The Killing Man
by Mickey Spillane
Mike Hammer Novels (book 12), Mike Hammer (book 12), Mike Hammer Novels (Chronological Story Order) (22)
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It keeps coming back to Hammer... The image of bloodshed in his office remained etched in Mike Hammer's mind forever - his secretary sprawled on the floor and a stranger sitting dead and mutilated at his own desk. In one moment a storm of madness entered the private eye's life. As he starts hunting for the killer, Hammer is haunted by the message left on his desk, "You die for killing me." Suddenly, he is in too deep with a lethal blonde who has big ideas, a CIA secret, another set of show more murders, and the trail of an international hitman named Penta. Now Hammer knows it's only a matter of time... show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I thought the anachronistic mismatch of Mike Hammer's later years was borne out of the Max Allan Collins collaborations/rewrites, but this is Spillane himself updating the character to a new era, and it shows even the 80s was decades too late for Hammer, let alone the 2000s and beyond. The era of Jack Ryan political thrillers isn't a place for a relic of the 40s. It makes the success of the TV show with Stacy Keach an interesting study object, as they managed to move the setting and keep the anachronism charming while toning down the character. Rather, in this novel, it feels like Spillane is chasing book trends with a character not suited for political intrigue.
“The Killing Man” is the twelfth Mike Hammer novel, published only nineteen short years after the eleventh one (“Survival Zero”). Although there are hints that this story takes place in the 1980’s, it feels for the most part like a classic Mike Hammer story and, like every Mike Hammer novel that came before, it is chock full of top-notch writing, vivid descriptions, action sequences unparalleled in detective fiction, and is just plain good fun to read.
It opens with another dark, dreary day in Manhattan – somehow in Hammer books you always feel like there are dark clouds, foggy evenings, trenchcoats, and .45s. The most shocking scene of all occurs when Hammer walks into his office and sees Velda – “her body crumpled up show more against the wall, half her face a mass of clotted blood that seeped from under her hair.” Hammer, as always, is prepared for action, and when he thinks he sees someone in the inner office, he has to explode and ram “through the door in a blind fury ready to blow somebody into a death full of bloody, flying parts,” but stops “because it had already been done.” As shocking as it is to see Velda, secretary, fiancé, romantic entanglement, on the floor and being rushed to critical care, nothing typifies the hero that Spillane invented more than
his exploding through a door ready to rip the evildoer limb from limb and make him suffer. This is not your typical private eye. This is not your down-on-his luck detective who is busy talking his way out of trouble. No, this is Hammer, the avenging angel who is out to smite with fire and brimstone anyone that does him wrong.
Spillane doesn’t spare the reader any of the gory details. Be forewarned. The narrative forcefully describes the “dozen knife slashes” that “had cut open the skin of his face and chest and [the fact that] his clothes were a sodden mass of congealed blood.” The six-inch steel spike positioned “squarely in the middle of the guy’s forehead” is almost an afterthought.
This return to the Hammer saga is just as terrific as any of the earlier Hammer novels from the gut-wrenching scenes with Velda hanging on in the hospital to Hammer’s sparring and foreplay with the blonde assistant district attorney with the “cover-girl face and a body that didn’t just happen.” “You would want to kiss the lusciousness of those full lips until the thought occurred that it might be like putting your tongue on a cold sled runner and never being able to get it off,” Hammer explains. Wow. Another writer would’ve just called her an ice princess and left it at that.
All in all, another fantastic piece of writing sure to entertain anyone looking for good, old-fashioned hardboiled fun. show less
It opens with another dark, dreary day in Manhattan – somehow in Hammer books you always feel like there are dark clouds, foggy evenings, trenchcoats, and .45s. The most shocking scene of all occurs when Hammer walks into his office and sees Velda – “her body crumpled up show more against the wall, half her face a mass of clotted blood that seeped from under her hair.” Hammer, as always, is prepared for action, and when he thinks he sees someone in the inner office, he has to explode and ram “through the door in a blind fury ready to blow somebody into a death full of bloody, flying parts,” but stops “because it had already been done.” As shocking as it is to see Velda, secretary, fiancé, romantic entanglement, on the floor and being rushed to critical care, nothing typifies the hero that Spillane invented more than
his exploding through a door ready to rip the evildoer limb from limb and make him suffer. This is not your typical private eye. This is not your down-on-his luck detective who is busy talking his way out of trouble. No, this is Hammer, the avenging angel who is out to smite with fire and brimstone anyone that does him wrong.
