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Mike Hammer #15
The Big Bang
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, Hammer—and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda—take 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.
247 pages, Hardcover
First published May 13, 2010
30 people are currently reading
260 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 69 reviews
November 26, 2018
Mike hammer takes on drug trade
February 4, 2020
Both Mike Hammer & the Spillane/MAC team have been a disappointment, but this was an exception. I'll put it down to my mood. It was fun & funny. You know how a movie can be so bad that it's entertaining? (Think "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" or "Our Man Flint".) This made that mark. There was barely a sentence where we weren't told just how tough & bad Hammer was, a gift to the ladies, & thorn in the sides of the authorities even as he cleans up messes too bad for them.
Narrated by Stacy Keach, who played MH on TV, is great, too. The way drugs were handled was better, although not great. That had to be MAC's influence since Spillane's ideas along the line were idiotic.
Surprisingly, it had a really strong & thoughtful ending. We're left hanging as to what Mike is going to do & the results of his choice are huge. I didn't see that coming, although the rest of the book was fairly predictable. That's why I'm bumping this to 4 stars. It deserves to stand above the rest.
So far, this is the best book by the team that I've read. If you liked the original stories, just written by MS, I think this is the closest one yet. My library has half a dozen of these & I don't read them often. They are a nice palate cleanser occasionally, though. Mindless fun, great when I'm not all there or have just finished a really thought-provoking book. This time was some of both.
Narrated by Stacy Keach, who played MH on TV, is great, too. The way drugs were handled was better, although not great. That had to be MAC's influence since Spillane's ideas along the line were idiotic.
Surprisingly, it had a really strong & thoughtful ending. We're left hanging as to what Mike is going to do & the results of his choice are huge. I didn't see that coming, although the rest of the book was fairly predictable. That's why I'm bumping this to 4 stars. It deserves to stand above the rest.
So far, this is the best book by the team that I've read. If you liked the original stories, just written by MS, I think this is the closest one yet. My library has half a dozen of these & I don't read them often. They are a nice palate cleanser occasionally, though. Mindless fun, great when I'm not all there or have just finished a really thought-provoking book. This time was some of both.
May 31, 2010
Is everybody talking about the new Mike Hammer or what????
There’s something about this Spillane/Collins novel that’s like comfort food. It’s like your favorite chair or jeans or pair of shoes. The world around you may be turning upside down, you may be going through some of the worst crap ever, but here’s Mike Hammer, Velda (before we learned her unlikely last name), Pat Chambers, and, of course, the .45, to make all the bad stuff go away.
I like The Big Bang. From the opening pages you know you’re in familiar territory. I don’t know why Spillane didn’t finish this book the first time around, but part of me is glad we have it to savor now. The last Hammer novels Spillane wrote (The Killing Man, Black Alley), were like watching an old friend get old. They didn’t have the punch the young tiger had. He was starting to slow down, and you hated to see him decline after so many great battles. The Goliath Bone was terrific, but you knew from page one that it was the end of the road. There would be nowhere to go after Hammer solved that particular mystery, and you almost didn’t want him to. You wanted it to go forever, because this time “the end” meant good-bye, and the subtle sadness that accompanied the last line was almost too much for you.
But now we have The Big Bang and it’s a throwback to the days when your hero was young and ready to tear the head off of any punk who crossed his path and you’re happy to remember him this way because this is how he should have always been.
You read it carefully. You know that every character, every line of dialogue, every seemingly innocent event actually means something in the story’s grand scheme, and you can’t wait to see how the tiger puts this one together. You can predict the surprises, and that’s part of the fun, but there’s always a twist that catches you off guard (you’re never quite as smart as the tiger.) The formula is there, it works, and you breathe a sigh of relief because this is like Mom’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes with a cold beer on the side. It never fails, and you never get tired of it.
The Big Bang is a double treat because Max Allan Collins is riding shotgun, and there’s great fun in trying and guess where Spillane ends and Collins begins and where they mix together. Sometimes you think you know, because sometimes Hammer comes off sounding like Nate Heller, but just sometimes. And you don’t care. Nobody but Collins could complete Spillane’s work, and only a fool would try. And who knows? One likes to think that, because of their relationship, some of Collins rubbed off on Spillane, because Spillane doesn’t strike you as somebody who ever stopped trying to learn something new and The Big Bang is the result.
So get out and get The Big Bang. Race along with Mike Hammer as to cracks another case with Velda and Pat Chambers providing back-up. The book is short and you’ll be sorry it’s short but your old friend is back. For a little while, the tiger is alive and kicking, just how you remembered; for a little while, you can forget about good-bye.
There’s something about this Spillane/Collins novel that’s like comfort food. It’s like your favorite chair or jeans or pair of shoes. The world around you may be turning upside down, you may be going through some of the worst crap ever, but here’s Mike Hammer, Velda (before we learned her unlikely last name), Pat Chambers, and, of course, the .45, to make all the bad stuff go away.
I like The Big Bang. From the opening pages you know you’re in familiar territory. I don’t know why Spillane didn’t finish this book the first time around, but part of me is glad we have it to savor now. The last Hammer novels Spillane wrote (The Killing Man, Black Alley), were like watching an old friend get old. They didn’t have the punch the young tiger had. He was starting to slow down, and you hated to see him decline after so many great battles. The Goliath Bone was terrific, but you knew from page one that it was the end of the road. There would be nowhere to go after Hammer solved that particular mystery, and you almost didn’t want him to. You wanted it to go forever, because this time “the end” meant good-bye, and the subtle sadness that accompanied the last line was almost too much for you.
But now we have The Big Bang and it’s a throwback to the days when your hero was young and ready to tear the head off of any punk who crossed his path and you’re happy to remember him this way because this is how he should have always been.
You read it carefully. You know that every character, every line of dialogue, every seemingly innocent event actually means something in the story’s grand scheme, and you can’t wait to see how the tiger puts this one together. You can predict the surprises, and that’s part of the fun, but there’s always a twist that catches you off guard (you’re never quite as smart as the tiger.) The formula is there, it works, and you breathe a sigh of relief because this is like Mom’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes with a cold beer on the side. It never fails, and you never get tired of it.
The Big Bang is a double treat because Max Allan Collins is riding shotgun, and there’s great fun in trying and guess where Spillane ends and Collins begins and where they mix together. Sometimes you think you know, because sometimes Hammer comes off sounding like Nate Heller, but just sometimes. And you don’t care. Nobody but Collins could complete Spillane’s work, and only a fool would try. And who knows? One likes to think that, because of their relationship, some of Collins rubbed off on Spillane, because Spillane doesn’t strike you as somebody who ever stopped trying to learn something new and The Big Bang is the result.
So get out and get The Big Bang. Race along with Mike Hammer as to cracks another case with Velda and Pat Chambers providing back-up. The book is short and you’ll be sorry it’s short but your old friend is back. For a little while, the tiger is alive and kicking, just how you remembered; for a little while, you can forget about good-bye.
November 10, 2010
Take Mickey Spillane's tough guy P.I. Mike Hammer: love him or hate him. I favor the former. My late grandfather read him, so maybe it's a nostalgia trip for me. Who cares why? Fiction is to entertain, and Mickey/Mike deliver the goods. This caper finds Mike in the very 1960s New York City (the manuscript finished by Collins after Spillane's death) chasing dope pimps (the huge shipment of heroin is "the big bang") who want to kill him. Sometimes I got a little disoriented in the plot, but my late at night reading time may be to blame. The prose is smooth and, at times, downright stylish. Plus Mike loves all the ladies he ever meets. He's a knight errant packing a .45. Mess with him at your peril.
December 21, 2012
Mike Hammer is minding his own business when he walks out of a building and witnesses a brutal assault. Being who he is, he teaches the thugs a rather harsh lesson and helps the kid they assaulted get back on his feet. He has every intention of going about his day, but when the bad guys start coming after him, he gets involved. Despite being warned away by an assistant DA, his investigation takes him into New York’s underworld of heroin users and dealers, which means there are several attempts on his life, and the bodies of bad guys tend to pile up. Assisting Hammer every step of the way is his lovely assistant Velda, who has brains to go with her brunette beauty.
Of course, Hammer is a man’s man, so fidelity is not on his plate, but in true pulp fashion, just about every dame on these pages, save Velda, is a femme fatale. This story is set in the ultra-mod 1960s, and using Austin Powers movies as a visual reference helped immensely with the fashions described, particularly those of mobster Jay Wren. Hammer gets to the bottom of his mystery with his trademark wit, grit, and excessive use of force, with plenty of asides on beautiful women and the state of the world in general. Though this was my first Mike Hammer experience, I love my pulps, and I will definitely read more.
Of course, Hammer is a man’s man, so fidelity is not on his plate, but in true pulp fashion, just about every dame on these pages, save Velda, is a femme fatale. This story is set in the ultra-mod 1960s, and using Austin Powers movies as a visual reference helped immensely with the fashions described, particularly those of mobster Jay Wren. Hammer gets to the bottom of his mystery with his trademark wit, grit, and excessive use of force, with plenty of asides on beautiful women and the state of the world in general. Though this was my first Mike Hammer experience, I love my pulps, and I will definitely read more.
March 31, 2020
This was my first Mike Hammer story that was co-written by Max Allan Collins. Still the same fast paced and action driven story I was used to but with slightly different perspectives of the character. Well written and very mush in the format of the original stories I enjoyed this just as much as the Spillane Hammer books. Recommended
January 5, 2026
This was okay, picked it up at a used book store in Tasmania because I finished my others I brought. Deff written by an old white dude. A bit dated (in terms of views on women, etc) but it was a good enough read. About an old time private investigator during the 60s in NYC. A mystery premise.
