Kirjahaku

Edited by Max Allan Collins & Lynn F. Myers, Jr.41 fast-moving short-short stories by the creator of Mike Hammer Revised and expanded with 14 new stories, including "A Turn of the Tide," a previously unpublished tale.For his first novel, Mickey Spillane adapted his unsold comic book character Mike Danger. Changing Danger to Hammer, Spillane wrote the yarn that launched a major career -- I, the Jury But before he unleashed Mike Hammer on a world-wide audience, Spillane honed his craft writing terse, short-fiction for comic books, originally intended to fulfill an odd postal requirement. These "throw-away" stories became his literary boot camp, where he honed his story-telling ability.Here, collected in an expanded edition, are the earliest short stories bylined Mickey Spillane ... all written between 1941 and 1942. Spillane's comic book career was interrupted by military service (he signed up the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked). After the war, when the fighter pilot returned to civilian life, he found Funnies, Inc. (his old studio) was gone, most artists and writers now sub-contracting work directly for the comic book publishers.Now you have the opportunity to see a major mystery-fiction talent find his voice and develop his powerful storytelling skills, in a most unlikely venue -- with "filler" material in comic books. The 40 stories contained within this expanded edition demonstrate Spillane's future mastery of the tough-talking private detective and brutal criminals, while also displaying his versatility in other genres. In addition to hard-boiled crime, Spillane hammers out tales of ship wrecks, high-flying soldiers, a Lovecraftian mine-shaft, light-fingered con artists, overworked cub reporters, and a hapless exterminator. Some of the stories in the collection may frighten you, and a few will make you laugh out loud. But each one wraps up with the signature Spillane "socko finish."The combined cost of the rare comic books in which these text pieces first appeared today would be more than that of a new Cadillac; but these short stories provide their own memorable rides. Their value as a training ground for the 20th Century's top crime-fiction writer is priceless when compared to the millions of fans across the world entertained by Mickey Spillane's prose.

A Triple-Shot Anthology From the Undisputed Master of Detective Fiction. In Mickey Spillane's classic detective novels, the action exploded in a bone-crunching catharsis. Men and women didn't make love, they collided. Tough brutes used their fists to drive home a message. Tougher broads used guile. And no one's morals were loftier than the gutter. No apologies. Little redemption. They rendered critics powerless, shocked intellectuals, inspired a new wave of pulp mayhem, and left the public hungry for more. Given their hot, fever-pitch prose and breathless pacing, Spillane's Mike Hammer novels quickly became one of the most successful series in publishing history--an innovative, no-holds-barred, ultravisceral explosion of sex and violence that made Hammer a literary legend, and Spillane, one of the bestselling authors of all time. After fifty years, neither has lost their power to sucker punch the reader. Find out for yourself in this first-time ever omnibus featuring the first three Mike Hammer novels by the living master of the hard-boiled mystery...

"There's a kind of power about Mickey Spillane that no other writer can imitate." --The New York Times Apparently. With his trend-setting Mike Hammer detective novels, Mickey Spillane shot to superstardom as one of the most notorious bestselling sensations in publishing history. This powerhouse collection includes three of the master's long-out-of-print greatest novels-together for the first time in one explosive volume: The Big KillOne Lonely NightKiss Me, Deadly Includes a special introduction by Shamus and Edgar Award-winner Lawrence Block

Classic pulp crime fiction from an author who has sold over 200 million copies worldwide. '[Spillane] was a quintessential Cold War writer, an unconditional believer in good and evil' Washington Times

'[Spillane] was a quintessential Cold War writer, an unconditional believer in good and evil' Washington Times.

Before Jack Reacher . . . there was Mike Hammer'Spillane is a master at compelling you always to turn the next page' NEW YORK TIMESOut-of-town salesman Chester Wheeler is an old war buddy of PI Mike Hammer's. Now he's dead, supposedly having shot himself after an all-night drinking session - as Hammer's guest. Hammer wakes up to the sound of the police questioning him, but he suspects murder. While the DA takes his PI and gun licences, Hammer gets out on the trail. Pushing his way through a swirl of gay bars and gaming clubs, high-price fashion models and not just a little blackmail, he realises someone is working hard to frame him. And, with the help of his police buddy, Pat Chambers, and secretary Velda - now holding her own PI licence - he's working hard to find out why. Everywhere he turns, he keeps coming up against a blonde beauty named Juno. She holds the key to a crime wave that could unlock the mystery behind Chester's murder . . .

Before Jack Reacher . . . there was Mike HammerPI Mike Hammer is out for a late-night walk in the rain when he sees a woman being pursued across a bridge. He deals with the man, but, terrified, the woman jumps to her death. Pat Chambers, Hammer's police department friend, identifies the pair as Communists. Hammer visits a meeting of the local party and is mistaken for a Soviet spy. Into the mix comes Oscar, the insane brother of a political candidate on an anti-corruption ticket, who Hammer must deal with so that the politician's career prospects aren't spiked. But is Oscar really what they say he is?Meanwhile, Velda, Hammer's adored secretary, goes missing, and Hammer soon finds out that the two incidents are linked by a deadly thread . . .

