Mike Hammer: King of the Weeds
Mysteries abound in the next-to-last Mike Hammer novel, left incomplete when Spillane died in 2006 and finished seamlessly by frequent Spillane collaborator Collins. For starters, who’s trying to kill Mike? Does his attempted murder have anything to do with a 40-year-old case in which an incarcerated serial killer is claiming to be innocent? Or has someone else found out about the $89 ­billion—yes, you read that right, $89 ­billion—in Mob money that Mike has stashed away in a sealed-off mountain cave? Set in the late 1990s, the book reads like any of Spillane’s vintage Hammer novels, with the customary mixture of violence and witty dialogue. Fans of the long-running series (which began with 1947’s I, the Jury) should bump this one to the top of their reading lists. --David Pitt