The Mike Hammer Collection Volume 1
by Mickey Spillane

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Book Reviews of The Mike Hammer Collection Volume 1

Book Review: I, Witness
Summary: 3 Stars

Hammer was based on a comic book character Spillane had created, and the stories have the simplicity, directness and lack of literary pretension that one would expect from such a pedigree. Spillane found a marketable formula and stuck with it and all three of these stories are similar in many ways. The post-war reading public wanted a hero who righted wrongs simply and neatly, with fist and gun and no due process. Notice that all three titles have a first-person pronoun in them. Spillane invites you to become your fantasy macho hero for a while.

Racier stories and more skilful plotting are now available from other authors, but Spillane is still worth a look, if only to see how the genre evolved after Chandler and Hammett. One reason his work has survived (although he is not very widely read now) is the success of the excellent film noir adaptation of "Kiss Me Deadly", the star of which, Ralph Meeker, was a very fine actor. Watch that movie, read at least one story from this collection, then move on to better things.

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