Something's Down There [Mass Market Paperback]

Mickey Spillane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 26, 2004

Hoping to put his past as a government operative behind him, fishing-boat captain Mako Hooker finds his retirement preempted by several mysterious mauling deaths among his fellow fishermen and enlists the help of fishing partner Billy Bright and an attractive movie heiress to investigate.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From Mickey Spillane, the hardest-boiled of detective writers, comes ... a sea story? Surprising but true, and a fun yarn it is. Mako Hooker is enjoying retirement from a life of lethal undercover work, fishing the days away on the remote Caribbean island of Peolle. But his idyll is shattered by the "eater"--an unknown presence in the deep water that bites the bottoms out of boats. As the attacks intensify, the outside world converges on Peolle: the media, a Hollywood film company, and some of Hooker's old colleagues from the Company, one of whom once put a bullet in him. As the intrigue thickens and the action gets nasty, Hooker reluctantly reactivates his old "kill or be killed" skills while trying to solve the riddle of the eater and kindling a romance with a beautiful heiress from a neighboring island.

Spillane published his first Mike Hammer novel in 1947, and though his pace has slowed, he has continued to publish into his 80s. Here, his touch here falters at times, with phrasing or pacing that seem off kilter. But the prose is often vigorous, the characters are well-drawn, the settings are vividly evoked, and the plot contains more angles than a geometry test--capped by an ingenious solution to the central mystery. Something's Down There is a pleasing concoction from a storied writer. --Nicholas H. Allison --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Eighty-five-year-old Spillane (I, the Jury; Erection Set; Tomorrow I Die) shows little evidence of advanced age in this entertaining island adventure featuring ex-spook Mako Hooker and his Carib fishing partner, Billy Bright. Mako, retired on remote Peolle Island, devotes himself to drinking Miller Lite, fishing and boating, but he soon learns what aficionados of spy fiction already know well: you never really retire from the Company. Trouble arises on several fronts: a malevolent leviathan of unknown species begins slashing huge chunks out of the bottoms of fishing boats, and still-functioning WWII-era mines from sunken ships appear on the surface of the ocean, prompting the U.S. government to send in a team of agents and re-activate Hooker. Also in on the fun is ex-mobster Tony Pallatzo, now known as Anthony Pell, the head of a movie unit determined to capture the sea-dwelling monster on film, and lovely agent Chana, an old enemy against whom Hooker still holds a grudge: "for a second he wished he had been packing his .45 and the piece was in his hand with the hammer back so he could turn and shoot her guts right out of her beautiful belly and it would finally be all over with for all time." In Spillane's world, men still call women kiddo and baby and refer to each other as pals and buddies. True to his tough-guy heritage, Mako slays the dragon, finds himself a beautiful dame in the process and receives his just reward: "Muscles in her stomach rippled against his hands, saying quiet things that he could hardly believe." Classic Spillane.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star; Z edition (October 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743478916
• ISBN-13: 978-0743478915
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,646,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mickey Spillane (1918-2006) sold hundreds of millions of books. He introduced iconic detective Mike Hammer to readers in 1947 with I, THE JURY, and was named a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master in 1995.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Big Fish Story from Big Hardboiled Fish Spillane, January 2, 2004

By 

Oscar De Los Santos (Waterbury, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Something's Down There: A Novel (Hardcover)

So Mickey Spillane wants to shoulder Mike Hammer's favorite pistol for a book and bring us a big fish story (of sorts). Fine. SOMETHING'S DOWN THERE isn't exactly the page-turner we're used to when it comes to the hardboiled thrillers Spillane is so clever at concocting, but it's not a dud, either. Not by a stretch. In fact, I'd say there were intimations of this novel - its pacing, its location, its more sedate and world-weary hero - in the last Hammer novel, BLACK ALLEY. Consider Mako Hooker a distant (and I mean distant, but nevertheless related) cousin to the Mike Hammer we encountered at the beginning and end of BLACK ALLEY: tired, nursing recent wounds and (by the end of the book) fresh ones. Hooker is the 21st century remnant of the gritty tough guy that served as central character in Spillane's earlier work. That said, I certainly hope we see Spillane resurrect the more visceral tough-as-steel Mike Hammer in the forthcoming novel (Summer 2004).

As for the plot and pacing of SOMETHING'S DOWN THERE, there's a stab at local color here that's a far cry from the dark, cold and rainy New York City that provides the backdrop of the Mike Hammer stories. This time Spillane paints a quiet seagoing life off a small island in the Caribbean. The general laid-back environment and day-to-day routines are disrupted when something starts sinking fishing ships - enough of them to pique the interest of the Company. But Company-agent Mako Hooker is no Tiger Mann (remember him?) and the twists and turns this leisurely paced book takes are not the twists and turns of Spillane's best mysteries.

If you're a Spillane fan, though, SOMETHING'S DOWN THERE is a must-read. There are enough echoes of the hardboiled Spillane here to make you nod your head nostalgically and agitate your anticipation for the forthcoming new Hammer novel.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS NOT MIKE HAMMER'S MICKEY SPILLANE, December 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Something's Down There: A Novel (Hardcover)

Unfortunately,this is not a good book. For those of us who are long time Mickey Spillane fans, it is a major disappointmnet. That hard, crudely eloquent writing is missing. The tough guy main character is not an angry, slow moving guided missile, seeking his target and smacking down anyone who gets in his way.
The tough guy in this book spends all his time drinking beer and dropping hints that he used to be a vengeful guided missile. The story is flat. The pacing is slow. The characters are just not very interesting. Spillane has a new Mike Hammer novel coming out in the summer of '04. Let's hope he is back to his old form for that one. He missed badly with "Something's Down There."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He's Not Lost His Touch, February 25, 2005

By 

Evan Mayerle "Cateagle" (Ft. Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Something's Down There (Mass Market Paperback)

Mickey Spillane may be getting on up in years, but he hasn't lost his touch in wrting good "potboilers". This one, revolving around retired US espert at "removing" people, Mako Hooker (who, I admit, reminds me of a retired Matt Helm), involves two plotlines, one involving "something" which is severely damaging or sinking boats in a section of the Carribean, and a second one involving the mob, high finance, and greed, with old acquaintances of Hooker's around on all sides. I won't spoil the ending, but it wraps up nicely and with some technical touches I've not seen Spillane use before (not complaining, though, 'twas nicely done). As usual, the hero gets the gal at the end of the book and, like most Spillane heroines, she's samrt and gutsy herself.