Shoot-Out at Sugar Creek (Caleb York #6) by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

This sixth book in the Caleb York series directly follows the events of book #5, Hot Lead, Cold Justice, in which a killer blizzard swept across the Southwest putting lives and whole ranches in peril. Trying to recover from that experience has proven no easy task. Wealthy widow and cattle baroness, Victoria Drummond, has seized the opportunity to snatch up most of the smaller ranches in the area of Trinidad, New Mexico, and now has her sites set on the vast Bar-O spread, owned and managed by Willa Cullen, the getting-close-to-fiancé-status girlfriend of one Sheriff Caleb York.

There is no level to which Victoria will not stoop to get what she wants, to include hiring an army of hard case gunfighters from nearby Las Vegas, setting up ambushes, and even sacrificing her own sons to the effort. She has the upper hand against the Bar-O due to controlling Sugar Creek, the only water supply that’s not fouled by dead cattle from the massive blizzard. So, when Sheriff York is forced to shoot and kill Victoria’s son for raping and beating a saloon trollop, a full-on range war is ignited.

Some readers expect the character of Caleb York to be simply a western version of Mike Hammer but I find Caleb to be a much more sympathetic character. He is loyal to the law and to maintaining the peace, but he is a firm stand-your-ground kind of man and never backs down from a fight. He’s an excellent shot, of course, and always manages to find plenty of action to test his skills, but he would prefer that was not the case.

The plot of this novel tests not only Caleb York’s skills with a gun but also his hot-cold-warm-hot relationship with Willa Cullen, once again. The stakes have never been higher, and the body-count is stratospheric. With the title of this novel being what it is, a lot of gunplay is expected but man-o-man was that spectacular! I was fully invested in these characters after the very first book in the series, The Legend of Caleb York, and the rest of the series has only increased that for me. So, when one of them gets such a raw deal as we see here, I’m all in for revenge in the purest sense of the word.

I really hope there are more Caleb York novels still to come. Please let it be so.

Kill Me If You Can by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

The year 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of the original publication of the very first Mike Hammer novel, I, the Jury, by Mickey Spillane way back in 1947. While a dozen more would follow, all penned by Spillane himself, he also left behind numerous unfinished manuscripts, summaries, radio scripts, ideas, etc. During his final week of life in 2006, Spillane asked his friend Max Allan Collins to continue the series and make good use of that material. MAC has been doing just that ever since and succeeding in fine style. This book is the thirteenth with both Spillane and Collins listed as authors, effectively doubling the original Spillane-only output and bringing the total to 26 Mike Hammer novels. Also of note, is the infamous 10-year gap in Spillane’s output, from 1952 to 1962. This novel, Kill Me If You Can falls chronologically between Kiss Me, Deadly and The Girl Hunters which bookend that decade-long gap.

The novel opens with Mike Hammer having been working a case for several weeks involving a high-end robbery crew. A month ago, they’d hit the “Civac reception” and gotten away with a lot of jewelry and other valuables. But we soon find out they had taken something much more valuable than jewels, something that boils Hammer’s blood and leads him on a desperate whirlwind of a chase.

Velda is missing.

Velda, Hammer’s secretary and PI partner, and much more than that if the ring he recently gave her is any indication. Has she been kidnapped? Murdered? To gain some more intel, Hammer turns to his old friend and mobster, Packy Paragon who is trying hard to go legit. The man has opened a nightclub which features his famous and beautiful wife Victoria as the star singing attraction. Hammer is not in a good place when this novel begins, his days filled with drinking and his nights failing to sleep. His cop buddy Pat Chambers, the chief of homicide has about had enough of him.

Max Allan Collins, once again does an excellent job of channeling Mickey Spillane and producing an excellent Mike Hammer novel. All the elements that you hope for are here including familiar and new characters, the hard-boiled driving plot, and the richly described atmosphere of the City. Always willing to use his gun to kill killers, Hammer never hesitates to hand out justice, even when temporarily without a permit or even a PI license. Not all plot points are resolved but many readers will already be familiar with what will happen because they are detailed in the follow-on novel, The Girl Hunters, published in 1962.

This is not a tremendously long novel but rather one that is tightly plotted and one that moves along at a nice clip. Happily, five additional short stories are also included in this volume including two Hammer tales. These are all good too and written in a style much like you might find in editions of Manhunt magazine or the like.

I’m not sure how much is left in the Spillane un-published material vault but I’m sure looking forward to anything MAC can coax out, collaborate on, write, polish and let loose on the world.

My Gun is Quick (Mike Hammer #2) by Micky Spillane

The second Mike Hammer novel by Mickey Spillane was first published in 1950, nearly three years after the first, "I, the Jury".

The story begins late at night with Hammer dead tired and deciding to stop in at a diner where he meets a red-headed prostitute. She is hassled by a man she seems to know and fear, but Hammer comes to her rescue as Hammer often does, using his fists swiftly and effectively. He takes pity on the girl and gives her some money to get a real job and escape her life of prostitution. The next day she is found dead, the victim of an apparent hit-and-run accident. Mike is suspicious though, thinking she was more likely murdered and so he decides to hunt down who might be behind it.

