Monday, March 05, 2012

Monday Mystery - Mickey Spillane

One of the many mysteries I read in the 80's were those of Mickey Spillane. His books were a mixture of mystery, sex, and sadism. His writing reflected the darker side of America with a heavy hand on macho violence.   His full name was Frank Morrison Spillane. 

 Mike Hammer was the detective in his books. Hammer's first book debuted in 1947. In it he sought the killer of a wartime buddy and gave himself the role of judge, jury,and executioner. The title of that book was I, The Jury. 

In 1950 My Gun is Quick  after Mike chat's up a beautiful redhead she's a victim of a hit and run. He goes to the authorities and insists "Red" was murdered.  When they don't listen he goes after the killer. The shocking last line to the book was, "He was still screaming when I pulled the trigger."

Have you read any of Mickey Spillane's work? If so, which ones? What do you like about his mysteries?




2 comments:

Diana McCollum said...

Hi, Paty,

No I haven't read any of Mickey Spillene's books. I can remember my dad reading a few of them.

Don't you love reading old books and seeing how much writing styles have changed?

Paty Jager said...

Diana, I agree, it is fun reading older books and seeing the change in writing styles.