Customer Reviews

I, The Jury

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
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This was Spillane's first book - and what a book! Mike Hammer's war buddy is taunted and murdered and Mike vows to bring the killer to justice. He smashes his way to a conclusion you won't soon forget. After you read this one, try the next 6 - All Hammer stories with the exception of "The Long Wait." At one time all of Spillane's first 7 books were listed in the all time top 10 best sellers. There's a reason for that - read them and find out.

If you are looking for hardboiled detective fiction, Mickey Spillane's I, THE JURY is the place to start. Spillane's Mike Hammer is as brutal and uncompromising as they come. There's nothing weak about this book, and the conclusion is so suprising, so shocking, that it will leave you with a powerful, but guilty, sense of vindication.

Make no bones about it: this is definitely one of the best detective novels ever written, but not only that. It is also a piece of art, beautifully told, with characters that are hard to forget, and scenes that must have made Norman Rockwell shudder with disgust. It is also, more by accident than purposely it seems, a description of the underbelly of American society after World War II, when U.S. power was at its peak and the American way of life seemed to leave nothing to be desired.
Trying to find out who killed his best friend, Mike Hammer ruthlessly punches, kicks, and shoots himself through the mesh of thugs, pimps, racketeers, and femme fatales, that pave his way before he can finally nail down the murderer. His methods are brutal and totally inconsistent with even the most lenient interpretations of the law. Along the way, he meets a host of the most beautiful and attractive bombshells ever to grace the pages of a novel, not without getting a little closer to at least some of the most beguiling ones of these kittens. Despite his apparent disregard for rules, norms, and morals, deep down Hammer is a very decent and honorable man. Loyalty means everything to him; he treats doormen and elevator attendants with respect; and he even refuses to sleep with his soon-to-be wife before they officially seal their commitment. He even doesn't think anything of having a drink at the bar of a friend, who, incidentially, happens to be a black man.
As far as violence goes, Hammer sure doesn't shy away from it. Neither does he seem to dislike it all that much. However, he never resorts to it without a purpose. It's a means to an end, namely, to make the murderer of his friend pay and to finally bring about justice. The latter would not be served if not for Hammer taking the law in his own hands. "No jury would ever convict you on that, would they? ... We won't have to worry about a smart lawyer cracking our chains of circumstance and making them look foolish to a jury ... No, I am the jury now, and the judge, and I have a promise to keep".
The extent to which Spillane was despised by the 40s literary critics in particular and the then dominant voices of public opinion in general is not hard to imagine. I don't believe he would fare much better today; a statement like "you no longer had the social instinct of a woman - that of being dependent upon a man" would not go too well in today's politically overcorrect society. Well, I don't give a damn - to me Mike Hammer is an honest, straightforward, and down-to-earth character, just as I, The Jury is an unpretentious and sincere effort by its writer to make a buck. This, I guess, he did, and, incidentially, he created a great work of American fiction. You'r a good man, and I believe we all should have a whiskey or two to your health. Here's to you, Mickey.
(I have come across the "Unofficial Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer Site" - it's the best web page on this topic and about the best site on the whole world wide web).

Mike Hammer has never been told so boldly, so brazenly as he was here by the master of the dime novel mystery, Mickey Spillane. This should be standard reading for any man's man as well as standard fair on any pure study of American literature. Mickey Spillane's prose ranks at the highest of its form, bar none, and there are very few novels that narrative points come down to the last sentence of the book.

This is a must for any serious fan of mystery fiction, whether you prefer your private eyes hard-boiled or not, and this should be on any serious men's literature list.

Trust me. "It was easy."

I'm not trying to be sexist, just realistic. I, the Jury, is outstanding reading. Spillane is in top form with this one, and the story is strong and riveting. But there is a good deal of sex and violence, and things were certainly a lot different when Mr. Spillane wrote this. Don't look for any politically correct jargon or attitudes, and don't hope for a happy ending, because you'll be disappointed on both counts. But if you want a good read, and you want something that is WAY different than any stories being published today, buy this book.

