Rating: 
Summary: Confirms Spillane's Brilliance
Review: As a contemporary mystery writer with my debut novel in initial release, I have often heard Mickey Spillane and his Mike Hammer character scoffed at by the writers of today. This collection, containing three early works, shows clearly why Spillane should be respected by authors and mystery fans of our time. Mike Hammer, the ultimate hardboiled American private eye, is a magnificent creation. Spillane's plots move swiftly, and the world of Mike Hammer is created in painstaking, and consistent, detail. Each of the novels in this collection clearly shows why Spillane has had the impact he has had on the mystery genre. He should not be scoffed at when he deserves to be admired. Read this collection, and you will find out why.
Rating: 
Summary: I, Witness
Review: Here's food for thought: Mickey Spillane, known for the high sex and violence content of his stories, is a long-time Jehovah's Witness. He grew up in a tough neighborhood and, if he had come knocking on my door trying to convert me, I would have been careful how I argued with him. In truth, what seemed shocking at the time seems almost puritanical today. His hero, Mike Hammer, continually declines offers of sex from beautiful women on the grounds that it would be morally wrong. His is an Old Testament, vengeful, eye-for-an-eye morality, doling out death as the wages of sin. Even the title of one of these stories, "Vengeance is Mine", has a biblical ring to it.Hammer was based on a comic book character Spillane had created, and the stories have the simplicity, directness and lack of literary pretension that one would expect from such a pedigree. Spillane found a marketable formula and stuck with it and all three of these stories are similar in many ways. The post-war reading public wanted a hero who righted wrongs simply and neatly, with fist and gun and no due process. Notice that all three titles have a first-person pronoun in them; Spillane invites you to become your fantasy macho hero for a while. Racier stories and more skilful plotting are now available from other authors, but Spillane is still worth a look, if only to see how the genre evolved after Chandler and Hammett. One reason his work has survived (although he is not very widely read now) is the success of the excellent film noir adaptation of "Kiss Me Deadly", the star of which, Ralph Meeker, was a very fine actor. Watch that movie, read at least one story from this collection, then move on to better things.
Rating:
Summary: I, Witness
Review: Here's food for thought: Mickey Spillane, known for the high sex and violence content of his stories, is a long-time Jehovah's Witness. He grew up in a tough neighborhood and, if he had come knocking on my door trying to convert me, I would have been careful how I argued with him. In truth, what seemed shocking at the time seems almost puritanical today. His hero, Mike Hammer, continually declines offers of sex from beautiful women on the grounds that it would be morally wrong. His is an Old Testament, vengeful, eye-for-an-eye morality, doling out death as the wages of sin. Even the title of one of these stories, "Vengeance is Mine", has a biblical ring to it. Hammer was based on a comic book character Spillane had created, and the stories have the simplicity, directness and lack of literary pretension that one would expect from such a pedigree. Spillane found a marketable formula and stuck with it and all three of these stories are similar in many ways. The post-war reading public wanted a hero who righted wrongs simply and neatly, with fist and gun and no due process. Notice that all three titles have a first-person pronoun in them; Spillane invites you to become your fantasy macho hero for a while. Racier stories and more skilful plotting are now available from other authors, but Spillane is still worth a look, if only to see how the genre evolved after Chandler and Hammett. One reason his work has survived (although he is not very widely read now) is the success of the excellent film noir adaptation of "Kiss Me Deadly", the star of which, Ralph Meeker, was a very fine actor. Watch that movie, read at least one story from this collection, then move on to better things.
Rating:
Summary: Each Book Begins and Ends Well, But The Middle Is Muddled
Review: Hmm, let's see. We have a tough-guy PI with a big gun (and fast hands where women are involved) and a super-charged car, a buxom and very leggy secretary/sidekick, dastardly but not so mysterious villains, wanton women galore, an ineffectual law enforcement and a sin-filled city rife with rot and corruption. Now what more would one need in cheap noir escapism? The answer- depth of character and depth of story. As a result, the books in this collection have that trait many items in brown wrapping possess- lewd and salacious, but not socially permissible publicly, and thus their giddy and voracious consumption in secret.
