The Goliath Bone (Mike Hammer) (Hardcover)

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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.)
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Review

Spillane's posthumous novel, completed by his sometime collaborator Collins (co-editors: A Century of Noir, 2001, etc.), pits Mike Hammer against - who else? - Middle Eastern terrorists scrabbling for a priceless artifact.Taking a break from Professor George Hurley's dig, his son Matthew and his stepdaughter Jenna Sheffield, who also happens to be Matthew's secret sweetie, make a spectacular find in the Valley of Elah: a buried thigh bone whose owner stood over ten feet tall. No sooner do they identify it as a relic of Goliath, the Philistine fighter famed for his memorable defeat by David, than they're threatened by dozens of modern-day fighters. A swarthy stalker takes a potshot at Jenna hours before she picks up the bone from the friend they'd shipped it to, then tries to kill the couple and snatch the parcel from them. But Mike Hammer, everyone's favorite knight in tarnished armor (Black Alley, 1996, etc.), providentially rescues the pair, dispatching the first of many unnamed killers, and arranges for the artifact to be delivered to George Hurley's NYU lab. That's the cue for al-Qaeda, Homeland Security, the FBI, Mossad, an Israeli vigilante group and a megalomaniac theatrical impresario to take their best shot at stealing the giant's bone.Fans who aren't put off when Mike finally ties the knot with his preternaturally patient girl Friday, Velda Sterling, can relax. They're in good hands with Collins, who keeps up the vigilantism and the body count, tones down the violence and writes no worse than his master. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (October 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015101454X
• ISBN-13: 978-0151014545
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #618,610 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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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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."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Goliath Bone, August 5, 2009

By	Barbara Igoe (tucson,az) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book for my husband who is a fan of the Mickey Spillane books and he can't seem to put it down!

2 of 2 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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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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.