![Cover image for Black alley [text (large print)] : Mike Hammer #13/ Mickey Spillane.](/client/assets/5.898/ctx//client/images/no_image.png "Cover image for Black alley [text (large print)] : Mike Hammer #13/ Mickey Spillane.")
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Summary
Summary
A living legend in publishing, New York Times bestselling author Mickey Spillane returns with the kind of action and thrills that has captivated readers for years!Mike Hammer awakens from a near-fatal coma to find himself in more trouble than ever before. There's the gunning down of an old Army buddy to pay back in spades, directly connected to $89 billion in missing Mafia money that the crime family and the Feds want their hands on. But no one's counting on Hammer getting in the middle of things...with quick fists and an even quicker .45!
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Mike Hammer is a hard guy to kill. Caught in a gangster shootout in New York City, Hammer takes two slugs in the gut. Triage teams leave the tough PI for dead, but a burned-out doctor, wasting away in dockside bars, reclaims his professional pride and brings Hammer back from the brink. Mending slowly, Hammer learns that his old war buddy, Marcos Dooley, has been shot. As he dies, Dooley gives a Hammer a clue regarding $89 billion in cash, crime proceeds hidden by old-guard mobsters fearing a power play by younger hoods. With his still-faithful partner, Velda, Hammer launches a treasure hunt that takes him to Florida and upstate New York, butting heads with the fedsthey want the money, tooand the remorseless son of an old mob don. Spillane's hard-boiled hero has softened with time; he finally tells Velda how he really feels about herbut, on doctor's orders, he refrains from consummation. "You're really trying to ruin your reputation, aren't you," Velda complains. Not likely. Spillane keeps the pulpy action coming, with hot lead, male bonding and a sex kitten. Mike Hammer looks like he'll make the next century, even if it means bran flakes and 2% milk for breakfast. Mystery Guild main selection. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Mike Hammer's in bad shape, and no wonder--it's nearly 50 years since his historic debut in I, the Jury, and seven years since his last outing, The Killing Man. This time Mike's exchanged shots with mob scion Azi Ponti, son of Lorenzo Ponti, last of the old dons. And Mike's not the only one who's feeling his age. His old army buddy Marcos Dooley, shot by Azi's surviving brother Ugo, is dying--but before he goes out, he sets Mike on the trail of $89 billion the old don hid away from his sons, and Dooley hid away from everybody. The pointy-heads in Washington want the money; so does Lorenzo; so does Ugo, probably. All Hammer wants is to avenge Dooley and get married to his monumentally patient girl Friday Velda. The treasure hunt could've been tossed off by anybody, but only Spillane would have his hero, who's determined to wait for holy matrimony to consummate his nuptials, call his sweetie ``doll'' and ``kitten'' and have her tell him, ``Up yours,'' or people his cast with computer nerds and cops retired from the Prohibition detail and old G.I.s who talk about WW II as if it had ended last week. In fact, trying to figure out where Dooley stashed that cash is much less entertaining than trying to figure out just when this adventure takes place, and how old ageless Hammer and lush Velda, who's still a looker, are. Longtime fans (the only conceivable audience) will find Hammer's quaintly dated narration, compounded equally of sadism and sexual prudery, an archeological treasure worth far more than that measly $89 billion. (Mystery Guild selection)
Booklist Review
Mike Hammer is still shooting first and asking questions later, but the archetypal private eye reveals a bit more of his inner self these days. Hammer is recuperating from wounds suffered in a shoot-out when he is summoned to the hospital room of his wartime buddy Dooley, who relates a fantastic but believable tale regarding the existence of $9 billion in skimmed Mob money. Hammer only wants to find out who gunned down his buddy, but he uses the money as bait. Shading all of Hammer's moves are two factors: his physical condition, which forces him to use his brain rather than his brawn, and his impending marriage to his loyal and voluptuous assistant, Velda. The first factor enhances the mystery aspect of the plot since Mike can't just beat the hell out of everyone until they tell him what he wants. The looming nuptials provide comic relief as the always randy Hammer decides he and Velda had best "save" themselves for their wedding night. Hammer has always had his own moral code, but never has it made him seem so . . . prim. A wonderfully entertaining novel with a more complex and interesting Hammer. (Reviewed Aug. 1996)0525942297Wes Lukowsky
Library Journal Review
The mob and the Feds make life tough for Mike Hammer in Spillane's latest. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.