Mike, slow down, buddy. You're going to kill someone. Again. Oh, you want to. I see. You want to plug somebody. You want to shoot them in the gut. You want them to die a slow death - squirming. You want them to feel themselves dying. You want to watch.

You can use a little therapy, Mike, but I suppose we all can. And let me say this: if we're going to pick sides here, I want you on my side. You're a tough cookie. You put the hard in hard-boiled. You shove your way around the city, tossing bad guys and girls in the gutter where they belong. And who knows more than you that there are plenty of them bums to go around. They're on every street corner, in every alley, under every rock.

You use women, too, Mike. You play them like a musician playing the scales. Up and down. You bring them up, they fall for you, then you drop them down - hard. Sometimes you're soft, but most times you're rough, and they like it when you're rough - the rougher the better. But there is one dame who plucks your strings, Mr. Hammer - Velda, your secretary. You almost tossed her overboard in this one, Mike. I was surprised. But look who she was up against - Ms. Perfect - body and all.

Yeah, you're crazy as a loon. You're wound up tighter than the rubber bands on the inside of a golf ball. But I feel safer when you're around, Mike. I sleep better, too, knowing there's one pug out there who's looking out for the little guy. You got class, buddy. It's not polished bright and shiny on the outside, like a knight in shining armor, it's deep inside where no one can see it. That's because if they saw how much you cared then they'd know something about you, and that would be a flaw, right, big guy? You want to keep `em guessing the same way they keep you guessing about who-done-it.

Yeah, you're tough, Mike, too tough for the upper crust, but don't worry, us little guys, we'll be back for more.

Filled with thrills and twists this is mickey spillane at his best. A great mystery story which can be read in one sitting either in bed or when travelling.

I could give you details but then it wouldnt be a mystery would it.

Spillane's first novel is unfortunately out of print and I hope this will encourage the publishers to reprint. It's a classic redoing of the hard-boiled tradition, taking the essentials of the plot of the Maltese Falcon, adding even more sex and violence, and casting its hero, Mike Hammer, as a returned veteran of WWII, disgusted with the world that he and his buddies had fought to preserve. It marks the beginning of Spillane's long career as a detective novelist, is essential to understanding where the detective goes after Hammett and Chandler, and is a terrific read!

"I, the Jury" is not really a mystery. It is a "vendetta Eastern" in the same pattern as the Clint Eastwood vendetta Westerns ("A Fistful of Dollars," "A Few Dollars More," "Hang 'em High," etc.) In the opening pages of the book, Mike Hammer stands over the body of his slain comrade and swears terrible vengeance on the killer. Then he embarks upon a series of crimes which should have garnered him several life sentences. When the last house is burgled, the last head broken, and the last killing perpetrated, I was left wondering the same thing I wondered at the conclusion of the Dirty Harry movie "Magnum Force." How's the "hero" gonna explain all this to the police?

Mike Hammer is the classic hard-bitten private detective. He talks hard, he fights hard and when it comes to love he falls fast and hard. Nothing at all is held back in this highly charged murder case that cuts straight to Hammer's core.

The tough, no-nonsense Hammer is faced with the cruel shooting murder of Jack Williams, a close friend, and takes it hard. In front of Pat Chambers, another good friend who just happens to be the Captain of Homicide, he vows that when he catches the murderer he would gladly shoot him in the gut, just like Williams had been. The case quickly becomes a race between Hammer and Chambers, as Hammer is determined to have his vengeance.

This is hardboiled detective fiction as it should be. There are no qualms when it comes to violence, no regrets over shooting the bad guys, whisky is swallowed easily in one swallow and the dames are kept begging for more. We charge from suspect to suspect watching Hammer extract information under threat of violence, and following through on the threat whenever necessary. Moving at breakneck speed, the bodies pile up while Hammer finds himself falling in love. It makes for terrific reading for lovers of the hardboiled detective genre.