes became very personal in their reviews. Malcolm Cowley called Mr. Spillane "a homicidal paranoiac," going on to note what he called his misogyny and vigilante tendencies.
His books were translated into many languages, and he proved so popular as a writer that he was able to transfer his thick-necked, barrel-chested personality across many media. With the charisma of a redwood, he played Hammer in "The Girl Hunters," a 1963 film adaptation of his novel.
Spillane also scripted several television shows and films and played a detective in the 1954 suspense film "Ring of Fear," set at a Clyde Beatty circus. He rewrote much of the film, too, refusing payment. In gratitude, the producer, John Wayne, surprised him one morning with a white Jaguar sportster wrapped in a red ribbon. The card read, "Thanks, Duke."
Done initially on a dare from his publisher, Mr. Spillane wrote a children's book, "The Day the Sea Rolled Back" (1979), about two boys who find a shipwreck loaded with treasure. This won a Junior Literary Guild award.
He also wrote another children's novel, "The Ship That Never Was," and then wrote his first Mike Hammer mystery in 20 years with "The Killing Man" (1989). "Black Alley" followed in 1996. In the last, a rapidly aging Hammer comes out of a gunshot-induced coma, then tracks down a friend's murderer and billions in mob loot. For the first time, he also confesses his love for Velda but, because of doctor's orders, cannot consummate the relationship.
Late in life, he received a career achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America and was named a grand master by the Mystery Writers of America.
In his private life, he neither smoked nor drank and was a house-to-house missionary for the Jehovah's Witnesses. He expressed at times great disdain for what he saw as corrosive forces in American life, from antiwar protesters to the United Nations.
His marriages to Mary Ann Pearce and Sherri Malinou ended in divorce. His second wife, a model, posed nude for the dust jacket of his 1972 novel "The Erection Set."
Survivors include his third wife, Jane Rodgers Johnson, a former beauty queen 30 years his junior; and four children from the first marriage.
He also carried on a long epistolary flirtation with Ayn Rand, an admirer of his writing.
His writing style was characterized by short words, lightning transitions, gruff sex and violent endings. It was once tallied that he offed 58 people in six novels.
Starting with "I, the Jury," in 1947, Mr. Spillane sold hundreds of millions of books during his lifetime and garnered consistently scathing reviews. Even his father, a Brooklyn bartender, called them "crud."
Mr. Spillane was a struggling comic book publisher when he wrote "I, the Jury." He initially envisioned it as a comic book called "Mike Danger," and when that did not go over, he took a week to reconfigure it as a novel.
Even the editor in chief of E.P. Dutton and Co., Mr. Spillane's publisher, was skeptical of the book's literary merit but conceded it would probably be a smash with postwar readers looking for ready action. He was right. The book, in which Hammer pursues a murderous narcotics ring led by a curvaceous female psychiatrist, went on to sell more than 1 million copies.
Mr. Spillane spun out six novels in the next five years, among them "My Gun Is Quick," "The Big Kill," "One Lonely Night" and "Kiss Me, Deadly." Most concerned Hammer, his faithful sidekick, Velda, and the police homicide captain Pat Chambers, who acknowledges that Hammer's style of vigilante justice is often better suited than the law to dispatching criminals.
Mr. Spillane's success rankled other critics, who sometimes became very personal in their reviews. Malcolm Cowley called Mr. Spillane "a homicidal paranoiac," going on to note what he called his misogyny and vigilante tendencies.
His books were translated into many languages, and he proved so popular as a writer that he was able to transfer his thick-necked, barrel-chested personality across many media. With the charisma of a redwood, he played Hammer in "The Girl Hunters," a 1963 film adaptation of his novel.
Spillane also scripted several television shows and films and played a detective in the 1954 suspense film "Ring of Fear," set at a Clyde Beatty circus. He rewrote much of the film, too, refusing payment. In gratitude, the producer, John Wayne, surprised him one morning with a white Jaguar sportster wrapped in a red ribbon. The card read, "Thanks, Duke."
Done initially on a dare from his publisher, Mr. Spillane wrote a children's book, "The Day the Sea Rolled Back" (1979), about two boys who find a shipwreck loaded with treasure. This won a Junior Literary Guild award.
He also wrote another children's novel, "The Ship That Never Was," and then wrote his first Mike Hammer mystery in 20 years with "The Killing Man" (1989). "Black Alley" followed in 1996. In the last, a rapidly aging Hammer comes out of a gunshot-induced coma, then tracks down a friend's murderer and billions in mob loot. For the first time, he also confesses his love for Velda but, because of doctor's orders, cannot consummate the relationship.
Late in life, he received a career achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America and was named a grand master by the Mystery Writers of America.
In his private life, he neither smoked nor drank and was a house-to-house missionary for the Jehovah's Witnesses. He expressed at times great disdain for what he saw as corrosive forces in American life, from antiwar protesters to the United Nations.
His marriages to Mary Ann Pearce and Sherri Malinou ended in divorce. His second wife, a model, posed nude for the dust jacket of his 1972 novel "The Erection Set."
Survivors include his third wife, Jane Rodgers Johnson, a former beauty queen 30 years his junior; and four children from the first marriage.
He also carried on a long epistolary flirtation with Ayn Rand, an admirer of his writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
June 4, 2017
Mike Hammer as written by Mickey Spillane makes his return in 1989, not seen in novel-form since the 1970 novel "Survival...Zero". Which is quite a jump for a character whose essence was better served in the fifties where he still could be at odds with society's morals and annoy the goodie-two-shoes. And yet he arrives at the end of the eighties.
Very few characters made jumps from their own era and prove to have the longevity to actually work in a new era. John Gardner's James Bond 007 di better than expected but with many more continuation novels 007 has never been really out of the public eye. One Richard Stark comes to mind when he gave his own Parker a new lease on live and did so quite well but never as good as the originals ever did. So Spillane did also give Hammer his wel deserved return.
Having read the book I can tell you that Spillane quite masterful steers clear of any modern malarkey and the book could just as easily be set back into the fifties were it not for the occasional remark about Reagan or AIDS. Otherwise the story could easily take place in the fifties, which is perhaps the good thing about this book.
Hammer goes to his office on a Saturday because Velda set up an appointment with a client, so totally out of habit Mike Hammer enters his office and find his beloved Velda seriously hurt and a dead mob killer killed in a way that was more torture as straight death. A note is left which states "You die for killing me". So at first the police looks at Mike Hammer even if some intelligence service do recognize the modus operandi of a international hitman. What does he want with Mike Hammer when the focus shifts to the victim other ports of inquiry are being looked at and so does Hammer. because somebody did hurt Velda and threatens him which is something the down to earth PI will not take lightly. As more deaths follow and Mike has to stop the kidnapping of Velda it becomes more than personal. But when at the end the dust is settled the answer was always there and it needed Hammer & Velda together to make sense of it.