May 2, 2018
The Big Band is a lost Mike Hammer book written in the 60’s, and does the writing prove it. I completely enjoyed this book, it was a time when women worked as stenog’s were often called broads and kitten but still the time of the Women’s Lib. movement when women were free thinkers, entrepreneur’s and gun toting Private Investigators.
July 2, 2016
I was in the midst of an audiobook drought when I picked out book 47. Both the books I wanted to listen to were temporarily unavailable; when the borrowing time had expired I had to get back in line for them. But I had lots of driving to do, so I went looking for something that would be entertaining. Remembering that I'd enjoyed Joyland I looked at some other Hard Case Crime books and picked out this one.
I'd never read a Mickey Spillane book before, mostly because I'm not really big on mysteries. As mysteries go, this wasn't much of one, but I kind of gathered that wasn't the point. This was somewhere between a real mystery and a Quentin Tarantino gangster movie. It was really a pretty basic book, which isn't to say bad but also not really something that made me want to read more of his books. I kind of get the feeling that if you've read one Mickey Spillane book, you've read them all.
The basic plot is this: Mike Hammer gets back into New York after a trip to Florida to recuperate from a knifing. On his first day back, a kid almost gets beaten up by goons in front of him, but he intercedes and beats the attackers up. That gets him embroiled in a gang war of sorts between a guy called "The Snowbird" and some mobster, with a doctor and the kid also involved as well; the plot hinges around the fact that there is a shortage of drugs on the streets but a big shipment -- the "Big Bang" of the title -- is headed in.
This being a pulp fiction Mike Hammer book, the characters are basically Dick Tracy cartoons: all the women are voluptuous sex kittens (except one skinny girl that pops out of nowhere to be interviewed by Hammer, who is told that Hammer prefers them skinny), the mobsters are cordial but cold ("The Snowbird" is somehow foppish, described as speaking in a fake British accent and sounding like he dresses like Austin Powers), the cops are suspicious, the G-men are straight arrows, and Mike Hammer is basically Batman but with a gun and a looser moral code. (Well, looser than Comic Book Batman. Batman vs. Superman Batman is more of a killer.)
Mostly the book just chugs along, hitting all the marks you expect, and moving where you figure it will go. I was kind of surprised at the hint of a moral question at the end, when Hammer has a decision to make about whether he should stop the drug shipment or not (SPOILER ALERT: the drug shipment may be tainted, so that it'll kill a lot of junkies.) There's a lot of sort of social judgment and hamhanded commentary on issues like the drug war, but it doesn't interfere too much.
This was a book that Spillane is supposed to have written in the 1960s and then left on the shelf for decades before whoever this co-author is got it out (with permission I guess) and maybe added or edited it a bit? It had the feel of filler, right down to the generic title and the so-so mystery/gang war at the center of it. Probably it was just put out to make a buck off something Spillane never bothered to publish himself. So maybe pure Spillane might be a bit better, but I doubt I'll be checking anything else by him out.
I'd never read a Mickey Spillane book before, mostly because I'm not really big on mysteries. As mysteries go, this wasn't much of one, but I kind of gathered that wasn't the point. This was somewhere between a real mystery and a Quentin Tarantino gangster movie. It was really a pretty basic book, which isn't to say bad but also not really something that made me want to read more of his books. I kind of get the feeling that if you've read one Mickey Spillane book, you've read them all.
The basic plot is this: Mike Hammer gets back into New York after a trip to Florida to recuperate from a knifing. On his first day back, a kid almost gets beaten up by goons in front of him, but he intercedes and beats the attackers up. That gets him embroiled in a gang war of sorts between a guy called "The Snowbird" and some mobster, with a doctor and the kid also involved as well; the plot hinges around the fact that there is a shortage of drugs on the streets but a big shipment -- the "Big Bang" of the title -- is headed in.
This being a pulp fiction Mike Hammer book, the characters are basically Dick Tracy cartoons: all the women are voluptuous sex kittens (except one skinny girl that pops out of nowhere to be interviewed by Hammer, who is told that Hammer prefers them skinny), the mobsters are cordial but cold ("The Snowbird" is somehow foppish, described as speaking in a fake British accent and sounding like he dresses like Austin Powers), the cops are suspicious, the G-men are straight arrows, and Mike Hammer is basically Batman but with a gun and a looser moral code. (Well, looser than Comic Book Batman. Batman vs. Superman Batman is more of a killer.)
Mostly the book just chugs along, hitting all the marks you expect, and moving where you figure it will go. I was kind of surprised at the hint of a moral question at the end, when Hammer has a decision to make about whether he should stop the drug shipment or not (SPOILER ALERT: the drug shipment may be tainted, so that it'll kill a lot of junkies.) There's a lot of sort of social judgment and hamhanded commentary on issues like the drug war, but it doesn't interfere too much.
