Rating: 
Summary: Tough Talking Man of Action
Review: Mike Hammer is the classic hard-bitten private detective. He talks hard, he fights hard and when it comes to love he falls fast and hard. Nothing at all is held back in this highly charged murder case that cuts straight to Hammer's core.The tough, no-nonsense Hammer is faced with the cruel shooting murder of Jack Williams, a close friend, and takes it hard. In front of Pat Chambers, another good friend who just happens to be the Captain of Homicide, he vows that when he catches the murderer he would gladly shoot him in the gut, just like Williams had been. The case quickly becomes a race between Hammer and Chambers, as Hammer is determined to have his vengeance. This is hardboiled detective fiction as it should be. There are no qualms when it comes to violence, no regrets over shooting the bad guys, whisky is swallowed easily in one swallow and the dames are kept begging for more. We charge from suspect to suspect watching Hammer extract information under threat of violence, and following through on the threat whenever necessary. Moving at breakneck speed, the bodies pile up while Hammer finds himself falling in love. It makes for terrific reading for lovers of the hardboiled detective genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Stacy Keach Is Still In Top Form Here
Review: That's right, bub. Stacy Keach. The actor who played Mike Hammer in the CBS television series. He's the narrator of this, the first and best of the Mike Hammer tales penned by the master himself, Mickey Spillane. An awesome listen to one of America's finest novels.
Rating:
Summary: Hammer Time
Review: This was better than I expected and is a thoroughly compelling read. It was every bit as lurid as advertised, but is generally a very close cousin to Raymond Chandler's Marlowe novels in character and tone, though the plotting is much less convoluted and we don't get quite as entangled with secondary characters or setting. Spillane emphasizes Mike Hammer's incredible toughness and verility on every page, with all the usual gumshoe vernacular, and as with the best detective novels, character counts more than crime. That's a polite way of saying I figured this one out pretty early, despite trying hard not to, and it didn't diminish the reading experience at all. Spillane has the last laugh on his critics- this is good stuff.
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