A really enjoyable book in which I envision Armand Assente as Hammer as he was the first I say in the role in the movie "I, the jury". Hammers return was well done and a more than newbie on crossing into the nineties.
If you like the genre you are well advised enjoying this.
Very few characters made jumps from their own era and prove to have the longevity to actually work in a new era. John Gardner's James Bond 007 di better than expected but with many more continuation novels 007 has never been really out of the public eye. One Richard Stark comes to mind when he gave his own Parker a new lease on live and did so quite well but never as good as the originals ever did. So Spillane did also give Hammer his wel deserved return.
Having read the book I can tell you that Spillane quite masterful steers clear of any modern malarkey and the book could just as easily be set back into the fifties were it not for the occasional remark about Reagan or AIDS. Otherwise the story could easily take place in the fifties, which is perhaps the good thing about this book.
Hammer goes to his office on a Saturday because Velda set up an appointment with a client, so totally out of habit Mike Hammer enters his office and find his beloved Velda seriously hurt and a dead mob killer killed in a way that was more torture as straight death. A note is left which states "You die for killing me". So at first the police looks at Mike Hammer even if some intelligence service do recognize the modus operandi of a international hitman. What does he want with Mike Hammer when the focus shifts to the victim other ports of inquiry are being looked at and so does Hammer. because somebody did hurt Velda and threatens him which is something the down to earth PI will not take lightly. As more deaths follow and Mike has to stop the kidnapping of Velda it becomes more than personal. But when at the end the dust is settled the answer was always there and it needed Hammer & Velda together to make sense of it.
A really enjoyable book in which I envision Armand Assente as Hammer as he was the first I say in the role in the movie "I, the jury". Hammers return was well done and a more than newbie on crossing into the nineties.
If you like the genre you are well advised enjoying this.
November 4, 2023
This is part of a series but each one is a stand alone. In this one we return to the character of Mike Hammer. The author took a long time to return to this character and series. Mike goes into his office to discover that someone has attacked Velda and left a dead body in his chair. Mike is pissed and finds himself in a situation more than he anticipated.
I said these are stand alone novels but this one comes with a word of caution. This one alludes to something that happened in Mike's past. I am not sure if it happened in a previous book or "off screen". This has all the characteristics one expects from these books. They were toned down a little bit from the earlier books in this series. We have the hard boiled detective who will do anything for the people he cares for, the mystery, and the noir atmosphere pervading throughout the book. The one aspect about these books and the author is Spillane is one of the best at describing something. He could be describing New York City or a beautiful woman and it is just vivid and brilliant. So many passages were just mind candy. I wish the same could be said about this particular mystery. All the elements were there but it came somewhat convoluted with these elements. There were aspects of the mystery that just did not land.
The Mike Hammer novels are for fans of yesteryear hard boiled detective books. The mystery and this book was not the best. I cannot say that about the writing as once again Mickey Spillane showcases he is one of the best writers. His descriptive details are worth the price just to behold. I enjoyed my time in this universe and it is off to the next one in this series.
I said these are stand alone novels but this one comes with a word of caution. This one alludes to something that happened in Mike's past. I am not sure if it happened in a previous book or "off screen". This has all the characteristics one expects from these books. They were toned down a little bit from the earlier books in this series. We have the hard boiled detective who will do anything for the people he cares for, the mystery, and the noir atmosphere pervading throughout the book. The one aspect about these books and the author is Spillane is one of the best at describing something. He could be describing New York City or a beautiful woman and it is just vivid and brilliant. So many passages were just mind candy. I wish the same could be said about this particular mystery. All the elements were there but it came somewhat convoluted with these elements. There were aspects of the mystery that just did not land.
The Mike Hammer novels are for fans of yesteryear hard boiled detective books. The mystery and this book was not the best. I cannot say that about the writing as once again Mickey Spillane showcases he is one of the best writers. His descriptive details are worth the price just to behold. I enjoyed my time in this universe and it is off to the next one in this series.
May 19, 2021
I havtn read anything in the series before or by Mickey Spillane before but didn't think it was a huge problem getting into the story. I quite liked it. Listened to parts of this in a sleepless night and was quite the good audio to keep my mind of things. But I'm not sure these kinds of stories are quite my thing yet but would like to read more of them then what I have previously. 3.5 stars.
July 28, 2017
“The Killing Man” is the twelfth Mike Hammer novel, published only nineteen short years after the eleventh one (“Survival Zero”). Although there are hints that this story takes place in the 1980’s, it feels for the most part like a classic Mike Hammer story and, like every Mike Hammer novel that came before, it is chock full of top-notch writing, vivid descriptions, action sequences unparalleled in detective fiction, and is just plain good fun to read.
It opens with another dark, dreary day in Manhattan – somehow in Hammer books you always feel like there are dark clouds, foggy evenings, trenchcoats, and .45s. The most shocking scene of all occurs when Hammer walks into his office and sees Velda – “her body crumpled up against the wall, half her face a mass of clotted blood that seeped from under her hair.” Hammer, as always, is prepared for action, and when he thinks he sees someone in the inner office, he has to explode and ram “through the door in a blind fury ready to blow somebody into a death full of bloody, flying parts,” but stops “because it had already been done.” As shocking as it is to see Velda, secretary, fiancé, romantic entanglement, on the floor and being rushed to critical care, nothing typifies the hero that Spillane invented more than
his exploding through a door ready to rip the evildoer limb from limb and make him suffer. This is not your typical private eye. This is not your down-on-his luck detective who is busy talking his way out of trouble. No, this is Hammer, the avenging angel who is out to smite with fire and brimstone anyone that does him wrong.
Spillane doesn’t spare the reader any of the gory details. Be forewarned. The narrative forcefully describes the “dozen knife slashes” that “had cut open the skin of his face and chest and [the fact that] his clothes were a sodden mass of congealed blood.” The six-inch steel spike positioned “squarely in the middle of the guy’s forehead” is almost an afterthought.
This return to the Hammer saga is just as terrific as any of the earlier Hammer novels from the gut-wrenching scenes with Velda hanging on in the hospital to Hammer’s sparring and foreplay with the blonde assistant district attorney with the “cover-girl face and a body that didn’t just happen.” “You would want to kiss the lusciousness of those full lips until the thought occurred that it might be like putting your tongue on a cold sled runner and never being able to get it off,” Hammer explains. Wow. Another writer would’ve just called her an ice princess and left it at that.