Spillane doesn’t spare the reader any of the gory details. Be forewarned. The narrative forcefully describes the “dozen knife slashes” that “had cut open the skin of his face and chest and [the fact that] his clothes were a sodden mass of congealed blood.” The six-inch steel spike positioned “squarely in the middle of the guy’s forehead” is almost an afterthought.
This return to the Hammer saga is just as terrific as any of the earlier Hammer novels from the gut-wrenching scenes with Velda hanging on in the hospital to Hammer’s sparring and foreplay with the blonde assistant district attorney with the “cover-girl face and a body that didn’t just happen.” “You would want to kiss the lusciousness of those full lips until the thought occurred that it might be like putting your tongue on a cold sled runner and never being able to get it off,” Hammer explains. Wow. Another writer would’ve just called her an ice princess and left it at that.
All in all, another fantastic piece of writing sure to entertain anyone looking for good, old-fashioned hardboiled fun. show less
This isn't the best Mike Hammer story. Somehow Hammer just doesn't fit with big international threats with assassins, all the government security agencies, etc. You needed a score card to remember who everyone was. The better part of my rating was due to the fact that it moved the relationship with Velda forward. It is about time, after all these years, that Hammer figured out how much she means to him.
Since this was heralded as the "return" of Hammer, you would almost wonder if Spillane was trying to bring him into a more modern type of story, but it didn't work. Hammer should stay Hammer.
Since this was heralded as the "return" of Hammer, you would almost wonder if Spillane was trying to bring him into a more modern type of story, but it didn't work. Hammer should stay Hammer.
Pretty fun one. Mike Hanmer jumps into the 1980’s with this yarn. He fits right in. I thought this one had a lot of action and the usual Hammer the ladies man. Spillane was definitely getting better with age here
OK mystery. The first paragraph is wonderful, ending with ". . . it wasn't rain at all, but the sweat of the city." And, to give some of it away---although not everything as a previous reviewer here did!---it is a mystery and not just a procedural. Beautiful women throw themselves at Mike Hammer, but he is a gentleman. There is a passionate description of Liszt's Dante Symphony; as I said, Mike is a gentleman. Computers and international terrorism are involved. And even when Mike is wrong, he still solves a big case.
For anyone who doesn’t know, back in the 50s and 60s Spillane was a very successful author of noir-type crime fiction. He made his fortune by spinning tales of sex, murder, and vigilante justice. Of course, the critics didn’t like him, but he sold millions of copies of his books, so I don’t think he gave a damn about critical opinion.
The Killing Man was published in 1989, touted as the “return of Mike Hammer,” the protagonist in the most successful of Spillane’s novels. It seemed to be right up my alley (overlooking the dopey title), but after reading it I was left saying “Eh…” It was an entertaining read, I guess, but the skill and artfulness wasn’t what I expected to be. Plus, the plot wasn’t very imaginative. show more Here’s the gist of it:
Mike goes to his office to meet a client and finds his secretary knocked unconscious and a dead man in his office. A note left on the desk states, “You die for killing me. –Penta.” The cops theorize that this Penta character was trying to kill Mike but got the wrong guy. As the story goes on, they learn that Penta is an international assassin (um... kay) who the FBI, CIA, and a bunch of other organizations are after. Mike doesn’t cooperate with them in the investigation and instead strikes off on his own. He learns that Penta had a twin (ugh…), whom Mike investigated and, as a result of that, was sentenced to die by lethal injection. Penta tries to kill Mike’s secretary again, and Mike pays him back by blowing a couple extra hole in him.
There’s also some other archetypal characters, sex, and s’more dead bodies lying around, but that’s the long of the short of it. Maybe I was expecting too much from the story, but it left me kind of disappointed. It had some of the hard language I’ve become accustomed to with Noir, but some of the dialogue and action was a bit too contrived for my tastes. That might sound like the pot calling the kettle black, but that’s honestly the way I felt.
