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Cathy67

Cathy67

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James Bradley, Ron Powers
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Kiss Me, Deadly - Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer is one tough dude! No wonder many of today's mystery writers refer to him and Mickey Spillane's books.

Hammer has his license and with that, his gun pulled early on so he does all his work by hand, fighting his way through a maze of corruption, the Mafia. Published in 1953 and not knowing much history of the Mafia, not sure when it 'took hold' in America. With that said, if it was established when Spillane wrote this book, was wondering if he felt threatened in any way?

Kiss Me, Deadly was complicated though. Found myself re-reading some paragraphs to make sure I got the clues or the references which were important.

Around 1953 when this was published, it was the beginning of the end of noir but this definately has all the elementsof noir. My favorite passages were about how Mike closes his mouth, pulls his lips back thin and shows his teeth. He did that quite often in the book and each time I found myself doing the same thing. I meant to mark a section where he described it but sorry, forgot to.

The ending was terrific...surprising and terrific. Some lose ends but doesn't bother me. Heh, it's Mike Hammer.

Hammer is great so no wonder a TV series was made from these books. And Mickey Spillane was quite a character in his own right, living on the coast of South Carolina and knocking on doors trying to convert people to LDS. Am I the only one who sees some kind of contradiction here?