Customer Reviews

Something's Down There: A Novel

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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.

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."

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.

This novel is readable, but a bit disappointing. It is two plots run in parallel, neither of which seems as well developed as they could have been. The hero is Mako Hooker, a former contract assassin for the government who is now well past his prime.

One plot is about the damage to small vessels, e.g., fishing boats, in a somewhat undefined (fictional) area of the West Indies. Fishermen claim a monster is eating the vessels. Well, a lot of superstition as Mako tries to track down the cause. Technical details are a bit of a stretch, and various red herrings are introduced to add complexities to the plot. To some degree, the plot goes off in too many directions.

The second plot is about big business, tourism, intrusion of outsiders into a native culture, and bad guys getting involved in legitimate businesses. It can make one wonder who the bad guys really are. A company wants to shoot a motion picture in the area. A cruise line wants to add it to its port-of-call.

Mako is called out of retirement to deal with the problems. He survives in spite of himself. Other agents show up out of his past, including a female agent who is shown in a bad light. It seems to imply that female agents are overcome by PMS and unreliable. A couple of baddies get offed, but not by Mako. An attractive young rich woman becomes fascinated with Mako, and the story seems to fade away into the sunset.

Aging cold warrior Mako Hooker has retired to the islands where he fishes and doesn't do much else. But rumors of a boat killer are starting to mount and the Company,' anxious to pick up political favors, sends a team into the area to find out whether the long extinct mega-shark has emerged. Because Mako has seen the six-inch broad bite marks that the killer has left. Along with the Company team, a cruise ship filled with millionaires and a Hollywood filming team are in the area.

Mako's friend and boat captain pushes Maco into a relationship with be beautiful millionaire Judy (a.k.a. 'Doll'). That is the good news. The bad news is that the woman on the Company team is gunning for a chance to kill Maco and one of the Hollywood men is a Mafiosa. The Mafiosa may be playing legitimate now, but Mako knows that it's only a matter of time before he decides to go for illegal profits. A number of suspicious deaths in his past make Mako even more suspicious.

Author Mickey Spillane has been writing hard-boiled action for more than half a century and he can still turn out captivating action. Still, SOMETHING'S DOWN THERE didn't seem quite put together. I wasn't clear why the Mafiosa had to be there and what illegal objective he was seeking that even a legitimate Hollywood manager (if there is such a thing) wouldn't be doing. The boat-killer is an intriguing concept but was perhaps too easy to guess and its final resolution seemed unsatisfactory to me. And the relationship between Mako and Judy seemed just a little too sexist for me to buy into. Finally, Spillane's characters occasionally date themselves, talking about World War II as if it was a recent event and as if veterans of that war were still active in espionage.

SOMETHING'S DOWN THERE is flawed, but it is still interesting and occasionally compelling. Spillane maintains a way with words even in a story that is not his best.

I'm not sure that this is a novel for diehard fans, since it lacks the clear, lean narrative that usually characterizes this master's works. There are too many characters, too many vague plot lines, too much texture, too much technical detail. There is not enough grit, not enough action, not enough memorable one-liners.

In short, it's not your usual Mickey Spillane book. Here, he's doing things that others do much better rather than doing the things that no one can do like him. For a weathered, government operative with old values and old expressions, go for a Donald Hamilton, who can also do boats and action at sea.

Maybe it's just me. This is a guy who always deserves the benefit of the doubt. Keep writing, Mickey.

It would have been a better short story, but even then it wouldn't have been very good. The ending is totally ridiculous. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief up to a point, but really....

I had a wonderful time reading this novel! It kept me hooked from start to finish. I really need to find more books by this author. He knows how to tell one helluva of an entertaining story. I liked this one a lot!

He died in 2006 at 88; this was published in 2004 - maybe this is his last book?

I had a wonderful time reading this novel! It kept me hooked from start to finish. I really need to find more books by this author. He knows how to tell one helluva of an entertaining story. I liked this one a lot!