Review: The Hammer Is Still Tough
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 26, 2012
SKIN is one of those story fragments completed by Max Allan Collins. We have an aging Hammer, one's who's perhaps less active than in younger days, but still carries his .45 under his arm and still can't pass up something interesting to a mind that remains as active as ever.Here, he finds a pile of meat that had once been human and a hand lying beside it. Pat Chambers stops right behind him and analysis shows the hand doesn't belong to the human remains: the hand, male, the remains, female.A short, compact tale that delivers with every line.Like these tales completed by Collins, a half dozen novels to date, and a handful of short stories. Collins knows how to weave hias own style seamlessly into Spillane's and give us a coherent story.Excellent.