This was a book that Spillane is supposed to have written in the 1960s and then left on the shelf for decades before whoever this co-author is got it out (with permission I guess) and maybe added or edited it a bit? It had the feel of filler, right down to the generic title and the so-so mystery/gang war at the center of it. Probably it was just put out to make a buck off something Spillane never bothered to publish himself. So maybe pure Spillane might be a bit better, but I doubt I'll be checking anything else by him out.
July 29, 2010
Make no mistake; Mickey Spillane's work is pulp. It was pulp when I, Jury came out in 1948, and it's pulp now. It has never received the belated critical acclaim of Hammett, Chandler, or even his contemporary, Jim Thompson. What Spillane did achieve, was selling a shit-load of books (over 200 million world-wide), relying on an oh-so American combination of graphic vigilante violence and lurid sex.
When Spillane came home from WWII and invented his signature character, Mike Hammer, he was giving birth to a representation of the post-war American male id. Hammer appealed to the blue collar G.I.s, who entered the monotony of suburban life after the chaos and anarchy of war. Unlike the moral ambiguity and elegant toughness of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, Hammer was a dogface, just like them, and though they could no longer solve their problems with a Colt .45, Hammer could. Mike Hammer was the prototype for James Bond, Dirty Harry, and every other wisecracking tough-guy since, and the cultural significance of Spillane cannot be over-stated.
During his later years, Spillane took a shine to a young journeyman writer named Max Allan Collins, best know for the "Road To Perdition" graphic novels. Collins, no stranger to the pulp genre, has paid his rent writing novelizations of popular films and did an extended stint as a writer for the "Dick Tracy" comic strip. His devotion to popular fiction and his scholarly dedication to the pulp genre made him the perfect writer for Spillane to tap to take charge of his unfinished works.
In The Big Bang, Collins shows his ability to take on the voice of the master, serving up 247 pages of terse, bloody, libidinous and completely politically incorrect first-person tough-guy story telling. Set in the 60's, Hammer takes on the hairy hippies and drug-addled crazies of swinging Greenwich Village, blowing open the biggest heroin ring in the cities history.
Unlike Robert B. Parker's attempt to complete Chandler's unfinished Poodle Springs, The Big Bang works precisely because of Collins skill to work unrepentantly in the brutal style of Spillane. Where Parker's voice was unmistakable and Poodle Springs read more like a throwback Spenser novel, Collins rarely lets on that this book was completed in the 21st century. He occasionally slips in some detail to provide historical context, which Spillane never would have bothered with. Otherwise, this is a seamless, classic Hammer book.
this review is from my rag, OBSOLETE Magazine. Check it out here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/OBSOLET...
When Spillane came home from WWII and invented his signature character, Mike Hammer, he was giving birth to a representation of the post-war American male id. Hammer appealed to the blue collar G.I.s, who entered the monotony of suburban life after the chaos and anarchy of war. Unlike the moral ambiguity and elegant toughness of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, Hammer was a dogface, just like them, and though they could no longer solve their problems with a Colt .45, Hammer could. Mike Hammer was the prototype for James Bond, Dirty Harry, and every other wisecracking tough-guy since, and the cultural significance of Spillane cannot be over-stated.
During his later years, Spillane took a shine to a young journeyman writer named Max Allan Collins, best know for the "Road To Perdition" graphic novels. Collins, no stranger to the pulp genre, has paid his rent writing novelizations of popular films and did an extended stint as a writer for the "Dick Tracy" comic strip. His devotion to popular fiction and his scholarly dedication to the pulp genre made him the perfect writer for Spillane to tap to take charge of his unfinished works.
In The Big Bang, Collins shows his ability to take on the voice of the master, serving up 247 pages of terse, bloody, libidinous and completely politically incorrect first-person tough-guy story telling. Set in the 60's, Hammer takes on the hairy hippies and drug-addled crazies of swinging Greenwich Village, blowing open the biggest heroin ring in the cities history.
Unlike Robert B. Parker's attempt to complete Chandler's unfinished Poodle Springs, The Big Bang works precisely because of Collins skill to work unrepentantly in the brutal style of Spillane. Where Parker's voice was unmistakable and Poodle Springs read more like a throwback Spenser novel, Collins rarely lets on that this book was completed in the 21st century. He occasionally slips in some detail to provide historical context, which Spillane never would have bothered with. Otherwise, this is a seamless, classic Hammer book.
this review is from my rag, OBSOLETE Magazine. Check it out here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/OBSOLET...
February 18, 2017
The word "Sufficient" comes to mind.
September 26, 2015
Recovering from a near-fatal injury, Mike Hammer is on the streets of Manhattan for less than a day before intervening in the apparent mugging of an unassuming kid. One knife attack later, and the private eye becomes immersed in the seedy underworld of illegal narcotic trafficking, matching his wits and fists against dealers, doctors, the D.A., and the Mafia.