This novel is similar in many ways to his first novel, and it is clear that it just isn’t safe to become Mike Hammer’s friend. Hammer himself even points this out in the book. Other than the recurring characters of his secretary, Velda, and Hammer’s best friend and NYPD homicide detective Pat Chambers, all others need to watch their backs. The case spirals into something much bigger than the potential murder of a prostitute, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Spillane really puts the “hard” in “hard-boiled”.

Another good one from Mickey Spillane. 

The Shrinking Island by Mickey Spillane

Mickey Spillane is an absolute icon of hard-boiled crime/mystery of the 20th century. His Mike Hammer character is truly one for the ages. But it’s doubtful that very many readers know he also wrote fiction of other stripes, including westerns and Young Adult novels. This volume collects all three of the “Larry and Josh” YA novels including one that has never seen print before. Max Allan Collins provides an insightful introduction describing the origins of these novels as well as a focused biography of Spillane himself.

Larry and Josh are young lads around the ages of 12-14 or so, having adventures among the Caribbean islands. Larry is from the Miami area while Josh is an “Islander” and together they are a formidable pair. Their divergent backgrounds and educations are an effective combination. Their fathers allow their various pursuits, but while they try to keep an eye on them, the boys manage to find themselves in dangerous situations all the same. Their quests take them in search of lost treasures, sunken ships, and strange phenomena that can hint at a bit of the supernatural.

In many ways, these stories remind me of the old Saturday morning cartoon series, “Johnny Quest”. The boys are very intelligent and quite competent while the adult antagonists can lean toward the bumbling and sinister side. I was happy to see that Spillane doesn’t “write down” to a young audience but rather unleashes his full story-telling mojo to keep the reader turning the pages. 

I loved these kinds of adventure stories when I was a young reader and I still love them today. Who doesn’t like a good treasure hunting story complete with old legends, infamous shipwrecks, mysterious ancient longboats, dangerous storms at sea, and nefarious salvage hunters?

Kudos to Rough Edges Press for putting this collection together in such a high-quality product with astounding cover art. A most worthy reawakening to the Spillane cannon.

I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane

“I want you to hear every word I say. I want you to tell it to everyone you know. And when you tell it, tell it strong, because I mean every word of it. There are ten thousand mugs that hate me and you know it. They hate me because if they mess with me I shoot their damn heads off. I’ve done it and I’ll do it again.”

Mike Hammer, hard-hitting, tough-talking private eye has been around the block a few times and has earned a certain reputation.  A reputation for taking care of business using lethal force if needed.  When his best friend is found dead, the same best friend who had literally given an arm for him during the war, Hammer is out for blood, and a promise to kill the bastard that did it.

About time I started the Mike Hammer series by Mickey Spillane.  I’ve sort of been avoiding it because I have an awful lot of series going right now and, as usual, I was worried I would start this one and get drawn into a bunch more must-reads. But I am also reading a collection of short stories right now and the next one happens to be one of the Mickey Spillane/Max Alan Collins stories that is continuing the Mike Hammer series.  And I wanted to be sure I had read the first Hammer book in case it was in any way an origin story.

It wasn’t.  Not really.  Mike Hammer is introduced in mid-career with many a case behind him already.  I understand there is a chronology to the books and short stories but I’m not sure at this point if any of them really need to be read in order. Nevertheless, I’m glad to have finally gotten to this classic of the hard-boiled genre.  Besides Hammer, himself, we also get to meet the ongoing characters of his secretary Velda and his friend Pat Chambers, Captain of Homicide NYPD.  The story itself was nicely absorbing, filled with the expected violent action and dangerous dames.  I figured out the culprit fairly early on but not necessarily the how and the why.

So, here I  am, with a newly stoked need to read another 20-plus novels.  Bummer.

Me, Hood (Mike Hammer) by Mickey Spillane

I picked this up in honor of the 100th birthday of Mickey Spillane but to be honest, that was just an excuse.  This is actually my very first Mickey Spillane experience and I’ve been itching to try one.  A couple of friends suggested I start with something other than a Mike Hammer book because they preferred his standalones and since I had this on the shelf it was an easy pick.

This volume includes two short novels: “Me, Hood” and “Return of the Hood”.  Ryan is a hoodlum, a man who skirts the law and frequently crosses the line but is smart enough to get away with it almost always.  He is often called, simply “Hood” or sometimes “Irish”.  In the first story he is conned by the police in order to bring justice to a situation that is beyond the rules of proper police procedure.  His brand of violence and his connections provide just the spark that’s needed.  The second story has a bit of an international espionage flavor to it as Hood is randomly entrusted by a desperate female spy with a capsule containing top secret microfilm.  Unfortunately, he has simultaneously been accused by a gang leader of offing his little brother and during the resulting chaos, Hood loses the capsule.  

These novellas were almost exactly what I expected from Spillane.  Lots of hard boiled crime, violence, femme fatales etc.  They are told in that wonderful first-person POV that works so well and allows for many a glib one-liner.  I’m not sure how these two stories rank on the Mickey Spillane quality index but they worked well for me as an introduction and I feel confidant they won’t be my last.