The Goliath Bone (Center Point Platinum Mystery (Large Print)) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Mickey Spillane (Author), Max Allan Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2008 | Series: Center Point Platinum Mystery (Large Print)

World-famous P.I. Mike Hammer is back, this time fighting deadly Islamic extremists whose sinister agenda involves stealing a recently discovered archeological relic: a bone of what may have been the biblical giant Goliath.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tough guy PI Mike Hammer fighting terrorists in post-9/11 Manhattan? That's the improbable scenario developed by Hammer's creator, who introduced him in 1947's I, the Jury, and completed after Spillane's death in 2006 by Collins. Despite his advanced age, Hammer still carries an old army .45 and follows his own path to justice regardless of the opposition. In this last case, Hammer providentially rescues two young grad students from an assassin, discovers that they found and possess a giant human femur unearthed during a dig in the plain of Elah, where David slew Goliath, and undertakes to protect them and the bone from those who will do anything to acquire the treasure. Much of the jargon is vintage, as is the indomitable Hammer as he strives to protect the kids and prevent the Goliath bone from setting off the next big war. While not on a par with early Spillane classics, this is a fitting capstone to Hammer's career. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

PRAISE FOR MICKEY SPILLANE

"Mike Hammer is an icon of our culture."—The New York Times

"A superb writer. Spillane is one of the century’s bestselling authors."—The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) PRAISE FOR MAX ALLAN COLLINS

"Max Allan Collins is the closest thing we have to a 21st century Mickey Spillane."—ThisWeek (Ohio)

"Collins’ witty, hardboiled prose would make Raymond Chandler proud."—Entertainment Weekly

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 319 pages
• Publisher: Center Point Large Print; Lrg edition (December 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602853436
• ISBN-13: 978-1602853430
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,038,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Old Hammer", October 19, 2008

By 

C L (Illinois) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Goliath Bone (Mike Hammer Novels) (Hardcover)

If you are an old Mike Hammer fan, this book is worth reading for nostalgia's sake, but that's the only reason. That mean, tough, lone warrior of the early books is gone. Here, he is an old man and complaining about it. The story is thin and slow. The action, such as it is, is mild until the very end. Obviously, Spillane was writing for his fans and putting Hammer to bed as a hero. I wish he had kept him young and smart and tough to the end. Oh, well. If you are not a Mike Hammer fan already, you will not become one with this book.

If you want to find the real Hammer, read "One Lonely Night."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hammer in a post-9/11 world, January 21, 2009

By 

Craig Clarke "Living After Midnight: Hard and... (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Goliath Bone (Mike Hammer Novels) (Hardcover)

"Do we need an attorney, Mr. Hammer?"

"No," I said. "You need me."

Mike Hammer is back! Twelve years after his last appearance in print (1996's Black Alley), America's best-selling private detective adapts to a post-9/11 world, complete with Islamic terrorists on his tail.

The Goliath Bone is the 14th in the long-running series that has spanned over 60 years. Mickey Spillane was never what you would call a prolific writer. Probably because he didn't write because he had to write: he only wrote when he needed money. Thus, for there to be years, even decades, between books was not unexpected. In fact, the 12 years since the last entry doesn't seem quite so long when you consider the nearly 20 that passed between #11 (Survival ... Zero!, 1970) and #12 (The Killing Man, 1989).

A little backstory: After Spillane's death in 2006, his friend and sometime collaborator Max Allan Collins (still the most vocal supporter of Spillane's influence on the crime genre) was given the task of finishing some of the incomplete works found in Spillane's files, with the most excitement focusing on a handful of unfinished Mike Hammer novels.

Though a standalone novel called Dead Street was published by Hard Case Crime under Spillane's sole byline, a Mike Hammer novel called The Goliath Bone was actually closer to completion when Spillane died. The job required Collins to do a combination of editing and writing throughout, getting his fingerprints, so to speak, all over the book.