By now, the concept of Mike Hammer being in the wrong place at the wrong time has become a familiar means of getting things rolling. It is an effective lure, for him as well as the reader. Hammer tries to do the right thing by helping someone in trouble, but typically his basic instincts get him deep into a situation that’s much deadlier than he’d bargained for. THE BIG BANG has the feel of a more back-to-basics Hammer tale; he’s on his home turf of New York, with Velda Sterling and Pat Chambers by his side, faced not with the KGB agents of COMPLEX 90, nor with the terrorists of THE GOLIATH BONE, but with the bona fide old-school gangsters and hit men he’s used to pummeling, along with the drug pushers and suppliers that evoke the extremes of a decade’s counter-culture. Add the distraction of a voluptuous femme fatale, and all the ingredients are in place for a 1940s mystery with a 1960s setting. It all builds to an ending which, Max Allan Collins states, was one of Spillane’s personal favorites. On reading that last page, it’s easy to see why.
THE BIG BANG is easy on the eyes and a treat that satiates one’s craving for good old fashioned two-fisted justice. It’s psychedelic film noir at its finest.
By now, the concept of Mike Hammer being in the wrong place at the wrong time has become a familiar means of getting things rolling. It is an effective lure, for him as well as the reader. Hammer tries to do the right thing by helping someone in trouble, but typically his basic instincts get him deep into a situation that’s much deadlier than he’d bargained for. THE BIG BANG has the feel of a more back-to-basics Hammer tale; he’s on his home turf of New York, with Velda Sterling and Pat Chambers by his side, faced not with the KGB agents of COMPLEX 90, nor with the terrorists of THE GOLIATH BONE, but with the bona fide old-school gangsters and hit men he’s used to pummeling, along with the drug pushers and suppliers that evoke the extremes of a decade’s counter-culture. Add the distraction of a voluptuous femme fatale, and all the ingredients are in place for a 1940s mystery with a 1960s setting. It all builds to an ending which, Max Allan Collins states, was one of Spillane’s personal favorites. On reading that last page, it’s easy to see why.
THE BIG BANG is easy on the eyes and a treat that satiates one’s craving for good old fashioned two-fisted justice. It’s psychedelic film noir at its finest.
March 13, 2016
THE BIG BANG was written by Mickey Spillane in the mid 1960s and finished by Max Allan Collins around 2010. Mike Hammer is back in the Big Apple and stumbles across what looks like a mugging. He handles the trio of young hopheads who are attacking another youth, only this one not on any drug. Seems the trio were trying to pressure the hospital messenger into stealing drugs out of the local hospital’s pharmacy but the kid wanted nothing to do with it.
Hammer is on the case, trying to crack a drug ring while protecting both the kid and his family from reprisals. If you have read any of the Hammer books you will know that Betsy, his .45, gets a work out, as does his knuckles. He gets knocked down and threatened but little things like that won’t stop Mike Hammer.
The local DA’s assistant is trying to make a name for himself by hassling Hammer but again Mike can take care of himself. Pat Chambers is along for the ride trying to look out for his old friend, and the delicious Velma keeps things neat and orderly while packing a pistol of her own.
The story is compelling as Hammer takes on both the small-time pushers and the big-league drug traffickers. The ending is pure Hammer that will have you cheering and outraged simultaneously. Another fun escapist novel, and in keeping with both Spillane’s legacy and Collins’s own unique work. A winner from page one.
Hammer is on the case, trying to crack a drug ring while protecting both the kid and his family from reprisals. If you have read any of the Hammer books you will know that Betsy, his .45, gets a work out, as does his knuckles. He gets knocked down and threatened but little things like that won’t stop Mike Hammer.
The local DA’s assistant is trying to make a name for himself by hassling Hammer but again Mike can take care of himself. Pat Chambers is along for the ride trying to look out for his old friend, and the delicious Velma keeps things neat and orderly while packing a pistol of her own.
The story is compelling as Hammer takes on both the small-time pushers and the big-league drug traffickers. The ending is pure Hammer that will have you cheering and outraged simultaneously. Another fun escapist novel, and in keeping with both Spillane’s legacy and Collins’s own unique work. A winner from page one.
November 20, 2011
I was really excited to hear there was a "lost" Hammer novel from the 1960s...and I wasn't disappointed. An old-fashioned Mike Hammer novel, where he beats and shoots the bad guys to a bloody pulp and gets the girl.
People who aren't familiar with Spillane's writings may not get this book. You have to dig that old noir style of pulp fiction...don't look for an overly complicated mystery or brilliant deductions by a mega-mind detective...when Hammer wants info, he beats or sweet talks it out of people.
This novel is a quick read and has lots of great imagery, especially when Spillane describes New York City in the late 60s. It's like a sex-and-violence-filled time capsule.
