'[Spillane] was a quintessential Cold War writer, an unconditional believer in good and evil' Washington Times
Before Jack Reacher . . . there was Mike Hammer
PI Mike Hammer runs into a red-headed prostitute in a bar. He's not interested in her professional services, so he buys her a coffee and chats to her for a while. Tired, drained, he just wants someone to talk to, and she's a willing listener. He's just got paid, and in a fit of generosity he offers her enough money to buy some decent clothes and get a regular job.
No big deal, except that the next day the streetwalker turns up dead. It's none of Hammer's business, but all the injustice of the world is suddenly crystallised in this one senseless death. And then Hammer begins to realise that the death, supposedly a hit-and-run accident, doesn't add up. It's starting to look like murder.
But it doesn't stop there. The trail leads Hammer into a world of vice, corruption and violence . . .
Remorseless . . . Spillane keeps the action coming - Publishers Weekly
Spillane is a master in compelling you always to turn the next page - New York Times
Spillane is still shooting the same tasty dish - New York Times Book Review
Mickey Spillane was born in 1918 Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey of an Irish father and Scottish mother. He started writing in high school. He concocted adventures for major 1940s comic book characters, including Captain Marvel, Superman and Batman. Many of his thrillers featured his signature detective Mike Hammer. By 1980 Spillane was responsible for seven of the top fifteen all-time bestselling fiction titles in America. He died in 2006.