Customer Reviews

Me, Hood

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Obtaining and reading this paperback a week or so ago allowed me the satisfaction of being able to complete a shelf of Spillane in paperback. What you get here are two short novels (novelets, novellas?) that lean heavily on plot devices and situations Spillane has used many times before. But what you also get is another great Spillane tough guy, operating in a world seemingly inhabited only by other tough guys, all out to do in our hero. The ending of ME, HOOD is unsurprising simply because we recognize the familiar plot, but there are some genuine surprises in the sequel, RETURN OF THE HOOD. If you like Spillane, you need this, one of the more difficult-to-find of his paperbacks.

Ryan, Irish, or The Hood, he is a hard boiled type who works on the wrong side of the street most of the time. He has connections to people on the street who take car of their own. This is a collection of two novelettes, "Me, Hood" and "Return of the Hood," a total of 134 pages after subtracting off title pages and such. Ryan is recruited to help out in a case where someone is needed to work off the books using procedures the police can not. Something is missing and needs to be found. In the second case, he becomes involved as a courier without really asking, and becomes an unofficial agent of the government a second time. Ryan carries a 45 which he is very willing to use. Make my day.

I grew up reading the author's Mike Hammer series. This is a similar character. The setting is the same in New York City. The characters are the same type. It is a macho society for the most part where women play secondary roles (but maybe not always). The plots have a lot of gunplay and dead bodies pile up.

While Spillane is quoted as saying that he can write the text of a book in two weeks, it's certainly not obvious in any of his taut, finely plotted thrillers. "Me, Hood" is one more classic example.

"I, The Jury" (1947) was the beginning, the beginning of a round of thrillers by then unknown Mickey Spillane. Mike Hammer, one of thrillerdom's ace protagonists was introduced, and the world couldn't read enough of his adventures.

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.