It won’t keep me from reading any more of his books, but I definitely don’t think he’s a “master of the genre.” show less
The Killing Man was published in 1989, touted as the “return of Mike Hammer,” the protagonist in the most successful of Spillane’s novels. It seemed to be right up my alley (overlooking the dopey title), but after reading it I was left saying “Eh…” It was an entertaining read, I guess, but the skill and artfulness wasn’t what I expected to be. Plus, the plot wasn’t very imaginative. show more Here’s the gist of it:
Mike goes to his office to meet a client and finds his secretary knocked unconscious and a dead man in his office. A note left on the desk states, “You die for killing me. –Penta.” The cops theorize that this Penta character was trying to kill Mike but got the wrong guy. As the story goes on, they learn that Penta is an international assassin (um... kay) who the FBI, CIA, and a bunch of other organizations are after. Mike doesn’t cooperate with them in the investigation and instead strikes off on his own. He learns that Penta had a twin (ugh…), whom Mike investigated and, as a result of that, was sentenced to die by lethal injection. Penta tries to kill Mike’s secretary again, and Mike pays him back by blowing a couple extra hole in him.
There’s also some other archetypal characters, sex, and s’more dead bodies lying around, but that’s the long of the short of it. Maybe I was expecting too much from the story, but it left me kind of disappointed. It had some of the hard language I’ve become accustomed to with Noir, but some of the dialogue and action was a bit too contrived for my tastes. That might sound like the pot calling the kettle black, but that’s honestly the way I felt.
It won’t keep me from reading any more of his books, but I definitely don’t think he’s a “master of the genre.” show less
Recommended for: Anyone who likes hard-boiled detective fiction.
This is a hard-boiled Mike Hammer PI novel, and thank goodness there are many more. In this one Mike Hammer returns to his office to find his secretary nearly beaten to death, and at Mike's desk in the adjoining room is a dead man with his fingers cut off. Mike Hammer has no idea who the dead man is. In an attempt to get answers our PI will be pulled into violence, deception, and evil.
There are some dated terms, like addressing women as "doll," but it's no great matter in this intriguing story.
This is a hard-boiled Mike Hammer PI novel, and thank goodness there are many more. In this one Mike Hammer returns to his office to find his secretary nearly beaten to death, and at Mike's desk in the adjoining room is a dead man with his fingers cut off. Mike Hammer has no idea who the dead man is. In an attempt to get answers our PI will be pulled into violence, deception, and evil.
There are some dated terms, like addressing women as "doll," but it's no great matter in this intriguing story.
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Mickey Spillane was born Frank Morrison Spillane in Brooklyn, New York on March 9, 1918. He briefly attended Fort Hays State College in Kansas, but dropped out, moved back to New York, and began his writing career in the mid-1930s. His first stories were published mostly in comic books and pulp magazines. He created Mike Danger, a private show more detective, and also wrote for Captain America, Captain Marvel, and The Human Torch. During World War II, he worked as a flying instructor for the U.S. Army Air Force. His first novel, I, the Jury, featured Mike Hammer and was published in 1947. His other novels include Vengeance Is Mine; My Gun Is Quick; The Big Kill; Kiss Me, Deadly; The Long Wait; and The Deep. Between 1952 and 1961 Spillane stopped writing full-length novels after converting to a Jehovah's Witness. In 1962, he brought Hammer back with The Girl Hunters, which was followed by Day of the Guns, The Death Dealers, The Twisted Thing, and Body Lovers. He also wrote two children's books, The Day the Sea Rolled Back, which won a prize from the Junior Literary Guild, and The Ship That Never Was. In 1995, he received the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. In the mid-1990s, he returned to comic books, by co-creating a futuristic Mike Danger. He died following a long illness on July 17, 2006 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- De killer
- Original publication date
- 1989
- People/Characters
- Mike Hammer; Velda; Pat Chambers; Candace Amory; General Rudy Skubal
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA
- Dedication
- To Jame with love
- First words
- Some days hang over Manhattan like a huge pair of unseen pincers, slowly squeezing the city until you can hardly breathe. A low growl of thunder echoed up the cavern of Fifth Avenue an dI looked up to where the sky started at... (show all) the seventy-first floor of the Empire State building. I could smell the rain. It was the kind that hung above the orderly piles of concrete until it was soaked with dust and debris and when it came down it wasn't rain at all, but the sweat of the city.
- Quotations
- The Dante Symphony [by Liszt] was coming to the end now. It was pounding, forcing the notes into an eerie crescendo so that you could see the flames, feel the passion and hear screams like none other anywhere. It was exhilera... (show all)ting to the point of absolute exhaustion and left you shaken with tremors that never came any other way. [p. 122]
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I said, "Now I killed you, you shit."
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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