All in all, another fantastic piece of writing sure to entertain anyone looking for good, old-fashioned hardboiled fun.
It opens with another dark, dreary day in Manhattan – somehow in Hammer books you always feel like there are dark clouds, foggy evenings, trenchcoats, and .45s. The most shocking scene of all occurs when Hammer walks into his office and sees Velda – “her body crumpled up against the wall, half her face a mass of clotted blood that seeped from under her hair.” Hammer, as always, is prepared for action, and when he thinks he sees someone in the inner office, he has to explode and ram “through the door in a blind fury ready to blow somebody into a death full of bloody, flying parts,” but stops “because it had already been done.” As shocking as it is to see Velda, secretary, fiancé, romantic entanglement, on the floor and being rushed to critical care, nothing typifies the hero that Spillane invented more than
his exploding through a door ready to rip the evildoer limb from limb and make him suffer. This is not your typical private eye. This is not your down-on-his luck detective who is busy talking his way out of trouble. No, this is Hammer, the avenging angel who is out to smite with fire and brimstone anyone that does him wrong.
Spillane doesn’t spare the reader any of the gory details. Be forewarned. The narrative forcefully describes the “dozen knife slashes” that “had cut open the skin of his face and chest and [the fact that] his clothes were a sodden mass of congealed blood.” The six-inch steel spike positioned “squarely in the middle of the guy’s forehead” is almost an afterthought.
This return to the Hammer saga is just as terrific as any of the earlier Hammer novels from the gut-wrenching scenes with Velda hanging on in the hospital to Hammer’s sparring and foreplay with the blonde assistant district attorney with the “cover-girl face and a body that didn’t just happen.” “You would want to kiss the lusciousness of those full lips until the thought occurred that it might be like putting your tongue on a cold sled runner and never being able to get it off,” Hammer explains. Wow. Another writer would’ve just called her an ice princess and left it at that.
All in all, another fantastic piece of writing sure to entertain anyone looking for good, old-fashioned hardboiled fun.
February 24, 2015
A floating timeline is sometimes a useful device. For instance, if one is writing a series of novels, by keeping the lead character the same age but updating the setting, the narrative will remain current. Richard Stark’s Parker, as an example, was the same strong and ruthless professional in the twenty-first century as he was in the sixties. The same thing is true with Micky Spillane’s Mike Hammer, a tough and brutal veteran, who continues as the hardest PI in New York for decades. We as readers, we as fans, except these contradictions and don’t think about them too hard. Which makes ‘The Killing Man’, where Spillane sets up the internal logic of these books like a house of cards, then swings a baseball bat at it, all the more head spinning. At the end the reader might think he’s taken a blow to the back of the head.
In a way hearing Mike Hammer talk about AIDS and Ronald Reagan is as strange as reading about P.G.Wodehouse’s Uncle Fred character “doing the rock’n’roll’. It's so incongruous for this charcater, but you’re a fan and you go with it. What makes it all the more confusing, baffling and flabbergasting in ‘The Killing Man’ though, is that even though this is the 80s – with coke and computers abundant in the plot – Mike Hammer is still demonstrably a World War Two veteran. There is no fudging, no suggestion it might have been a different vaguer war he fought in (Korea? Vietnam?) No, he is still the same strong and powerful NYC detective, able to wrestle any grown man to the ground (while making gorgeous dames go weak at the knees) even in his – presumably – advancing years. As I said, the reader tries not to think about these things too hard, but sometimes the author sneaks up behind him and makes it incredibly difficult.
All that being said, ‘The Killing Man’ is a vastly entertaining entry in the series. Hammer’s beloved secretary is found knocked out in his office, along with the mutilated corpse of a mobster and a note from an international hitman. Hammer being Hammer, he swears bloody revenge. There is international intrigue, a sexy as hell lawyer, an appearance by The Manchester Guardian and more fists thrown and bullets fired than at a saloon brawl in a John Wayne western. I’m not sure the whole thing holds together that well, but Hammer watchers will note that Spillane doesn’t take the path so many of these books take and the whole thing is a lot of brutal fun.
In a way hearing Mike Hammer talk about AIDS and Ronald Reagan is as strange as reading about P.G.Wodehouse’s Uncle Fred character “doing the rock’n’roll’. It's so incongruous for this charcater, but you’re a fan and you go with it. What makes it all the more confusing, baffling and flabbergasting in ‘The Killing Man’ though, is that even though this is the 80s – with coke and computers abundant in the plot – Mike Hammer is still demonstrably a World War Two veteran. There is no fudging, no suggestion it might have been a different vaguer war he fought in (Korea? Vietnam?) No, he is still the same strong and powerful NYC detective, able to wrestle any grown man to the ground (while making gorgeous dames go weak at the knees) even in his – presumably – advancing years. As I said, the reader tries not to think about these things too hard, but sometimes the author sneaks up behind him and makes it incredibly difficult.
All that being said, ‘The Killing Man’ is a vastly entertaining entry in the series. Hammer’s beloved secretary is found knocked out in his office, along with the mutilated corpse of a mobster and a note from an international hitman. Hammer being Hammer, he swears bloody revenge. There is international intrigue, a sexy as hell lawyer, an appearance by The Manchester Guardian and more fists thrown and bullets fired than at a saloon brawl in a John Wayne western. I’m not sure the whole thing holds together that well, but Hammer watchers will note that Spillane doesn’t take the path so many of these books take and the whole thing is a lot of brutal fun.
October 11, 2021
Before anyone even thinks about saying that the fact that I couldn't connect with our "lovely" main character may have anything to do with me starting his books series by the number 12, let me explain how, in my opinion, a policial series should work. It doesn't matter which book you choose to read first, the book must always offer enough character development for the reader to be able to connect with the main character or at least enough to make that character credible. And why? Because we are talking about a Mystery. The main character is not that important. The plot line, the crime, the investigation - those are the important things. It is not that difficult to make a main character in this genre be credible. You just need to offer him/her a little development.
So no, I do not think, not even for a second, that the fact that I couldn't connect with Mike Hammer is my fault. But more than that, I am glad I couldn't connect with him. Because if I did, then the disgust I felt would have became hatred and seriously it would be a waste of my time to hate a character of a book that doesn't even deserve the money spent on it, And you may now be wondering why I was so disgusted by him. Let's think... it may have anything to do with the fact that he was an arrogant, sexist son of a bitch. Or maybe it is related with the fact that the "love" Spillane wants us to think he feels towards his secretery has more to do with the fact that she is a pretty face than anything else. You can choose. Any of this two things alone would be enough to make me disgusted so you can imagine how I felt with both thrown at me at the same time.
