Customer Reviews

The Deep (Curley Large Print Books)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the best Mickey Spillane books because it appeals to a broader audience by not being quite as quick to violence as his Mike Hammer series. I have given this book to people who thought they would never read a Mickey Spillane book, and they have enjoyed it.

If you like your books with a hard edge and to heck with political correctness, "The Deep" will deliver.

Returning to avenge the murder of his childhood partner in crime, Deep fights the mob, the cops, politicians, basically everyone in the city. There's a mystery here but mostly it's a chance to see a 50's man's man make hamburger out of anyone who gets in his path. Spillane may not be the most polished writer but he has a visceral style that makes you smell the garbage in the alley and see the teeth fly as they shatter against a gun barrel.

I've read a lot of books. Every once in a while I read a book that takes me by supprise. This book not only did that, it took me to a bar, got me drunk, and left me wanting more. Mr. Spillane is one of the best writers that it has been my pleasure to read. He makes that Louis L'amor guy look like a girly-boy. While this book isn't for the squeemish, I would highly recomend it to anyone who likes last-minute kicks in the head.

Bennett and Deep were childhood friends who grew up in a tough neighborhood and were delinquents. When they got older, Deep left the neighborhood and Bennett became a crime boss. Mysteriously, Bennett is murdered and in his will, Bennett bequeathed everything to Deep. In order to act on the terms of the will, Deep comes back to the neighborhood, which displeased the people who thought they could profit on Bennett's death.

Deep gets reacquainted with all the people in the neighborhood, the cop who beat him silly, old female flames, crooked politicians, a journalist with a passionate hatred for him to the crime people that are either for or against him. His goal is largely to determine who killed Bennett, but the fact that many want to see him dead hampers his efforts.

Deep is still a very tough man, he immediately acts to take over Bennett's organization and many fall in line. However, there are some who are recalcitrant and the murders and attempted murders begin. All of this is presented in the hard Spillane style, his prose is distinctively harsh, and the characters all sound very tough, from the professional killers to the women. Deep eventually learns who killed Bennett and the story closes with a revelation that was completely unexpected.

Stylistically, Spillane is a writer where you could probably select a paragraph at random and fairly easily identify it as Spillane's. In this book he presents a tough guy in a tough neighborhood with a tough task in a manner that keeps you turning the pages.

A gangster named Deep returns to his former New York neighborhood to establish himself as mob boss. He's been away for 25 years but finds that surprisingly little has changed. Plenty of hardboiled action ensues with many characters introduced only to die violently before much time has past.

The Deep overflows with tough guy talk and strong arm tactics. The plot is a nihilistic one with what appears to be one pointless killing after another. The very last page contains a surprise which helps to redeem an otherwise depressingly downbeat and repetitious narrative. Because of the ending, I was almost inspired to award The Deep 4 stars instead of the 3 it deserves.

Bottom line: Spillane had the makings of an excellent short story here. His mistake was in stretching it out to book length. Too much padding.

With the publication of "The Deep" in 1961 Mickey Spillane ends a nine year writing silence. This tale has Hammer doing a lot of reflecting along with the fast action.

Today Mickey Spillane is 85-years-old, and acclaimed around the globe for inventing the hard-hitting, hard-boiled protagonist who is a compelling mix of sex and sharp shooting. It's hard to believe this many years have gone by for the Brooklyn born Spillane. He's outlasted and out sold many of his contemporaries, and when last heard from was still hard at work.

Perhaps those of us who love to read don't take time to thank the writers who have given us so many hours of pleasure. I certainly fall into that category, so a big hats off to Mickey Spillane and gratitude for the wealth of reading pleasure he's given so many.