Hammer Swings Again

Although he died in 2006, Mickey Spillane has a new crime novel out featuring New York private detective Mike Hammer. Spillane wrote numerous crime novels from the 1940s until shortly before his death, including "I, the Jury" (which sold 3 million copies and launched Spillane's career), Vengeance is Mine" and "My Gun is Quick." He is reputed to have sold more than 200 million novels worldwide. Hammer, the New York City detective featured in Spillane's books, was a hard-as-nails crime fighter who preferred to punch and shoot first and ask questions later. More a vigilante that a detective, Hammer's escapades were reviled by the critics and gobbled up by the general public. Spillane's detective novels were revolutionary for their time due to the inclusion of frank sex and violence in their pages.
The new book, "Kiss Her Goodbye," is the work of Spillane and novelist Max Allan Collins, who completed the unfinished book. On his deathbed, Spillane instructed his wife Jane to give his unfinished manuscripts, notes and outlines to Collins, whom he'd been pals with for a number of years.
Spillane's posthumous novels completed by Collins include "Dead Street" (2007), and the forthcoming "The Consummata."

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