But how I wish Mike was the only problem! But nooo... What a better thing to allie to a sexist main character than a bunch of female characters that are meant to be nothing else than walking bodies with pretty faces and boobs that shamelessly throw themselves at Hammer from the very second they see him?! I am pretty sure I don't need to tell how that made me feel. How utterly disgusted it made me feel to see women represented like this. It's one thing to have one female character throwing herself at the main character. She fancies him, wants him even if just for a one night stand. Fine. But all of them, especially when the description of every single one of them begins with the fact that they have boobs and ends pretty much there? Not acceptable.
And it doesn't stop here. Can you guess what comes allied to this bunch of disgusting characters that are impossible to connect with? I will help you out. A shitty plot. It begins pretty well and undoubtely promissing, with Hammer entering in his office just to find his secretery on the floor, badly injuried, and a dead body sitting on his chair. And you read that, not knowing how sexist things will get, and you think "Cool!", because that's one of the most dramatic and memorable beginings you've read in a while. But then you find out how sexist the book is and the plot goes downhill, becoming one of the most complex and inconsistent plot I've ever seen. An agency collusion, influence over presidential candidates, corruption and mafia, all of them thrown into this book in a confuse sequence of events that made my head spin. I completley lost track of the plot, got unsure about what the hell the main plot line was meant to be and when I finally reached the end I had just given up. A finale tha had everything to be shocking had no impact on me because I had lost all my interest on the book many, many pages ago.
Overall, I guess there's anything else to say. I think it couldn't be more obvious that I HATED this book. Definitely, I do not reccommed it and I'll make 100% that I avoid any other book of this series, because one book about such disgusting characters was more than enough.
SCORE: 1.00 out of 5.00 stars
You can also find this review on my blog
So no, I do not think, not even for a second, that the fact that I couldn't connect with Mike Hammer is my fault. But more than that, I am glad I couldn't connect with him. Because if I did, then the disgust I felt would have became hatred and seriously it would be a waste of my time to hate a character of a book that doesn't even deserve the money spent on it, And you may now be wondering why I was so disgusted by him. Let's think... it may have anything to do with the fact that he was an arrogant, sexist son of a bitch. Or maybe it is related with the fact that the "love" Spillane wants us to think he feels towards his secretery has more to do with the fact that she is a pretty face than anything else. You can choose. Any of this two things alone would be enough to make me disgusted so you can imagine how I felt with both thrown at me at the same time.
But how I wish Mike was the only problem! But nooo... What a better thing to allie to a sexist main character than a bunch of female characters that are meant to be nothing else than walking bodies with pretty faces and boobs that shamelessly throw themselves at Hammer from the very second they see him?! I am pretty sure I don't need to tell how that made me feel. How utterly disgusted it made me feel to see women represented like this. It's one thing to have one female character throwing herself at the main character. She fancies him, wants him even if just for a one night stand. Fine. But all of them, especially when the description of every single one of them begins with the fact that they have boobs and ends pretty much there? Not acceptable.
And it doesn't stop here. Can you guess what comes allied to this bunch of disgusting characters that are impossible to connect with? I will help you out. A shitty plot. It begins pretty well and undoubtely promissing, with Hammer entering in his office just to find his secretery on the floor, badly injuried, and a dead body sitting on his chair. And you read that, not knowing how sexist things will get, and you think "Cool!", because that's one of the most dramatic and memorable beginings you've read in a while. But then you find out how sexist the book is and the plot goes downhill, becoming one of the most complex and inconsistent plot I've ever seen. An agency collusion, influence over presidential candidates, corruption and mafia, all of them thrown into this book in a confuse sequence of events that made my head spin. I completley lost track of the plot, got unsure about what the hell the main plot line was meant to be and when I finally reached the end I had just given up. A finale tha had everything to be shocking had no impact on me because I had lost all my interest on the book many, many pages ago.
Overall, I guess there's anything else to say. I think it couldn't be more obvious that I HATED this book. Definitely, I do not reccommed it and I'll make 100% that I avoid any other book of this series, because one book about such disgusting characters was more than enough.
SCORE: 1.00 out of 5.00 stars
You can also find this review on my blog
December 30, 2009
I am a fan of Spillane because his Mike Hammer character is consistent. He gets knots in his gut when he sees men beat on the defenseless (women, kids, etc.). He plasters on a tight, sh!t-eating grin when he's imagining knocking some delinquent in their teeth. He slowly leans on doors, listens, and crawls into rooms with his .45 drawn just in case an unseen assassin tries to take him out. These qualities don't change.
The Killing Man does feature some subtle changes in the characters, though. Written 19 years since his last adventure, the timeless, ageless private investigator is a bit different. Instead of drinking Pabst and bourbons and lighting Lucky Strikes, this Hammer drinks Canadian Club and soda and has stopped smoking. For as long as I read his works, I wondered how much of himself Spillane wrote into his characters. Following that train of thought, I wonder if a two-decade-older Spillane was writing a more conservative version of Hammer.
The slightly more conservative Hammer doesn't run into rooms guns blazing as often as he did in the 50's-70's novels. He's not punching cops or spending much time in the bars with his partner-in-justice Pat. He's a nurturing, patient caregiver to his damaged love, Velda. He's more dependent on his friends and even on strangers in this novel.
The basics are still the same. The narrative voice doesn't change much. But those few curious alliterations to the story taking place in the 80's (references to computers, AIDS, and south american drug runners) and Hammer acting suspiciously more fragile make this a different read from the Signet paperbacks I enjoy so much. Still recommended for the die-hard fans. The characteristic dry, brutal ending won't leave anyone with a bad taste in their mouth.
The Killing Man does feature some subtle changes in the characters, though. Written 19 years since his last adventure, the timeless, ageless private investigator is a bit different. Instead of drinking Pabst and bourbons and lighting Lucky Strikes, this Hammer drinks Canadian Club and soda and has stopped smoking. For as long as I read his works, I wondered how much of himself Spillane wrote into his characters. Following that train of thought, I wonder if a two-decade-older Spillane was writing a more conservative version of Hammer.
The slightly more conservative Hammer doesn't run into rooms guns blazing as often as he did in the 50's-70's novels. He's not punching cops or spending much time in the bars with his partner-in-justice Pat. He's a nurturing, patient caregiver to his damaged love, Velda. He's more dependent on his friends and even on strangers in this novel.
