“There's a kind of power about Mickey Spillane that no other writer can imitate.”—The New York TimesWith his trend-setting Mike Hammer detective novels, Mickey Spillane shot to superstardom as one of the most notorious bestselling sensations in publishing history. This powerhouse collection includes three of the master's long-out-of-print greatest novels—together for the first time in one explosive The Big KillOne Lonely NightKiss Me, DeadlyIncludes a special introduction by Shamus and Edgar Award-winner Lawrence Block
Mickey 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.
I just finished and reviewed the third book in this volume: "Kiss Me, Deadly." And I also watched the film of "Kiss Me Deadly" a week or so ago (as good as the book!). So I've read, now, these first six in order, plus a few later ones that I read first. They really should be read in order as there are recurring characters and a very good narrative, good character arcs. I don't know how long or how many of these Hammer stories continue with a narrative, but I'll find out. The third book of the first volume, "Vengence Is Mine" ends with a big scene involving Hammer's dream lady, Juno. Now, here, the third book in the second volume, "Kiss Me, Deadly" ends in a similar big scene with Hammer's second-in-command/secretary Velma and another woman. But I've already read the next 2, books 7 and 8, and oh, the narrative continues...does it get better? I'll be reviewing further Hammer adventures. There is a very good reason these novels were massive bestsellers: they were good, they ARE good. Yes, it's like binge watching, say, CSI: each episode hits certain notes at certain times. But that's fine!
Spillane was one of the masters of noir hardboiled fiction and this volume collecting three stories surrounding his tough-guy hero Mike Hammer showcases his excellence in this genre. Hammer is a hard drinking, brawling, womanizing hero that hearkens back to an older, PC-less time. Through all the rough and tumble action, the stories are layered, balanced, and keep you guessing until the end. Crime fiction at its best.
Mickey Spillane, while perhaps not as revered in literary circles as Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, provides what could be the greatest raw detective-adventure stories. Spillane's Hammer is more raw and brutal than either Hammett's Spade or Chandler's Marlowe; I think he's also more satisfying. I admire Spillane as a writer for his honesty, if nothing else. A humorous anecdote has it that while on a radio show with a couple of other writers, the writers and host were quite keen on talking about the motives one might have for becoming a writer. After the others gave artistic reasons, Spillane abruptly asked, "What about money?". The host nervously reminded Spillane that he had agreed to do the show without pay. Spillane stated that his main reason for having become an author was to pay his mortgage. Spillane provides more streamlined, more action-filled stories than many other famous detective novelists, and I have learned from his writing that there is nothing wrong with just banging out an enjoyable story for money.
I have now read The Mike Hammer Collection Volumes 1, 2, and 3. That's it. I'm done. No more. This guy is so annoying to me. Every woman he meets is drop dead gorgeous and within 2 minutes of meeting him falls madly in love with him. Yeah, right. He claims to be in love with his secretary Velda but she is the only woman he won't sleep with. Here are a few gems:
"She settled me back in a big chair and disappeared in the kitchen where she made all the pleasant sounds of a woman in her element."
"Honey...no dame can take care of herself, including you."
"I hung up on her. It was the best thing you could do with a woman when you wanted her to move fast."
And that is just a very small fraction of the things that bugged me! Realizing that Mike Hammer was originally intended as a comic-strip hero makes more sense. The good vs. evil storylines and the fact that Mike Hammer single-handedly gets the bad guys (stops communism and the Mafia) are pretty unbelievable.
The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 2 contains books 4-6 of Mickey Spillane's classic noir NY detective series: One Lonely Night, The Big Kill, and Kiss Me, Deadly
One Lonely Night: "I was back in the jungle again. I had that feeling. There was a guy at my shoulder in deeper black than the night and he carried a scythe and a map to point out the long road. I didn't walk, I stalked and the guy stalked with me, waiting patiently for that one fatal misstep."
Long before that ominous intro to a sequence later in the novel, Mike Hammer was walking alone on a NYC street, turning over in his mind a talking down he received from a judge who called him a dirty low-down killer. As the light rain turned to soft snow, Mike crossed a bridge and came across a female in peril, being chased by a gun-toting jerk. Mike killed the jerk but the woman fell off the bridge, and then Mike was even more resentful of his path in life and decided to take a vacation from his private eye business.
But a vacation for Mike Hammer is a lot different than a vacation would be for you or me. He finds that the two dead folks are card-carrying members of the Communist party (this is 1951 New York City) and that a local hero politician has been accused of their murder.
The street vengeance noir comic book vibe ratchets up further when Mike Hammer finds himself tangled in this group of pre-hippie Reds, him (and the author Spillane) being a proud WWII vet not impressed with those who stayed behind and now call soldiers lackeys and warmongers and are also organizing in secret to push politically for a communist America where some are more equal than others.
And THEN, after all that has us jumping from a possible murder and blackmail scheme to a (spoiler removed) conspiracy, Mike's secretary Velda joins the fray, the classic perfect female sidekick and partner, now on a righteous and angry mission not just to defend right but to kill wrong, and that's when "One Lonely Night" turns into a full-fledged hard boiled and exciting noir crime classic.
Verdict: I got wordy above and apologize - lets just say "One Lonely Night" (1951) is surprisingly and perfectly awesome and I loved it. A murky, twist and turny, and explosive vengeance thrill ride from start to finish with a classically black-and-white love tale to boot.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Excellent) movie rating if made into a movie: R
The Big Kill: New York PI Mike Hammer is in a bar lamenting the state of the universe and his own life and sees a man enter with a small child, breaking down and crying to himself, and then says goodbye to the little one and walks out of the bar only to be murdered in the street. Hammer follows and guns down one of the perpetrators and, deeming this horrible event worthy of derision and retribution, takes on a duty of vengeance against the mob for this act of evil perpetrated on the youngster when they took his father from him.