The only reason I give this book 4 rather than 5 stars is that it's just a little short of Spillane's other works. Granted, it's hard when another great writer with his own style (Max Allen Collins) is entrusted finish a book for someone as great as Spillane, but there seems to be a few things (like the curse words peppered throughout that were absent from most of Spillane's other works) just a little out of whack. That said, it's still a spectacularly enjoyable book, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the genre.
Christopher Pinto,
Author, Murder Behind the Closet Door, Murder on Tiki Island
People who aren't familiar with Spillane's writings may not get this book. You have to dig that old noir style of pulp fiction...don't look for an overly complicated mystery or brilliant deductions by a mega-mind detective...when Hammer wants info, he beats or sweet talks it out of people.
This novel is a quick read and has lots of great imagery, especially when Spillane describes New York City in the late 60s. It's like a sex-and-violence-filled time capsule.
The only reason I give this book 4 rather than 5 stars is that it's just a little short of Spillane's other works. Granted, it's hard when another great writer with his own style (Max Allen Collins) is entrusted finish a book for someone as great as Spillane, but there seems to be a few things (like the curse words peppered throughout that were absent from most of Spillane's other works) just a little out of whack. That said, it's still a spectacularly enjoyable book, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the genre.
Christopher Pinto,
Author, Murder Behind the Closet Door, Murder on Tiki Island
November 30, 2012
Misogynistic? Check. Sexist? Check. Chauvinist? Check. Unreconstructued? Certainly. This mid-1960s offering from Mickey Spillane, about his famous Private Detective Mike Hammer, lacks the charm of Spillane's late 1940s Hardboiled Mike Hammer novels, it still has the, at best, dubious approach to female characterisation, however the ability to write more frankly about sex does nothing but hurt the likeability of the novel. Hammer is parodic in The Big Bang, he has a Sean Connery as Bond way with all female characters, and his approach to violence is as fascistic as ever, though in this novel it is not the Communists but rather the swinging Sixties and the stereotypical hippies who get the wrong end of Hammer's ire. It is not an awful novel, the plot is pretty well put together and Spillane still has a good ear for Hardboiled dialogue, however in comparison with the first six Mike Hammer books, that are genuinely well constructed noirs, it is quite leaden footed, with Hammer's disturbing sexuality and propensity to violence at the forefront, though never taken far enough to make it a satire on all that came before.
July 4, 2013
A chance encounter spawns a large scale investigation into drug trafficking and mob business with Hammer in the thick of it - wrong place, right time for the hard-hitting iconic PI. The tried and true formula of the Hammer novels is on display here with the majority of his cases taking upon some personal vendetta or thirst for vengeance. Hammer’s life is in constant danger, a fact that doesn’t escape his shapely secretary and PI in her own right, Velda. In THE BIG BANG, the relationship between the two is more paramount than some other instalments making an interesting discussion point for when Hammer strays towards another warm and inviting body.
Set in the 1960’s, THE BIG BANG has the old school Hammer feel to it but is written in a modern way thanks to Max Allan Collins. For mind, this is one of the better and more complete novels with the plot going in so many different directions yet finishing in a single direction.
Overall I really enjoyed this newer Hammer novel and am grateful that Max Allan Collins is able to recreate in part this hardboiled hero in concert with Spillanes’ partial manuscripts.
Set in the 1960’s, THE BIG BANG has the old school Hammer feel to it but is written in a modern way thanks to Max Allan Collins. For mind, this is one of the better and more complete novels with the plot going in so many different directions yet finishing in a single direction.
Overall I really enjoyed this newer Hammer novel and am grateful that Max Allan Collins is able to recreate in part this hardboiled hero in concert with Spillanes’ partial manuscripts.
February 11, 2017
Giving this a four just because it was a fun read, better than most PI novels.
May 27, 2012
According to the authors note (Max Allan Collins) this was a manuscript that was written in the 1960's but Spillane never finished it off for publication. It was almost complete and had the ending that Spillane liked very much but just needed polishing.
It's a set in the 1960's so there are some anachronistic descriptions of hippies, bell bottoms. Fun to read something that was reflects the time it was written in so well. Mike Hammer get's up to all his old tricks and in the end Spillane leaves you guessing as to the ultimate outcome. Certainly a different ending to all his other books which tend to be very clear cut good guy/bad guy, bad guy loses.
Reading this I felt I could tell which bits Max Allan Collins wrote or fleshed out. Not a bad read if you like this genre, but not quite up to the standard of classic Spillane unfortunately.
It's a set in the 1960's so there are some anachronistic descriptions of hippies, bell bottoms. Fun to read something that was reflects the time it was written in so well. Mike Hammer get's up to all his old tricks and in the end Spillane leaves you guessing as to the ultimate outcome. Certainly a different ending to all his other books which tend to be very clear cut good guy/bad guy, bad guy loses.