The basics are still the same. The narrative voice doesn't change much. But those few curious alliterations to the story taking place in the 80's (references to computers, AIDS, and south american drug runners) and Hammer acting suspiciously more fragile make this a different read from the Signet paperbacks I enjoy so much. Still recommended for the die-hard fans. The characteristic dry, brutal ending won't leave anyone with a bad taste in their mouth.
December 13, 2017
Started off great with Hammer finding his secretary Velda unconscious and an unknown man murdered in his office. The Killing Man’s brutal beginning had all the hallmarks of a Hammer story; personal, violent, and a raging bull hero with a score to settle.
Unfortunately as the story progressed, the linear plot drifted into a hazy complicated beast which ultimately derailed the solid foundations laid early on; there’s alphabet agency collusion, corruption, and bias, followed by Hammer’s unrealistic influence on potential Presidential candidates, followed by a drug and mafia angle which had some degree of plausibility before, again, succumbing to the same trap as the other plot elements in being non-sequential, and then there’s every female character throwing themselves at Mike – I didn’t buy it.
The Killing Man just didn’t work and the ending was a head scratcher seemingly pulled from nowhere – and not in a good way.
My rating: 2.5/5, by far the least enjoyable of the Mike Hammer novels I’ve read.
Unfortunately as the story progressed, the linear plot drifted into a hazy complicated beast which ultimately derailed the solid foundations laid early on; there’s alphabet agency collusion, corruption, and bias, followed by Hammer’s unrealistic influence on potential Presidential candidates, followed by a drug and mafia angle which had some degree of plausibility before, again, succumbing to the same trap as the other plot elements in being non-sequential, and then there’s every female character throwing themselves at Mike – I didn’t buy it.
The Killing Man just didn’t work and the ending was a head scratcher seemingly pulled from nowhere – and not in a good way.
My rating: 2.5/5, by far the least enjoyable of the Mike Hammer novels I’ve read.
May 22, 2019
Mike Hammer has no place in the 1980's, and Mickey Spillane himself proved it. The Hammer watching CNN? Giving up cigarettes? Going to a gym? Dropping beer and rye whiskey in favor of product placements for Canadian Club and Miller Lite? A sad coda to the original career of one of detective fictions finest.
June 10, 2015
I saw this book on the shelf.
It was about one of my cases and it sat uncomfortably and incongruously between two cosy English golden age detective stories.
Something was not right.
I withdrew it ... and by the way my name is Michael Hammer, PI.
I remember the case in question well.
Thunder rolled across the sky as I walked down Fifth Avenue and I could even smell the rain.
It had every prospect of not being a good day.
I reached my office to find my secretary unconscious on the floor and to make matters worse there was a dead, mutilated man draped across my desk. I called 911 for cops and an ambulance.
This began an adventure that saw me drugged, beaten, shot at and my secretary constantly harassed as she tried desperately to recover.
To make matters worse, I was badgered by the cops and even propositioned by an attractive assistant DA as we endeavoured to track down the perpetrator of the crime and find out what the angle was.
It was not easy although the assistant DA proved to be interesting!
The pace was fast, very fast, the danger ever-present.
However, I am not one of the top, toughest New York PIs for no reason and eventually I was able to unearth the truth and track down the criminal mastermind.
And it all ended in a startling climax.
I did, however, survive to tell the tale - please read it, you will be astonished.
And when finished, please shelve it with the hard-boiled crime and not with those cosy English detectives.
It was about one of my cases and it sat uncomfortably and incongruously between two cosy English golden age detective stories.
Something was not right.
I withdrew it ... and by the way my name is Michael Hammer, PI.
I remember the case in question well.
Thunder rolled across the sky as I walked down Fifth Avenue and I could even smell the rain.
It had every prospect of not being a good day.
I reached my office to find my secretary unconscious on the floor and to make matters worse there was a dead, mutilated man draped across my desk. I called 911 for cops and an ambulance.
This began an adventure that saw me drugged, beaten, shot at and my secretary constantly harassed as she tried desperately to recover.
To make matters worse, I was badgered by the cops and even propositioned by an attractive assistant DA as we endeavoured to track down the perpetrator of the crime and find out what the angle was.
It was not easy although the assistant DA proved to be interesting!
The pace was fast, very fast, the danger ever-present.
However, I am not one of the top, toughest New York PIs for no reason and eventually I was able to unearth the truth and track down the criminal mastermind.
And it all ended in a startling climax.
I did, however, survive to tell the tale - please read it, you will be astonished.
And when finished, please shelve it with the hard-boiled crime and not with those cosy English detectives.
May 5, 2013
I've discovered Mickey Spillane. All bets are off, kitten.
May 9, 2014
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 understood the appeal of Spillane's old-school, pavement-level storytelling of tough guys, ravishing dames, and brick-busting action! Before that, funny as it may sound, the only real exposure I had to the author was by way of television and the far too brief MIKE HAMMER series and telemovies that starred Stacey Keach as the iconic private eye...in retrospect Keach played Hammer almost perfectly, a true tough guy who didn't just know how to use his fists and his beloved Colt .45 auto, a running joke in the series was his almost supernatural way of attracting women...being in the presence of a pure man like Hammer made nearly every dame he met want to have sex with him. At the end of one episode, he walked into the night with two ladies at the same time. Fonz, eat your heart out!
When it was publicized that the first Mike Hammer novel in twenty years was being brought to the world by Spillane himself, I just had to snatch it up to see how the hard boiled hero took care of business when in the hands of his creator. I was only disappointed in the sense that when I was done, I'd expected more meat to the story...but that doesn't mean THE KILLING MAN wasn't satisfying. It was great, but not as awesome as the aforementioned THE ERECTION SET, which he wrote back in his heyday.
Even though THE KILLING MAN was set decades after his last adventure, Spillane had no difficulty imagining Mike Hammer in a more modern New York City of the 1980's. Age hasn't slowed him down a bit, even though he's just a few steps behind the times...but in a hard, uncompromising, let's-show-the-new-generation-how-it's-done way! The story hits the ground running as Hammer checks into his office, business as usual, but gets the shock of his life. His eternally loyal and lovely secretary, Velda, has been brutally beaten and left for dead. Thankfully, she's in much better shape than the man left to sit behind Hammer's desk, the victim of a hideous torture and murder. A note is left on the horrible corpse with the unusual, cryptic message: YOU DIE FOR KILLING ME. Affairs turn into a race against time as Mike Hammer struggles to discover who has a vendetta against him before the killer closes in on him...
