Dead StreetMickey Spillane
Hard Case Crime $6.99
Apparently this book was left virtually finished when Spillane passed away in 2006. The story had been written but the manuscript had not gone through any of the re-write stages. And so Spillane's personal friend and highly regarded hard-boiled writer, Max Allen Collins, author of Road to Perdition, prepared the work for publication.
I love the Hard Case Crime series as much for the pulpy cover art as the books themselves. And Dead Street is up to the usual standard with a moody cover painting showing a shapely woman terrorised by a mysterious male figure brandishing a knife. The painting was done by Arthur Suydam.For twenty years, former NYPD cop Jack Stang has lived with the guilt of his girlfriend's death in an abduction - no body was ever found, she simply vanished without trace, taking all the evidence that could bring down the mob with her. And now many years later Stange learns that she didn't die and that she is blind and amnesiac.
"I sipped at the drink, finally finished it, turned the light out and went into the bedroom. Tomorrow I'd have to start thinking like a cop again. It had been a hell of a long day, longest since I'd left the job. But with Bettie back among the living, and back in my life, I was ready for more."
Trouble soon comes in spades for Stang.
Told in the first person, the novel is a thrilling ride from the late great hard-boiled
master and Max Collins has done such a good job in bringing the book up to scratch that I defy anyone to find where Spillane ends and Collins starts. I devoured the book in one four hour sitting and I was left satisfied by a good story well told.
I corresponded with Spillane a few months before his death and I've a Spillane/Mike Hammer entry planned for a future post. I've an autographed pic of the writer above my desk and every Mike Hammer book on my shelves. I think he would have been pleased with the respectful job Max Allen Collins has done with his last story.
Excellent.
No comments:
Post a Comment