'[Spillane] was a quintessential Cold War writer, an unconditional believer in good and evil' Washington Times

Before Jack Reacher . . . there was Mike HammerOne night, a blonde jumps out in front of PI Mike Hammer's car. She's so scared he doesn't have much choice but to give her a ride. At a police roadblock, he discovers she's on the run from a sanatorium, but he passes her off as his wife. Other people besides the police are after the blonde, and these people play rough. Real rough.The blonde turns out to be the star witness against some big-time mobsters. Mike has blundered into something unimaginably big, but the Feds don't want him involved - and take his PI licence and gun.For Mike, it's a chance to strike a blow against evil on a grand scale. He discovers that something representing a great deal of money, and a lot of power, has gone missing, and that some people will go to any lengths to get it back . . .

'[Spillane] was a quintessential Cold War writer, an unconditional believer in good and evil' Washington Times

When young Joe Boyle is paid to deliver a note reading "Cooley is dead. Now my fine fat louse, I'm going to spill your guts all over your own floor," and signed Vetter, he finds himself in the middle of a murderous rat race. Vetter is a mysterious killer believed to be a friend of Cooley, unknown otherwise except for the fact that he's responsible for the death of many hoodlums.

An exciting trio of classic boy's adventures from a recognized Grand Master in the mystery genre-Mickey Spillane.In The Day the Sea Rolled Back, an inexplicable freak of nature rolls the sea back from the shores of the Caribbean Island of Peolle and allows Larry and Josh to search for the wreck of the Nantucket Belle and its supposed hoard of Spanish treasure. But-unbeknownst to them-the boys are closely tracked by a pair of local fishermen who mean to take the treasure for themselves.During The Ship That Never Was, Larry and Josh task themselves with rescuing an ancient sailor adrift in a mysterious longboat and find themselves involved in finding a lost island and restoring a missing heir to the throne of a kingdom.In The Shrinking Island, Larry and Josh embark on their most exciting adventure yet when they find themselves up against dangerous storms, a missing Spanish galleon, a gang of greedy salvage hunters, and a disappearing Island in a race against time to save the sacred land of their friend's ancestors... Mickey Spillane is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century for not only creating Mike Hammer-the toughest private eye of all time-but for many other hardboiled novels that turned a generation of well-mannered mysteries on their head. In this collection, the adventures of Larry and Josh will thrill those seeking adventure...

ON MICKEY SPILLANE’S 100TH BIRTHDAY-- A BRAND-NEW NOVEL FROM THE MASTER When legendary mystery writer Mickey Spillane died in 2006, he left behind the manuscript of one last novel he’d just completed: THE LAST STAND. He asked his friend and colleague (and fellow Mystery Writers of America Grand Master) Max Allan Collins to take responsibility for finding the right time and place to publish this final book. Now, on the hundredth anniversary of Spillane’s birth, his millions of fans will at last get to read THE LAST STAND, together with a second never-before-published work, this one from early in Spillane’s career: the feverish crime novella A BULLET FOR SATISFACTION. A tarnished former cop goes on a crusade to find a politician’s killer and avoid the .45-caliber slug with his name on it. A pilot forced to make an emergency landing in the desert finds himself at the center of a struggle between FBI agents, unsavory fortune hunters, and members of the local Indian tribe to control a mysterious find that could mean wealth and power – or death. Two substantial new works filled with Spillane’s muscular prose and the gorgeous women and two-fisted action the author was famous for, topped off by an introduction from Max Allan Collins describing the history of these lost manuscripts and his long relationship with the writer who was his mentor, his hero, and for much of the last century the bestselling author in the world.

ON MICKEY SPILLANE'S 100TH BIRTHDAY - A BRAND-NEW NOVEL FROM THE MASTER When legendary mystery writer Mickey Spillane died in 2006, he left behind the manuscript of one last novel he'd just completed: THE LAST STAND. He asked his friend and colleague (and fellow Mystery Writers of America Grand Master) Max Allan Collins to take responsibility for finding the right time and place to publish this final book. Now, on the hundredth anniversary of Spillane's birth, his millions of fans will at last get to read THE LAST STAND, together with a second never-before-published work, this one from early in Spillane's career: the feverish crime novella A BULLET FOR SATISFACTION. A tarnished former cop goes on a crusade to find a politician's killer and avoid the .45-caliber slug with his name on it. A pilot forced to make an emergency landing in the desert finds himself at the center of a struggle between FBI agents, unsavory fortune hunters, and members of the local Indian tribe to control a mysterious find that could mean wealth and power - or death. Two substantial new works filled with Spillane's muscular prose and the gorgeous women and two-fisted action the author was famous for, topped off by an introduction from Max Allan Collins describing the history of these lost manuscripts and his long relationship with the writer who was his mentor, his hero, and for much of the last century the bestselling author in the world.