All of the standard props of Spillane yarns are fully in place, and they include a moralizing brute quick to kill, women who find the brute so irresistible that they literally rip off their clothes before him to entice him with their ample wares, and men who idolize Mike Hammer because after all, he's a real man. The basic set-up of every story is simple and goes something like this: someone Hammer knows and likes is brutally murdered, Hammer then subjects his comely raven-haired secretary to what today would be called sexual harassment bordering on assault (but of course she wants it to happen) as he relentlessly pursues the killer, and law enforcement tacitly looks the other way as Hammer's vigilante tactics deal a death-hand to a murderer who deserves what he (and sometimes she) gets. In all, the books are a bit formulaic and a bit too pat for more discerning aficionados of noir, but hey, who can argue with a cheap thrill on the cheap?
For their time, these three books did literally 'shock and awe', but frankly wouldn't even merit even an R rating today. In fact, they would be considered a bit trashy (right up there with an episode of Jerry Springer) by many discriminating noir readers. Hammer is as rough a lover as he is a fighter, and the women that are pulled into his orbit (even though he is an ugly mug) love him all the more for it. Each book contains lots of frank talk and moralizing about how bad big city society had by that time become, and in keeping with the times, the author uses no four letter words.
Though Hammer has depth, and we generally know what motivates him, few of the other characters we meet have this depth. Moreover, it seems that in each story Hammer's sidekick Velda's only reason for living is to snare him in holy matrimony, and we really do not get to see her in action (she actually comes off as very needy and clingy and would be considered co-dependent these days). Velda pines for Mike, even as he makes many romantic conquests with other women who just can't help but fall in love with him. Furthermore, though we get snippets of what motivates his police pal Pat, we also do not see too much of him in action. Spillane has created a great leading character, even if he is a bit of a Noble Savage, and a few good supporting characters, but their forms are not fleshed out very well.
Additionally, while the action level is adequate, the dialogue is at times stilted, and the stories, though short, tend to be weighed down with a lot of useless chatter and pointless filler. While I get that the guy is very moral, he comes off as being too righteous and high and mighty at times.
Finally, astute readers will know who the killer is by the first thirty pages of each book, so there will be no surprises there. Rather, the surprises come toward the end, especially when we see how Hammer dispatches each of these evil-doers. Readers will also enjoy the sexually-charged banter and cat-and-mouse struggle (after awhile it becomes difficult to say who is the cat and who is the mouse) between Mike and Velda, and some of the more colorful (but now cute) remarks about various social ills, such as STDs.
In all, this collection is a great bargain, given its contents. Although I can not say I am a rabid fan of Mr. Spillane and his moderately impressive body of work, I can say that I will give Volume 2 of The Mike Hammer Collection a generous portion of my precious reading time (but I won't dare let anyone know I read such fodder!).
Rating:
Summary: Amazing How Good!!!
Review: I have a B.A. degree in English literature, and I rarely read novels anymore. Being 46 years old and never having read a Spillane novel, I was always interested in his popular works. My father and older brother always read Spillane. After reading these early works, I was amazed with my total enjoyment of each mystery. The prose improved with each subsequent work. The stories were woven with fantastic charm, wit, and style that can only be attributed to Mickey Spillane. His being a part of the World War II generation added to his distinct writing background/style. I loved his continuing characters of Mike Hammer (Private Detective), his secretary Velda, and Police Chief, Pat Chambers. I am now "hooked" on Spillane's Mike Hammer novels and cannot wait to read more. BRAVO!!! What fun and exciting reading. Mickey Spillane is an important part of American Pop fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Hard-boiled Mystery At Its Very Best
Review: In this first installment of "The Mike Hammer Collection", Mickey Spillane's hero leads us through a trio of fast-paced, hard-hitting and thoroughly enjoyable stories. Each of these contain a rollercoaster of plot twists, a barrage of action sequences along with a ton of girls, who are as dangerous as they are pretty. I personally feel that with his first three Mike Hammer stories Mickey Spillane has created masterpieces.
