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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Back from the Dead, October 30, 2007
Said to be the final crime novel from the legendary Mickey Spillane, the final three chapters were prepared by his friend and editor, Max Allan Collins, from extensive notes from the author. It is a relatively simple, straightforward tale of Jack Stang, a retired NYPD Captain, who, 20 years earlier, lost his fiancée to an abduction and presumed murder.
Now the old warhorse is chomping at the bit, at loose ends, watching his old neighborhood and station house fall to the wrecker's ball. Then he is approached with an offer of a house and $100,000 to move down to a retirement village in Florida, next door to a blind woman who really is the fiancée who disappeared. The reason she was abducted by the mafia was information to which she had access. The data was never found (nor was she).
Moving to Florida, he travels back and forth to the Big Apple to slowly discover the background on the whole story. Written and composed in typical Spillane style, the plot moves forward to a rousing crescendo. Stang is no Mike Hammer, but the story is moving and well-told.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mickey Lives, December 2, 2007
The good news is that this is not Mickey's last book. He was working on several others at the time of his death and we can look forward to seeing one or more of them, hopefully soon. Dead Street was prepared for publication by Max Allan Collins, working from approximately two-thirds of the book, Mickey's notes, and Mickey's conversations.
When I say the "good news" I hasten to add that there is no bad news, except for Mickey's passing. Dead Street is wonderful--vintage Mickey Spillane, with a great protagonist, a great love, a faithful dog, and several piles of bodies. The plot is excellent, the characters endearing and the conclusion as wondrous as any fan might hope. The book is also seamless. Collins has done a spectacular job in completing Mickey's work and we are all in his debt.
Once again, a tip of the hat to Charles Ardai and the team at Hard Case Crime. Thanks for bringing us a delight from the master.
Do not miss this one.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thin on plot, but still a wonderful visit from an old friend, December 27, 2007
The wire-revolving displays of paperbacks that were present in drug stores in the 1950s and 1960s inevitably had a new or reprinted edition of a Mickey Spillane novel. The covers, just like this posthumous release of the previously unpublished DEAD STREET, were designed to appeal to any heterosexual male on the cusp of adolescence and beyond. The covers matched the contents: Spillane's writing was sexual, violent and graphic (what more could one ask for?). I can remember being subjected to a Sunday morning sermon in which Spillane was denounced, by name, from the pulpit. I was shamed but kept on sinning.
Spillane passed away in 2006 but left a number of manuscripts in various states of completion --- or, if you will, undress. Hard Case Crime, with the very able assistance of Max Allan Collins, has published the first of these, DEAD STREET, a wonderful visit from an old friend whom we thought we would never see again.
This is the story of Jack Stang, a retired NYPD cop whose nickname "The Shooter" survives his police career. Stang is in a lock-step, uneasy march through retirement, yearning for the old days while quietly pining for Bettie, the only love of his lonely life, who had been killed in an abduction some 20 years previously. His somewhat lethargic existence is jump-started by the sudden revelation that Bettie is alive ---sightless and without memory --- and the beneficiary of a de facto witness protection program. Stang is given one more chance to protect her and win her love once again. Bettie's enemies, whose actions against her almost resulted in her death two decades ago, are after her again; this time they will stop at nothing to find out what she knows and finish the job of eliminating her. Stang, however, is not about to let that happen. He does not care who he has to kill or how often he has to do it to see that justice is done and that the one he loves is given a new lease on life.
DEAD STREET doesn't contain a particularly strong plot, but Spillane's trademark action scenes are there, and --- dare I say it? --- he still kicks rear end, even from the grave, better than anyone else. Spillane was credited with (and accused of, depending on one's point of view) saving the paperback book industry in the 1950s. This novel is a fine homage to the man, by The Man.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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