 | Many authors whose opinions I value very highly spoke well of Mickey Spillane especially the works in his Mike Hammer series. I wasn't disappointed.
It rarely takes more than a paragraph or two to understand why Rand was such a fan of his literary style. The title character narrates every story in the series, and his personal insight adds a lot to the stories. You feel his frustration when he hits the point in the story where by his own estimation he should be able to figure everything out, and you lust after the countless "gorgeous dames" he encounters through his work. This is kind of the point I think. Hammer is rarely described physically, and when he is it's usually along the lines of "big" or "ugly." Completely open terms that allow the reader to step into Hammer's shoes for the whole ride.
The basic info you need is that Mike Hammer is a private detective with a beautiful secretory named Velda whom he flirts with incessantly all the while hopping into bed with nearly every woman who crosses his path. And Velda's not your typical secretory, she's every bit as tough as Hammer herself, in fact there are times in the story where Hammer wouldn't survive without her. But the key thing to remember is that Hammer's a private cop who cares about the people close to him and takes care of them when they get hurt.
Besides these two one other character shows up in every novel, Captain Pat Chambers. This man is Hammer's best friend and at times it seems they are each other's biggest frustration. Pat's in the unhappy position of trying to make nice clean arrests of the men whose blood Hammer is out for. Trading information all the way through the case and hoping in vain each time that he'll be the one who finds the perp and he won't simply be dealing with another dead body at the end of the case.
That's really what's at the core of these stories. Someone Mike Hammer cares about gets killed and they pay for it with their lives in an eloquently brutal fashion. Quite frankly as mysteries these stories leave a little to be desired. So far there's only been one I didn't guess by about the halfway point of the novel. But that doesn't matter. I don't read these because I want a mystery to confound myself with, I read them because I want to see how Hammer will figure things out and what he'll do along the way. The biggest reason I read them for however, is that one shining moment at the close of the story when he finally has the killer cornered and he reaps sweet vengeance upon them. Lately I've really come to the point of where I can appreciate a good ending, and no one does ending's better than Spillane.
Volume one collects the first three Mike Hammer novels.
I the Jury
An old army buddy is murdered in a particularly brutal fashion and Hammer swears vengeance upon the killer in front of the police the press and the world for all he cares.
"You're a cop, Pat. You're tied down by rules and regulations. There's someone over you. I'm alone. I can slap someone in the puss and they can't do a damn thing. No one can kick me out of my job. Maybe there's nobody to put up a huge fuss if I get gunned down, but then I still have a private cop's licence with the privilege to pack a rod, and they're afraid of me. I hate hard, Pat. When I latch on to the one behind this they're going to wish they hadn't started it. Some day, before long, I'm going to have my rod in my mitt and the killer in front of me. I'm going to watch the killer's face. I'm going to plunk one right in his gut, and when he's dying on the floor I may kick his teeth out."
And he plans to deliver, no matter what.
My Gun is Quick
This is my personal favorite in this volume. Hammer shares a cup of coffee with a hooker who's just trying to get out that lifestyle and turn her life around, he just made a huge payday on a big job so he can spare enough for her to get a new life. She doesn't live long enough to do so. He goes on a path of vengeance that cuts from the dirtiest gutters to the most prestigious ballrooms of high society.
Vengeance is Mine
The final book collected in this volume has Hammer trying to solve a murder after having his license and gun permit yanked. The interesting thing about this novel is that Spillane made a bet with his editor that he could keep the climax of the story hidden until the last word of the last page of the story. His editor didn't believe him until he turned in a finished manuscript with that last word missing .
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The Mike Hammer Collection Volume 1 by Mickey Spillane