Therefore, Collins's influence is felt throughout The Goliath Bone, where in Dead Street it was mainly in the final three chapters. Collins does a masterful job at matching Spillane's terse style, but his own more literary tendencies are likely to be noticed by a Collins devotee (such as myself).

The story is a little odd by usual Hammer standards. Two stepsibling grad students (the children of Nobel Prize candidates) possess a valuable artifact presumed to be the femur bone of Philistine giant Goliath ("that champ who went down for the count with an underdog's creek rock in his forehead") wrapped in brown paper. On their way down the subway stairs, someone tries to kill them, and Hammer (who just happened to be exiting a nearby bar when his Spidey-sense tingled) steps in just in time, making himself their bodyguard in the process.

Unfortunately, this new case comes at a very inconvenient time. Hammer and his long-time secretary/girlfriend Velda were just about to head off to Las Vegas and get married, and this puts that off for a little longer. But Velda knows who she's dealing with, and so doesn't put up much of a fuss, offering her own exemplary mental and armamentary services in addition.

No longer the lone wolf, Hammer is surrounded by the other characters for much of The Goliath Bone. The modern Mike Hammer is a man in love: he holds hands with Velda often and discusses the options with her, respecting her input. This is the Hammer of the 21st century, a man who doesn't live in the past, though he certainly talks about it a lot ("I was in all the papers").

Readers used to the tight pacing of the classic Spillane novels will notice instantly that The Goliath Bone has a great deal of talk in it. The exposition -- including lengthy discussions on the history and origins of the bone, the intentions of the different factions concerned (handled with some degree of sensitivity), life in a post-9/11 world, and especially far too much of "here's what might happen and here's what we're going to do about it" -- takes up over a third of the novel. But once it gets going, the book offers international intrigue on the level of Eric Ambler and John LeCarré.

More Hammer novels are slated for the next few years, but The Goliath Bone is meant to be the last chronologically in the Hammer "timeline" (much like Collins's own Quarry series "ended" with 2006's The Last Quarry, with The First Quarry coming two years later). With a final-chapter reference that ties back to I, the Jury, the series comes full circle in a satisfying way.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not firing-on-all-cylinders Hammer, but not bad, March 5, 2009

By 

Joseph P. Menta, Jr. (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Goliath Bone (Mike Hammer Novels) (Hardcover)

Where's the showmanship? A much better title for this novel would have been "Goliath!" instead of the just okay "The Goliath Bone". And that's really the problem with the novel, too: it's just okay. Not horrible by any means, but not great, either. Sequences at the beginning and end are laced with the trademark Mike Hammer suspense and violence (though the book's final sequence hinges on a million-to-one-shot piece of luck instead of Hammer's skill), but the middle section kind of meanders.

Did co-writer Max Allan Collins (who finished this book working from Mr. Spillane's notes and unfinished manuscript) resist sharpening things up with his own plotting contributions, preferring instead to give us a book that was as much of a purely Spillane story as possible? Perhaps. And, if so, maybe that was the right thing to do.

Other quick pros and cons? The pros include a couple of sexy scenes and lots of Mr. Hammer's general appreciation of the fairer sex ("respectful leering" is a good way to describe it). There's a nice sense of place as Mr. Hammer moves around New York City during the course of the case. And I liked the fascinating discussions between Hammer and Homicide Chief Pat Chambers about life in a post 9/11 world. Cons? Besides some of the slow pacing, there's way too much discussion of how old Hammer, Velda, and Pat are, how they aren't what they used to be, etc. It's gratifying that Spillane and Collins don't want to ignore the fact that Hammer has been at the game since the 1940's, but it became hard to suspend disbelief when we were constantly reminded that Hammer should be in a wheelchair by now!

Final verdict? In the end, if you like Mickey Spillane and Mike Hammer, there's no reason not to pick this up. Temper your expectations and you'll likely find "The Goliath Bone" entertaining enough.