Reading this I felt I could tell which bits Max Allan Collins wrote or fleshed out. Not a bad read if you like this genre, but not quite up to the standard of classic Spillane unfortunately.
February 2, 2022
My first Mickey Spillane novel and it certainly wouldn't be my last. In fact, I'm going to check out another one of his novels soon. A lot of big breasted women in NYC, don't see that many here where I live :( . I like the characters as well as the sharp, direct dialogue. The ending of this novel has enough violence for an R rating, but neverless was nice to end the novel. Mike Hammer is trying to figure out where a shipment of drugs is coming into Port before it is distributed within the City and he has his hands full trying to stay alive as well. Good Read.
January 2, 2022
This is one of those situations where you shouldn't judge a book by its cover (although the reason why I am giving it four stars instead of five is because of the cover).
A nice guy falls into a bad crowd and becomes addicted to drugs and it's up to Mike Hammer to figure out why and whose behind it.
Like most Mike Hammer stories, the situation starts out small and leads to something bigger and unexpected and like all Mike Hammer stories, the audience gets a shock in the end.
A nice guy falls into a bad crowd and becomes addicted to drugs and it's up to Mike Hammer to figure out why and whose behind it.
Like most Mike Hammer stories, the situation starts out small and leads to something bigger and unexpected and like all Mike Hammer stories, the audience gets a shock in the end.
November 26, 2018
A Mike Hammer novel written as a collaboration of Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Colllins. It was written / published in 2010 but its set in the late sixties… somewhere between Spillane's The Body Lovers (1967) and his Survival… Zero! (1970).
"She was out of the designer dress as quick as a jump cut in a movie, and although I was trying to swear off those wild oats Velda had said to get sown, I was human - that curvy body with the dramatic tan lines and the puffy, hard-tipped areolas against stark white flesh and the dark pubic triangle against that same startling white was mine for the asking, without asking, and as she began by falling to her knees to worship the part of me that seemed to be in charge."
Now, I don't know if that's a run-on sentence and who am I to judge, but I could clearly follow along with what the author was communicating. Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer seems all-grown-up.
The story starts out in a fairly typical fashion, our hero coming to the rescue of a stranger; like an urban knight in somewhat shining armor. After saving a hospital bike messenger from three youthful offenders, killing two and hospitalizing the third, Mike soon finds his way fighting an uphill battle against corruption, deception and narcotics in swinging sixties New York. Max Alan Collins weaves this story from a partial manuscript of Spillane's from the sixties. Its classic Hammer kicking ass and taking no names from a chic village pottery vender shop to a swinging nightclub and a city hospital connection to the drugs trade.
The pacing of the is suspenseful and packed with violence around every corner and sex around every other corner. The action reaches its climax is the antagonist's lair complete with 60's style fashion the description of which is worthy of an early Robert B Parker Spenser novel… pure Austin Powers baby. But what really set this novel's mood, or outlook is the ambiguous ending… Does Mike say something, or is he the urban knight that see's past the immediate crisis for the future's possibility? Darkness or the Light?
"She was out of the designer dress as quick as a jump cut in a movie, and although I was trying to swear off those wild oats Velda had said to get sown, I was human - that curvy body with the dramatic tan lines and the puffy, hard-tipped areolas against stark white flesh and the dark pubic triangle against that same startling white was mine for the asking, without asking, and as she began by falling to her knees to worship the part of me that seemed to be in charge."
Now, I don't know if that's a run-on sentence and who am I to judge, but I could clearly follow along with what the author was communicating. Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer seems all-grown-up.
The story starts out in a fairly typical fashion, our hero coming to the rescue of a stranger; like an urban knight in somewhat shining armor. After saving a hospital bike messenger from three youthful offenders, killing two and hospitalizing the third, Mike soon finds his way fighting an uphill battle against corruption, deception and narcotics in swinging sixties New York. Max Alan Collins weaves this story from a partial manuscript of Spillane's from the sixties. Its classic Hammer kicking ass and taking no names from a chic village pottery vender shop to a swinging nightclub and a city hospital connection to the drugs trade.
The pacing of the is suspenseful and packed with violence around every corner and sex around every other corner. The action reaches its climax is the antagonist's lair complete with 60's style fashion the description of which is worthy of an early Robert B Parker Spenser novel… pure Austin Powers baby. But what really set this novel's mood, or outlook is the ambiguous ending… Does Mike say something, or is he the urban knight that see's past the immediate crisis for the future's possibility? Darkness or the Light?
June 21, 2017
Mickey Spillane has left us, but Mike Hammer lives on. The toughest, most hard-nosed private investigator of the twentieth century has been resurrected by Max Allan Collins from the unfinished manuscripts of Mickey Spillane. And, boy, is this is a great story.