Well worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Hard-boiled Mystery At Its Very Best
Review: In this first installment of "The Mike Hammer Collection", Mickey Spillane's hero leads us through a trio of fast-paced, hard-hitting and thoroughly enjoyable stories. Each of these contain a rollercoaster of plot twists, a barrage of action sequences along with a ton of girls, who are as dangerous as they are pretty. I personally feel that with his first three Mike Hammer stories Mickey Spillane has created masterpieces.
Well worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: Mickey Spillane does not get the credit he deserves. These novels are awesome. There is never a dull moment, and the writing is incredible. Spillane does not try to impress you with complicated verbiage to prove he is a good writer. He just writes great stories. People make a big fuss about the sex(there really isn't much) and the violence(plenty of it) in his stories, but this has nothing to do with the real power of his writing. You can see the action and you feel like you know the characters, and unlike the cardboard characters in the novels of some other hardboiled writers, you actually care about these characters. Despite the fact that Hammer is brutally violent and never politically correct, you get a sense that he is at the core a good man, even a hero. This is the real draw of these stories. Mike Hammer is the man that stops at nothing to make sure justice gets done, even if he has to pile up some bodies to get it done. The fact that every woman he meets wants to sleep with him is a nice fantasy too. I highly reccomend this book, volume 2 , and any other Spillane books you can get your hands on. You won't be dissappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Hilariously over-the-top, but very readable.
Review: Mickey Spillane was a unique writer who imbued his hardboiled mystery novels with an over-the-top grittiness that often toed the line between light-hearted pulp fiction and dime-novel trash. His stalwart hero, Mike Hammer, is the personification of the tough guy detective who is tough simply because he probably can't be anything else. Several of these other reviewers are quite disturbing in their assumptions: Mickey Spillane invented the hard-boiled detective genre with Mike Hammer? How untrue! Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are the true grandfathers of the hard-boiled detective story and their literary efforts remain timeless. That being said, Spillane is a colorful writer who warrants reading by rabid fans of the genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Spillane Still a crowd pleaser
Review: Mickey Spillane wrote detective novels half a century ago. It's well-known that he was not very well-liked by the literary community. There's a veiled derisive reference to one of his stories in one of the later Philip Marlowe novels. Even after all of this time, Spillane still gets little respect. This is unfortunate, but this collection goes some way towards fixing that I think. The three books presented here are the first three Spillane wrote, published just after World War II, and Max Alan Collins' thoughtful introduction puts them in context so the reader knows what they're looking at. Basically, if you've seen plot twists or devices in other stories that appear here also, it's a good bet that Spillane invented them, and someone else used them (usually while not crediting Spillane himself). The three books included in this series are I, the Jury (1947), My Gun is Quick (1950) and Vengeance is Mine (also 1950). All three are variations on the same plot, which apparently is a Spillane hallmark. The main character, Mike Hammer, is somehow involved in a murder, knows the victim, and swears revenge on the killer. He then spends most of the book sorting through clues, talking to witnesses, and getting beaten up. There's then a final scene where Hammer has figured out who the killer is, and confronts said killer. The killers never get arrested: Hammer shoots them, so that there's no trial. The dialog and situations are very dated, and somewhat hackneyed. My wife read one of these books sometime ago, and her observation is very appropriate. Spillane invented the genre, but he's been imitated so much that the original looks a bit cliched. That being said there are some really amusing cultural indicators here. For instance, while the books were considered scandalous at the time, there are no four-letter words in the text (none are spelled out anyway). There's much breathless necking and so forth, but the sex is actually pretty tame. In the first book, Hammer actually won't have sex with the girl he's romantically involved with because they aren't married yet. The slang is so dated that at times it's unintentionally funny: Hammer and his best friend Captain Pat Chambers call one another kid repeatedly, for instance. Hammer walks around telling everyone that he's going to kill the murderer in a fashion that no one would condone today, and no writer would try to slip past an editor. I really enjoyed these books, and I would recommend them to anyone interested in detective novels, and noir fiction. They are definitely anachronisms, but they're fun, nonetheless.
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