Masquerade for murder

Mickey Spillane, 1918-2006

Book - 2020

After Mike Hammer witnesses Wall Street superstar Vincent Colby getting clipped by a speeding red Ferrari, the shaken victim's stockbroker father hires Hammer to find the driver. But the toughest private eye of them all soon is caught up in a series of bizarre, seemingly unconnected slayings marked by a forbidden martial arts technique. What do a lovely redhead, a short-tempered bartender, an exotic call girl, a murdered police inspector and a movie stuntman have to do with a scheme that might have transformed young Colby into a psychological time bomb?--

Saved in:

1st Floor Show me where

MYSTERY/Spillane Mickey
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
1st Floor MYSTERY/Spillane Mickey Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Mystery fiction
Detective and mystery fiction
Thrillers (Fiction)
Published
London : Titan Books 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Mickey Spillane, 1918-2006 (author)
Other Authors
Max Allan Collins (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
226 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN
9781785655562
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

A man steps off a curb. A roaring Ferrari sends him "tumbling across the hood" and speeds off. A famous PI witnesses the moment and senses it wasn't an accident. Days later the victim's father hires the famous PI to find out what happened. By then we know the PI is Mike Hammer, appearing in the latest of Max Allan Collins' reconstructions of Mickey Spillane's unfinished manuscripts. This one is relatively free of Spillane's posturings about women and society that offend today's readers, and that's fortunate, as it's a first-rate noir adventure, set in 1988, and it boasts some excellent writing. Hammer's examination of an apartment, for example, goes on for pages and is so masterfully, tensely described one scarcely notices that absolutely nothing happens. As Spillane/Collins move to the finale, which puts a remarkable twist on the "things are not as they seem" chestnut, Hammer broods on his own obsolescence. He's a dinosaur, a being from the world of Milton Berle and Howdy Doody. Doesn't bother him.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Set in 1989, MWA GrandMaster Collins's competent 12th posthumous collaboration with Spillane (after 2019's Murder, My Love) finds Mike Hammer still operating as a PI when the WWII vet would have been in his late 60s. That touch of realism allows Collins to dial back most of the extreme elements of the early Spillane novels. Outside a Manhattan restaurant, Mike spots Wall Street wunderkind Vincent Colby as he steps into the street and is clipped by a speeding red sports car. He's only bruised, but is taken to the hospital, and his wealthy dad, Vance, hires Mike to unearth the perpetrator over Vincent's fierce objections. Mike's investigation, aided as always by his voluptuous secretary, Velda, soon leads to a trail of bodies, linked only by the bizarre method by which they were dispatched. Spillane fans will be pleased to see how well Collins captures the brash tone but everyman personality of the latter-day Hammer without trying to imitate the character's infamous vigilante crusades of earlier years. Spillane (1918--2006) would be proud of how well Collins has maintained his legacy. (Mar.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved