Mike Hammer just can’t retire. He has spent the past year in Florida, fishing and passing the time, when he gets a call from his good friend, police captain Pat Chambers. He informs Hammer that an old associate, Inspector Doolan, is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.
That is how KISS HER GOODBYE begins, the latest from the treasure trove of unfinished manuscripts that were given to Max Allan Collins at Mickey Spillane’s passing. This is full-on Mike Hammer, but set in a time frame no one would expect: the disco era of the 1970s.
Hammer heads back to the city he used to call home to attend the funeral. Once there, he can’t help but dig into this apparent suicide, since he just can’t believe a man like Doolan would kill himself. Thus, Hammer becomes the old bull in the china shop we know and love, who has no problems sticking his nose where it no longer belongs.
Chambers worries that some of the old bosses might still have axes to grind to with Hammer, which is understandable since when he was last in NYC, he killed one of the guy’s sons by blowing off his head with a .45. But the bosses play it safe, considering the past as the past, pointing out they knew full well where Hammer has been all this time and could have easily taken care of him.
The novel builds in typical Spillane style, with bodies piling up quickly. And it’s just hilarious to see Hammer in a disco hot spot like Studio 54, here called Club 52. In those passages, it’s obvious they were Collins’ work. This is where the fun really kicks in for the reader.
The authors outdid themselves with KISS HER GOODBYE. I won’t ruin it, but all I could say at certain moments was, “Wow!” And since Collins carries the Spillane torch perfectly, this book will not disappoint longtime Hammer fans. —Bruce Grossman
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