Mike Hammer: Complex 90
Since Spillane’s death in 2006, Collins has been busy completing the pulpmaster’s unfinished work, including Mike Hammer novels from various moments in the iconic PI’s career. This one, a follow-up to The Girl Hunters (1961), is set in 1964. Hammer has just come back from fighting his way across Russia after a bodyguard gig for a conservative senator led to Hammer’s abduction by the KGB. But now, it seems, the commies have followed him to New York. But why do they want him? Is it simply revenge for the 45 men he killed while escaping, or something more? Collins has Spillane down cold, from Hammer’s manic grin to his charged patter with the lovely Velda. And while there are hints the world is changing, Hammer hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still an unreconstructed, red-blooded American male who holds lily-livered bureaucrats in sneering contempt. It’s an entertaining time-capsule, but a little goes a long way. Are there still fans crying out for new Hammer adventures? And will they pay for them in hardcover? That’s a mystery yet to be solved. --Keir Graff