Customer Reviews

The Girl Hunters (Signet)

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Mike Hammer, Mickey Spillane's street-wise private-eye, has been on a seven-year drunk. His perennial girlfriend and licensed P.I. office assistant, Velda, died on a bodyguard job that Mike should have handled himself. Hammer sobers up very fast when a dying secret agent tells him that Velda is still alive, but in danger. In this throwback to the Cold War, Hammer embarks on another case of murder, mayhem, and espionage. On a rainy night, the girl hunters prowl. When Hammer encounters the dread assassin known as "The Dragon," he strikes both tooth and nail.

Mickey Spillane's writing is something less than literary, but the fast pace holds the attention. In this era of veritable tomes by Tom Clancy, etc., Spillane's succinct mystery adventure novels (i.e., less than 200 pages) are a quick hit of gutter tough action. Mike Hammer boldly proclaims his rightwing political beliefs at the business end of his rod, a .45 Colt automatic. A running theme in the writings of Mickey Spillane is the aggressive and violent pursuit of "commie slobs." Bureaucrats and politicians who coddle nefarious elements should beware the day of the guns. To his credit, Spillane does an effective job of capturing the essence of the underside of New York City, both its stenches and forbidden delights. His first-person narrative features slang and jargon of 40 years ago. We imagine that Hammer's lifestyle of cigarettes (deck of Luckies), beer (Blue Ribbon), and unprotected sex (every sex kitten in sight) causes fear and trembling in the politically correct crowd. Hammer's unbridled male chauvinism is another amusing relic of a bygone era. Published in 1963, this book is typical of the second phase of Spillane's productive years as a novelist, after his first spectacular burst of popularity in the early '50s. Enjoy the action. ;-)

Fans of Mickey Spillane may well remember "The Girl Hunters" as the film version in which spillane starred. Here, we find him still unable to erase the memory of the murder of Charlotte.

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.