As hard-boiled as you get.

Author:
Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

What They Say
When Hammer and Velda go on vacation to a Long Island beach town, Hammer becomes embroiled in the mystery of a missing well-known New York party girl who lives nearby. When the woman turns up naked – and dead – astride the statue of a horse in the town square, Hammer feels compelled to investigate.

Mickey Spillane’s lost 1940s Mike Hammer novel, written between I, the Jury and My Gun Is Quick and never before published! Completed by Spillane’s friend and literary executor Max Allan Collins,Lady, Go Die is finally making its way into print almost 70 years after its inception!

The Review:
Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels are much like the character: fast, direct, and simple. They owe as much to Westerns as they do to traditional crime dramas. Hammer may not be the Sheriff, but he brings justice and order to the lawless urban wilderness of New York with his fists and his trusty .45 automatic. He may not follow the letter of the law, but he holds himself and others to a strongly defined code of ethics. Unlike other famous detectives like Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, Mike Hammer is less conflicted and less morally ambiguous. When he’s on the case he moves with the confidence and momentum of a bullet.

This book takes Hammer out of Manhattan and to a small tourist town on Long Island for a vacation. In the previous book, Hammer had to kill a man, and even though he felt like he was in the right, the act still haunts him, causing him to drink too much. His secretary forces him to go on vacation in order to dry out and get his mind right, but the hard-luck detective immediately gets into trouble, coming to the rescue of a local beach bum named Poochie who was on the wrong end of a beating by three corrupt cops. This act of kindness thrusts Mike and Velda into a new mystery when the body of a missing New York dilettante is found naked on a statue of a horse in the town square—a grotesque Lady Godiva (“More like Lady, Go Die!” as Velda puts it).

Hammer’s alcoholism really only serves as an excuse to get him to the town. Although he at first seems to be dealing with the repercussions of killing another human being, that subplot is dropped fairly quickly and he becomes more than willing later to kill again if he has to. Typically I’d point this out as an example of poor writing, but Mike Hammer isn’t really a brooding character. He’s a man of action: the kind of person you could never picture just sitting around and doing nothing. There are hints that he does this because constantly acting leaves no time for reflecting on his life and actions, but I think it’s more that it’s simply his nature. He’s a problem-solver.

This is why I say that Spillane’s work owes so much to Westerns. Mike Hammer is like the gunslinger coming to a lawless frontier town to restore order. The mystery is less important than the disorder it represents and the morality play it creates. Traditionally detectives in the noir genre are deeply flawed individuals that don’t fit in with everyday society. Mike Hammer certainly fits this trope, but these characters also serve as somewhat passive observers of the depths of depravity human beings are capable of. They rarely get the girl—and even if they do she often tends to be duplicitous or murderous—and there’s a sense that their actions don’t matter in a larger, cosmic sense. Mike Hammer either doesn’t feel this way or doesn’t care. He’s as blunt as his namesake, and that makes him a great, enjoyable character to read.

Lady, Go Die! Was written after Spillane’s first Mike Hammer novel, but for whatever reason was never published. When Spillane died he bequeathed the contents of his office to friend and fellow crime writer Max Allan Collins. Collins took the unfinished manuscript and filled in the spaces.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that it takes a certain sensibility to really get into it. Spillane was all about sex and violence and his novels are deeply rooted in 1950s sensibilities, especially in the treatment of women. Mike respects women in his own way, but that doesn’t keep him from referring to them as “dames” or ripping a dress or two if it teaches women that some men don’t take kindly to being teased and may not take “no” for an answer. The book contains the classic virgin-whore dichotomy with his secretary Velda being beautiful but innocent and untouchable and other women being sex objects. To write this off as simply being of its time may be a bit of a copout, but it should be taken into consideration.

Essentially, this is a simple, straightforward, enjoyable story full of violence and mystery. The character Mike Hammer fulfills certain male power fantasies and it’s fun to see him knocking heads and sticking up for the little guy. He acts in the way many of wish we could, if only we were a little bit stronger or braver or simply foolhardy.

In Summary:
Like his namesake, Mike Hammer is blunt and straightforward. He’s not particularly psychologically deep or as compelling as other fictional detectives, but he’s fun in a John Wayne, cowboy way. This novel was taken from an unfinished manuscript and completed by the excellent crime writer Max Allan Collins, who does a great job of emulating Spillane’s style. The story can be a bit rough to read given the very macho attitudes towards women that was a hallmark of the Hammer series. If you can look past that then you’ll find a fun, fast-paced tale of murder, gambling, and deceit. Which, really, is exactly what you should look for from a book like this.

Content Grade: A

Published By: Titan Books
Release Date: May 8, 2012
MSRP: $25.99