Verdict: The fifth street vengeance noir caper in the Hammer series, "The Big Kill" (1951) falls well short of its great predecessors, in my opinion, but is still a fun cartoony street justice adventure set in 1951 NYC.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good) movie rating if made into a movie: R
Kiss Me Deadly: "I sat there for a while, staring at the multicolored reflections of the city that made my window a living, moving kaleidoscope. The voice of the monster outside the glass was a constant drone, but when you listened long enough it became a flat, sarcastic sneer that pushed ten million people into bigger and bigger troubles, and then the sneer was heard for what it was, a derisive laugh that thought blood running from an open wound was funny, and death was the biggest joke of all."
New York Private Eye Mike Hammer is driving back from Jersey one dark night and almost runs over a beautiful hitchhiking lady who bums a ride from him. She's an escaped asylum convict and the state cops, the Feds, and some mafia brutes are after her. Then, after he is driven off the road and beat up, and she is killed in that night's pursuit, he sets his sights on figuring out what her deal was and who he needs to exact justice on.
"Kiss Me, Deadly" (1952) pushes the Hammer series of noir street vengeance adventures into an arena that I found had similar tones to the upcoming Parker novels by Richard Stark where Parker went up against an outfit of mobbed up organized crime guys. Hammer takes pleasure in making these bad guys who consider themselves above the law nervous about his well-advertised mission of vengeance and death. While Parker is just interested in getting the money owed him, Hammer is only interested in exacting vengeance.
Verdict: This book's whole point is the seedy atmosphere, comic bookish gun battles, fistfights, and car chases, and an ugly heroic street monster setting things right by any means necessary. A wickedly fun street vengeance mystery and crime tale.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good) movie rating if made into a movie: R
Averaging out the ratings, this collection gets a 4 / 5 and is just awesome.
I read the first story in the collection and then stopped. The mystery is reasonably interesting, but Mike Hammer isn't likeable. He's too prone to murder. Even accounting for the time period it was written in, the sexism was appalling and the anti-Communist fearmongering got ridiculous.
This edition has a few typos, but re-reading class Mike Hammer is wiry the annoyances of a few typos. Yeah, the stories are dated, but that's part of their charm.
I really enjoyed this second collection. Mike Hammer is a strong character with a lot of personality. You have to consider the time these books were written, when deciding whether to buy or not. There are some currently politically incorrect ideas in them. But that's part of their beauty; they give you more than a glimpse into the period and make it real for you. What also fascinates me about the Mike Hammer collections are the abrupt endings. They fit the character so perfectly. Spillane did a fantastic job.
Oh, man, this is bad. If you want darkness, style and intrigue, watch the great film noir movies instead. Pulp fiction isn't just an ironic title for Tarantino, books like this are where the term came from. The writing was so clunky that I couldn't even skim it easily. The saving grace for me was the description of NYC in the pre-suburbs, just-after-the-war era. So, if you scan it as urban history, or cultural geography, you can pick up some interesting sidebits about city life at that time. Otherwise, the bad writing and machismo are too dumb even to be funny.
I didn't read everything in this book, but I love having these collections around just to dip into the atmosphere of them. They all suck at the end, and I think this collection is full of even more ridiculousness (a lot of Commie bullshit?) than the first one I read, but it's such an escape just to BEGIN each story. Finishing each story? Gets to be an obnoxious drag.
It eventually is very, very formulaic, but I suppose that is the nature of its genre. Enjoyable until you realize it's always rinse, wash and repeat. Also, once Hammer gets a girlfriend his philandering just makes him seem even more of a jerk. In addition, this printing skipped pages in the last novel during a key part in the plot, making it unreadable. At that point I just gave up; so long, Hammer.
You won't find any great meaning or theme or even character development in Mickey Spillane; he just isn't that kind of a writer. This isn't literature by any stretch of the imagination. What it is is down-and-dirty, gritty, bare-knuckled, brutal, sexy, no-holds barred entertainment. I came to Mike Hammer because I felt obligated to read it but I thought I wouldn't like it. Imagine my surprise when I did.
Hmm. these seemed a little more mean spirited than those in Volume 1, some really nasty hate here. All we ask from Mickey is that they be Not bad- then they're great. This collection has a lot more bad than the first, and the anti-communist propaganda was embarassingly unreadable. (although this kind of propaganda made for some suavely subversive and touchingly pithy films in the 40s/50s).
I gave up of the first story after 20pp. The Big Kill was better. Kiss Me Deadly was probably the best. The all just seem so full of cliches and he metaphor are laughable... so serious,self important and silly. Every woman he meets is gorgeous beyond belief and although Mike Hammer's face is often a bloody mess they all want to get him in bed. Disappointing.
what can I say but brilliant .I read Spillane in my teens and I never forgot how good he was , so I thought I'd read them again , a bit dated but still a good read as long as you are not to PC or a feminist .If you fancy a good read try one of the omnibus collections I think you might be a convert .
The first story was so so, but the the second 2 - Kiss me Deadly and One Lonely Night were pretty great. I think at least 60 percent of the text is spent describing women's legs, mouths and walks, but I kind of like it that way. It's not trashy, just noir-y. Summer reading yo.
All of the books I have listed here on the read shelf,I have indeed read.All have by my estimation a five star rating. Books that I did not like are not listed.I have been reading for over 50 years.
Mike Hammer is like James Bond meets Clive Owen's character in "Shoot 'Em Up." He's hard-boiled, sexual, pissed off, and corny. I recommend this book for a good laugh and a quick read, nothing more.