The story is definitely what Mickey Spillane does best: old fashioned, street-level revenge, which I first became acquainted with in THE ERECTION SET. I guess I expected more than what I'd read before, but when you're the best at what you do writing hard boiled detective fiction, why ruin a perfectly good recipe for success? Besides, in a world on the verge of embracing political correctness, it was refreshing to see an old school hero like Mike Hammer walk the streets like nothing had changed. Fans of Mickey Spillane won't be disappointed!
When it was publicized that the first Mike Hammer novel in twenty years was being brought to the world by Spillane himself, I just had to snatch it up to see how the hard boiled hero took care of business when in the hands of his creator. I was only disappointed in the sense that when I was done, I'd expected more meat to the story...but that doesn't mean THE KILLING MAN wasn't satisfying. It was great, but not as awesome as the aforementioned THE ERECTION SET, which he wrote back in his heyday.
Even though THE KILLING MAN was set decades after his last adventure, Spillane had no difficulty imagining Mike Hammer in a more modern New York City of the 1980's. Age hasn't slowed him down a bit, even though he's just a few steps behind the times...but in a hard, uncompromising, let's-show-the-new-generation-how-it's-done way! The story hits the ground running as Hammer checks into his office, business as usual, but gets the shock of his life. His eternally loyal and lovely secretary, Velda, has been brutally beaten and left for dead. Thankfully, she's in much better shape than the man left to sit behind Hammer's desk, the victim of a hideous torture and murder. A note is left on the horrible corpse with the unusual, cryptic message: YOU DIE FOR KILLING ME. Affairs turn into a race against time as Mike Hammer struggles to discover who has a vendetta against him before the killer closes in on him...
The story is definitely what Mickey Spillane does best: old fashioned, street-level revenge, which I first became acquainted with in THE ERECTION SET. I guess I expected more than what I'd read before, but when you're the best at what you do writing hard boiled detective fiction, why ruin a perfectly good recipe for success? Besides, in a world on the verge of embracing political correctness, it was refreshing to see an old school hero like Mike Hammer walk the streets like nothing had changed. Fans of Mickey Spillane won't be disappointed!
October 13, 2022
I remember liking the Mike Hammer TV series in the 80s. Stacy Keach played Hammer. So I picked this up at a used bookstore.
Mike arrives at his office on a Saturday morning to find a dead man missing most of his fingers and Velda unconscious and dying on the floor of his office.
The dead man was a former hitman who had been clubbed over the head recently and had lost his memory. It’s never clear why the man showed up at Hammer’s office.
Mike is initially a suspect. And the beautiful, cold prosecutor attempts to bully him out of the investigation. He flirts with her. Then things get heavier between them
In Mike’s investigation, he discovers there is another hitman on the prowl. His name is Penta. His signature is to remove the fingers of his victims.
Soon the FBI and the CIA are involved, because this Penta has moved onto political targets. He takes a run at Mike and then takes a run at Velda.
There is also missing tractor trailer full of cocaine. Apparently the murdered hitman had found and then hidden it.
Velda is drugged and kidnapped, but is rescued while still unconscious.
When the various officials discover where the cocaine is hidden they pack Mike and Velda off to a safe house.
While in the safe house, Mike is explaining to Velda everything that has happened in the last few weeks and then sees a newspaper article as he starts a fire in the fireplace and we learn that everything he has done in the last few weeks was for naught. Then there’s a gun battle. The end.
The writing is not that good. I guess I’ve been pampered by Robert Parker all these years. This book is over complicated with Mike making repeated trips to various sources of information. The fact that most of the book is a misdirect was very irritating.
Mike arrives at his office on a Saturday morning to find a dead man missing most of his fingers and Velda unconscious and dying on the floor of his office.
The dead man was a former hitman who had been clubbed over the head recently and had lost his memory. It’s never clear why the man showed up at Hammer’s office.
Mike is initially a suspect. And the beautiful, cold prosecutor attempts to bully him out of the investigation. He flirts with her. Then things get heavier between them
In Mike’s investigation, he discovers there is another hitman on the prowl. His name is Penta. His signature is to remove the fingers of his victims.
Soon the FBI and the CIA are involved, because this Penta has moved onto political targets. He takes a run at Mike and then takes a run at Velda.
There is also missing tractor trailer full of cocaine. Apparently the murdered hitman had found and then hidden it.
Velda is drugged and kidnapped, but is rescued while still unconscious.
When the various officials discover where the cocaine is hidden they pack Mike and Velda off to a safe house.
While in the safe house, Mike is explaining to Velda everything that has happened in the last few weeks and then sees a newspaper article as he starts a fire in the fireplace and we learn that everything he has done in the last few weeks was for naught. Then there’s a gun battle. The end.
The writing is not that good. I guess I’ve been pampered by Robert Parker all these years. This book is over complicated with Mike making repeated trips to various sources of information. The fact that most of the book is a misdirect was very irritating.
August 31, 2016
When you start reading, you smile:
"Some days hang over Manhattan like a huge pair of unseen pincers, slowly squeezing the city until you can hardly breathe. A low growl of thunder echoed up the cavern of Fifth Avenue and I looked up to where the sky started at the seventy-first floor of the Empire State Building. I could smell the rain. It was the kind that hung above the orderly piles of concrete until it was soaked with dust and debris and when it came down it wasn't rain at all, but the sweat of the city."
If you're old enough to recognize the voice, you know that the "I" is Mike Hammer; and you guess, rightly, that since the verbal skills are back, so are the skills in love and detection. If you're too young to know Hammer from anything but the television series, you realize you're in for a treat - and what a special treat it is! For from the moment that Hammer walks into his office to find his beloved secretary, Velda, knocked unconscious and a strange man brutally murdered, occupying the office chair, you're in for one of the fasted-paced, sexiest, most brilliantly plotted adventures the great detective has ever encountered, a tale that leads from the discovery of a mysterious toolbox through involvement with a drug ring, two smashingly beautiful women and the CIA, to a last-page showdown with the villain that could only come from the mind of Mickey Spillane.
In a 'Time' magazine survey done in 1968 of best-selling books published in this century, seven of the top twenty-five were by Mickey Spillane. 'The Killing Man' demonstrates why.
In 1947, Spillane introduced the world to Mike Hammer in his first book, 'I, the Jury'. 'The Killing Man' is the twelfth Mike Hammer novel and the first since 1970. Spillane, who has been described as "the most widely read writer in the history of all mankind", has written a total of twenty-four books, with total worldwide sales in excess of 130 million.
"Some days hang over Manhattan like a huge pair of unseen pincers, slowly squeezing the city until you can hardly breathe. A low growl of thunder echoed up the cavern of Fifth Avenue and I looked up to where the sky started at the seventy-first floor of the Empire State Building. I could smell the rain. It was the kind that hung above the orderly piles of concrete until it was soaked with dust and debris and when it came down it wasn't rain at all, but the sweat of the city."