The action starts with the very first sentence. Within moments of Hammer returning to New York from convalescing in Florida, he walks out of a building and two thugs in shoulder-length hair, bell-bottoms-flying (it is set in the Sixties), wade into a poor kid with a "double-length of bicycle chain ready to whip into the head of the groggy short-haired kid." Hammer being Hammer is no wallflower and steps into the action, "smash[ing] the tie-dyed slob with the chain." his face
"exploded into a bloody mess" before he backflipped to the pavement and under the car. Talk about starting with a bang.
This is the old Mike Hammer just as rough and tough as always, ready to wreck vengeance on evildoers, deal with the consequences later. Hammer is in more brawls than you can count and there are too many dead bodies lying in his wake to imagine. Self-defense, you know. It's not his fault. Trouble finds him even if Captain Pat Chambers has trouble believing that.
And, no Mike Hammer story is complete without Velda, his secretarand fiance for over a decade, she of the "deep, dark tresses falling in a pageboy that fashion had long since left behind." She of the "lush red-lipsticked mouth that made a guy consider doing the kinds of things that get you arrested in some states..." Hammer has it bad for her, staring at her legs from the inner office. She is also a licensed agent and just as deadly as Hammer. You can certainly understand Hammer's fascination with her even when he is distracted by the blonde "with the kind of curves even a loose-fitting outfit like that couldn't hide."
It is all told with a terrific deadpan sense of humor. And, there is the right amount of action and titillation to make the modern reader understand why the Spillane novels were so controversial with critics and so loved by the reading public.
The action starts with the very first sentence. Within moments of Hammer returning to New York from convalescing in Florida, he walks out of a building and two thugs in shoulder-length hair, bell-bottoms-flying (it is set in the Sixties), wade into a poor kid with a "double-length of bicycle chain ready to whip into the head of the groggy short-haired kid." Hammer being Hammer is no wallflower and steps into the action, "smash[ing] the tie-dyed slob with the chain." his face
"exploded into a bloody mess" before he backflipped to the pavement and under the car. Talk about starting with a bang.
This is the old Mike Hammer just as rough and tough as always, ready to wreck vengeance on evildoers, deal with the consequences later. Hammer is in more brawls than you can count and there are too many dead bodies lying in his wake to imagine. Self-defense, you know. It's not his fault. Trouble finds him even if Captain Pat Chambers has trouble believing that.
And, no Mike Hammer story is complete without Velda, his secretarand fiance for over a decade, she of the "deep, dark tresses falling in a pageboy that fashion had long since left behind." She of the "lush red-lipsticked mouth that made a guy consider doing the kinds of things that get you arrested in some states..." Hammer has it bad for her, staring at her legs from the inner office. She is also a licensed agent and just as deadly as Hammer. You can certainly understand Hammer's fascination with her even when he is distracted by the blonde "with the kind of curves even a loose-fitting outfit like that couldn't hide."
It is all told with a terrific deadpan sense of humor. And, there is the right amount of action and titillation to make the modern reader understand why the Spillane novels were so controversial with critics and so loved by the reading public.
May 3, 2023
If you like Mike Hammer you will like this. Collins finishing another of Spillane’s unfinished scripts does an excellent job. The mystery is a good but the portrait of the 1960’s/70’s drug trade does not offer anything new. 99.9% of this book is standard Mike Hammer and that is a good thing for fans. People read these books for characters not wildly original plot lines. The only real surprise is in the last scene which is a real twist. I am assuming that the ending was Spillane’s because it is so radical I don’t think Collins would have gone there on his own with another author’s legacy that has been entrusted to him.
December 27, 2024
Ancora uno dei lavori del vecchio Spillane "recuperati" da Max Allan Collins, con protagonista quel brutto ceffo di Mike Hammer. Che si voglia credere o meno che sia tutto frutto della penna di Spillane (e non di una libera licenza di Collins), è una storia in due tempi: la prima parte è un po' lenta e non molto interessante, dalla metà in poi però la trama decolla, per planare alla fine con qualche fuoco pirotecnico misto ad allucinazioni da LSD. Sicuramente non memorabile, ma per i nostalgici del vecchio Hammer qualcosa da salvare c'è.
May 9, 2018
This is supposedly a long-forgotten manuscript of Spillane's handed off to co-author Collins many moons ago. The novel is set in the '60s, but the language and mood just doesn't seem to fit. Also, there's some preachy parts against the drug trade that just don't seem "right" for Mike Hammer. If you're a fan of the old-fashioned, hard-boiled gumshoe stories, it's gritty enough with lots of dead bodies and mangled bad guys, otherwise pass.
May 14, 2018
Classic Mike Hammer
May 2, 2020
One of the best detective novels ever written.
December 16, 2020
This w as fun to read even if it as Oder
September 10, 2022
An entertaining read.
January 10, 2023
I like a good Noir. Mike Hammer is from a whole other. He kills lots of bad guys in very graphic ways that are unbelievable. He is the epitome of manly and not in a good way.
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