Customer Reviews

The Big Kill

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4 star:		(1)
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'The Big Kill' by Mickey Spillane simply drowns itself in a hopelessly complex plot after starting off so promising (.. a young father seemingly runs off to get himself shot by thugs, leaving his orphaned child into the care of Mike Hammer, private investigator and overall studpuppy). Beyond this Spillane's profuse use of tough guy talk is so over the top it's almost laughable.

In many ways 'The Big Kill' is a poor imitation of what a 1950s crime novel should be. If it wasn't for the popularity of its author the book would not have made it past the first printing, assuming it would have been published at all.

Private Dick Mike Hammer is on the case of the murder of a safe cracker who left behind an orphan. Hammer shows his softer side by adopting the boy and is rewarded for this altruism in the end. In his search for the killer Hammer enlists the aid of a beautiful blonde, a beautiful brunette, kills several people, butts heads with the DA, beats up others and is in turn beaten up.
Hammer is a detective, who is very ruthless, stubborn, always sleeps well after sending someone to the mourgue, and unlike Phillip Marlowe, gets to sleep with all the girls..

Mike Hammer P I , makes Chandlers 'Phillip Marlowe' look like a cream puff, and thats saying something. He's ruthless and kills or maims anyone in his way when he is on a mission.

Hammer is a completely one dimensional character out to solve the murder of a man he never met but goes after the killers because they left a little boy orphaned.

Along the way in this "noir" he gets all the 'chicks', because that is in the rules for loner private investigators, deals with intrusive policemen and at the end solves the problem leaving a trail of corpses behind him.

Its wonderful stuff, very violent for its time (1951) and very well written.

The author Mickey Spillane was criticised continually regarding his "low brow' novels during his lifetime, but developed a knack with spectacular self depreciating rejoinders to silence the critics.

"My work may be garbage but it's good garbage."

Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar... If the public likes you, you're good."

This criticism was and is unfair, he is a great writer and even though his main character is a cartoon, he can set a scene as well as Dashiell Hammett and this makes the scenes genuinely exciting.

Hammer has a completely black and white moral outlook on life and this keeps his life nice and simple.

Mike Hammer is a tough detective circa 1950 who chain smokes and hangs out in bars. One rainy night while sitting in a bar, Hammer sees a man enter the joint sobbing, accompanied by his little boy. The man kisses the boy goodbye and walks out into the night to his death at the hands of gunmen. After witnessing the murder, Hammer takes custody of the child and sets out to find who was responsible. The book is well written and the story is well constructed. The Books on Tape version of the book has good sound quality and the reader does an excellent job.