If you're old enough to recognize the voice, you know that the "I" is Mike Hammer; and you guess, rightly, that since the verbal skills are back, so are the skills in love and detection. If you're too young to know Hammer from anything but the television series, you realize you're in for a treat - and what a special treat it is! For from the moment that Hammer walks into his office to find his beloved secretary, Velda, knocked unconscious and a strange man brutally murdered, occupying the office chair, you're in for one of the fasted-paced, sexiest, most brilliantly plotted adventures the great detective has ever encountered, a tale that leads from the discovery of a mysterious toolbox through involvement with a drug ring, two smashingly beautiful women and the CIA, to a last-page showdown with the villain that could only come from the mind of Mickey Spillane.
In a 'Time' magazine survey done in 1968 of best-selling books published in this century, seven of the top twenty-five were by Mickey Spillane. 'The Killing Man' demonstrates why.
In 1947, Spillane introduced the world to Mike Hammer in his first book, 'I, the Jury'. 'The Killing Man' is the twelfth Mike Hammer novel and the first since 1970. Spillane, who has been described as "the most widely read writer in the history of all mankind", has written a total of twenty-four books, with total worldwide sales in excess of 130 million.
March 5, 2025
The year is 1990. Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer is still a lone wolf private investigator with a hot temper, a short fuse, and a 45. Pat his buddy, is still the police captain. Velda is still answering the phone in his office and Mike has yet to make an honest woman of her. Sound familiar? This is exactly the same set up as in, I, the Jury, the first Mike Hammer story published in 1947. Only difference, back in 1947 Mike was fresh out of the service having served in the Marines in WWII. That means Mike's got to be pushing 65! But he's still kicking butts and taking names! And don't forget the Dames, still plenty of dames. And not just regular dames. No, all of Mike's flings are so hot you would sell your mother to the white slavers just to have them look your way. To be honest, one of these women is identified as being 48. That almost age-appropriate for a 65-year-old engaged man.
But this is Mickey Spillane. If you pick up a Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer book you know just what you're getting. You're getting a quick read, lots of action, hit-and-run sex, and A plot line you could drive an 18 wheeler full of contraband right through! And this book delivers the goods! Great Mike Hammer story! However, a great Mike Hammer story only ranks 2 stars in the world of literature.
But this is Mickey Spillane. If you pick up a Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer book you know just what you're getting. You're getting a quick read, lots of action, hit-and-run sex, and A plot line you could drive an 18 wheeler full of contraband right through! And this book delivers the goods! Great Mike Hammer story! However, a great Mike Hammer story only ranks 2 stars in the world of literature.
January 13, 2008
What's not to love about a classic detective novel set in foggy New York City... These books were later made into a series about Mike Hammer, the detective! I mean really, Mike Hammer! I wish my name was Mike Hammer! They could call you 'The Hammer' or something cool like that! Or, if his middle name was Caleb or Carl or something, you could have people call you M.C. or better yet, M.C. Hammer! Pretty awesome!
Anyway, other than some spots with suspect language, this was a good quick read that was enjoyable! There was some killing too, which can be gruesome!
Anyway, other than some spots with suspect language, this was a good quick read that was enjoyable! There was some killing too, which can be gruesome!
August 9, 2017
Raw and Powerful
Spillane and Mike Hammer both tough as nails. Plot is a bit predictable, but who cares, the action and sex are what you came for.
Spillane and Mike Hammer both tough as nails. Plot is a bit predictable, but who cares, the action and sex are what you came for.
December 1, 2018
Decent Spillane novel with tough guy Mike Hammer. Nice quick read--the next-to-last Hammer novel written by Spillane in 1989, after a 19-year gap.
October 23, 2019
Typically Spillane-- lots of 'dolls' and dead bodies. Fairly convoluted plot.
December 16, 2019
I probably should have read one of the earlier books in this series instead of this one, which was published several years later than the others. Those would have remained firmly set in their era, where they belonged. I have enjoyed other classic mysteries or thrillers, but this book felt weirdly out of place, like Mike Hammer had time-traveled and fit into the 1980's about as well as Austin Powers did after being defrosted as a remnant from the 1960's, only at least Austin was funny and slightly endearing. Mike Hammer, who I remember from a TV series I had enjoyed at that particular time, is like a dinosaur who doesn't realize he's extinct. The writing made me laugh at times and cringe at others. All women in Mike Hammer's world wore no underwear and were stark naked and pressed against him within minutes of meeting him, while he played the tough guy and never even removed his gun, let alone any of his clothing. He's obsessed with his secretary, more for her curves than anything else, it seems, and the rest of the plot felt like disconnected items strung out on a clothesline and left to flap in the wind. So sad, when some of the prose was excellent, like the first page, which evoked the setting of NYC so vividly.
December 26, 2018
THis is the first modern era Mike Hammer book when Spillane returned to the typewriter in the late 80s. Mike is older now and more thoughtful, but still a brutal, dangerous thinking machine. This time he comes in on the weekend for a special meeting with a client only to find Velda unconscious and bleeding on the floor and a man tortured and killed in his guest seat in the office.
From there, things just get more complicated, and the federal government gets involved. In previous books Mike was pretty small scale, dealing with the police, but in the later books he gets into some pretty big cases. He's still tough enough at this point to manhandle problems, but he's doing more thinking at this point and is less driven by just brutal need for revenge as in some earlier novels.
Its a pretty good story that has the usual Spillane mix of pulp guns and babes with some very clever detective work and intelligent storytelling.
From there, things just get more complicated, and the federal government gets involved. In previous books Mike was pretty small scale, dealing with the police, but in the later books he gets into some pretty big cases. He's still tough enough at this point to manhandle problems, but he's doing more thinking at this point and is less driven by just brutal need for revenge as in some earlier novels.
Its a pretty good story that has the usual Spillane mix of pulp guns and babes with some very clever detective work and intelligent storytelling.
September 6, 2025
This Mickey Spillane thriller came in a bag of books I was dropping off for someone, when I realized I had never read one of the Mike Hammer books. It's classic hardboiled detective stuff and Mike Hammer is a tough guy/good guy character from a much earlier time than 1989 when it was published. Hammer arrived at his office and found Velda, his secretary and the unacknowledged love of his life, attacked and lying on the floor. In his his office was a brutally murdered man taped into his chair sitting at his own desk. Hoping to keep Velda alive, his immediate action was a call to his friend, Dr. Reedy, an excellent doctor who had medical experience from Vietnam. Then he called Captain Pat Chambers, his best friend who headed NYPD Homicide. Solving the murder had multiple law enforcement agencies sometimes butting heads and U.S. and international government involvement. It was often tense and complicated. -- A good read.
February 12, 2022
Dünya polisiye edebiyatının önemli isimlerinden Mickey Spillane'in meşhur Mike Hammer'ı... On üç romanlık serinin on ikincisi Ölüm Taciri (The Killing Man-1989).
İkinci Dünya Savaşı veteranı, özel dedektif Mike Hammer, çoğu zaman kayıp birilerinin izini sürer, yumruklarını ve 45'liğini bol bol konuşturur. Karşı cinse fazlasıyla düşkündür. NewYork polisinden Pat Chambers can dostu; sekreteri, biriciği, Velda en büyük yardımcısıdır. Akıcı serüvenlerinde kavga gürültü, argo, ego yarışları eksik olmaz. Bir nesli peşinden sürükleyen Hammer, dünyada iki yüz milyonu aşkın satış adetlerine ulaşmıştır.
"Mayk" Hammer, zamanında ülkemizde de yüz binlerce okuyucuyla buluşmuş, Spillane'in orijinalinden tercüme romanlarının dışında yüzlerce sahte macerası da yazılıp yayınlanmıştır. Hammer'ın serüvenlerini, gelen yoğun talep üzerine kaleme alan yazarlardan biri de Kemal Tahir'dir.
İkinci Dünya Savaşı veteranı, özel dedektif Mike Hammer, çoğu zaman kayıp birilerinin izini sürer, yumruklarını ve 45'liğini bol bol konuşturur. Karşı cinse fazlasıyla düşkündür. NewYork polisinden Pat Chambers can dostu; sekreteri, biriciği, Velda en büyük yardımcısıdır. Akıcı serüvenlerinde kavga gürültü, argo, ego yarışları eksik olmaz. Bir nesli peşinden sürükleyen Hammer, dünyada iki yüz milyonu aşkın satış adetlerine ulaşmıştır.
"Mayk" Hammer, zamanında ülkemizde de yüz binlerce okuyucuyla buluşmuş, Spillane'in orijinalinden tercüme romanlarının dışında yüzlerce sahte macerası da yazılıp yayınlanmıştır. Hammer'ın serüvenlerini, gelen yoğun talep üzerine kaleme alan yazarlardan biri de Kemal Tahir'dir.
July 5, 2023
Sono trascorsi 19 anni dal romanzo precedente con Mike Hammer protagonista e ho approcciato "L'uomo che uccide" con molte perplessità. Negli ultimi romanzi, la vena creativa di Spillane sembrava si stesse esaurendo, ma, dopo 19 anni, Spillane torna con un lavoro eccellente. Con una penna particolarmente ispirata, ci racconta di un'avventura molto intricata e molto "pulp", che vede, suo malgrado, il vecchio Mike al centro delle brame di un pericoloso assassino internazionale. Il detective privato non ha perso mordente e, anzi, è più duro e spietato che mai. Ottima la caratterizzazione dei personaggi di contorno e ben dosata la commistione tra mistero, azione e indagini poliziesche. Ottima rentrée.
April 4, 2025
This is the second to last Mike Hammer book that Spillane wrote and he went out in style! A finger hacking paid assassin, Velma itakes cabs when he does drink) in a coma, a tough but smart ice queen with political ambitions and a newly reformed Mike (he quit smoking and drinks less and takes a cab when he does) Who could ask for more. Still a very much hard boiled anachronism, Mike roams the Spillane still owns this b movie version of the noir tradition and shows it, wielding words and images with subtltely of a psycho with a lead pipe.
I for one think these bygone nearly forgotten writers,Stout, MacDonald and Spillane, need am lot more recognition for creating a world that so easily translated into the gaming universe where these comic book characters still thrive.
I for one think these bygone nearly forgotten writers,Stout, MacDonald and Spillane, need am lot more recognition for creating a world that so easily translated into the gaming universe where these comic book characters still thrive.
February 16, 2018
So long as Hammer wasn't hitting on women, this was fantastic. The moment he set eyes on a female and started thinking, my skin would twitch. The descriptions are lush, the plot complicated (possibly too complicated with a too-fast climax), the dialogue snappy. So it had a lot of good points to it but I'm more interested in reading the earlier ones than this one ever again. The strangely anachronistic man-out-of-time feel kept throwing me out of the story, unfortunately, as Hammer seems so very 50's but then we're hit with random comments about computers and AIDS and it just... Meh, I want to properly see Hammer in his home-time-zone.
April 18, 2025
I thought the anachronistic mismatch of Mike Hammer's later years was borne out of the Max Allan Collins collaborations/rewrites, but this is Spillane himself updating the character to a new era, and it shows even the 80s was decades too late for Hammer, let alone the 2000s and beyond. The era of Jack Ryan political thrillers isn't a place for a relic of the 40s. It makes the success of the TV show with Stacy Keach an interesting study object, as they managed to move the setting and keep the anachronism charming while toning down the character. Rather, in this novel, it feels like Spillane is chasing book trends with a character not suited for political intrigue.
August 28, 2017
This was my first Mickey Spillane novel and really, my first hard-boiled detective novel. I enjoyed this one, it was a real page-turner. Nothing too complicated as far as plot goes, but intriguing enough to look forward to it each time I opened the book. I was thrown for a bit when I realized it was set in modern times (early 90s, I think) and not in the classic 1940s era of detective novels, but this didn't effect the story as much as I thought it might. Overall, it was solid and I'll definitely pick up another Mike Hammer adventure if I come across one.
September 12, 2020
Going in for a rare Saturday appt, P.I. Mike Hammer opens his office door to a shocking scene: his secretary lies unconscious on the floor and a stranger lies dead in a chair, fingers missing and a cryptic note in his grasp. In his quest to find out who the dead stranger is and protect his secretary, Hammer will cross paths with the FBI and CIA. The chase is on as Hammer tries to outwit and outrun those who would see him dead.
Great book that brings back fond memories of the TV series of the 80's, for those of us old enough to remember it.
Great book that brings back fond memories of the TV series of the 80's, for those of us old enough to remember it.
May 29, 2023
This is my first Spillane. Not my last. Hardy Boys for grown ups. This is an enjoyable read. Very well written. Very entertaining. Some parts were distracting and probably unnecessary, but good finish. Good writing good description. The plot is easy to follow. Sometimes Chandler and Hammett have too many details to follow and I have trouble following the plot. But with this story I was drawn in and felt like I could put together some of the clues myself and wonder about the mystery myself. But in the end it was a good surprise.
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