mickeymole's review against another edition
2.0
This wasn't as good as Spillane's first two Hammer novels, though I breezed through it, and mostly enjoyed the ride. There were a few things that got on my nerves, but was able to laugh them off and keep reading. Spillane goes way overboard with all the pretty "dames" that fall for Hammer. Juno was a completely unbelievable character, and the constant comparing her to a goddess drove me nuts. The main villain was too predicable. And, the most unbelievable part was the ending. No way the character of Hammer would have been deceived in that way. What I like about Spillane is that I don't have to read any PC crap. If you're one of the "woke", you won't like this novel.
carli_likes_books's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
bloodravenlib's review against another edition
3.0
I liked I, The Jury better, but this was still pretty good. A bit slow in setting up initially. However, once the pace picked up, the action did not let go until the very end. Quite a blackmail plot leading to murder was set up, and Mike Hammer is the only one who persists in getting to the truth. The twist at the end was quite a detail, which I will not give away. Overall, a nice little bit of escapist fun. I will certainly look for other Mike Hammer novels.
custard's review against another edition
3.0
Not sure I can justify continuing to read Spillane. I am a big fan of hardboiled/Noir/PI novels and the brute force of the writing typical of the genre. Spillane is one of the crudest, and generally I enjoy it, despite (or because of?) the dodgy prose - laughing breasts, anyone? Thought not. But the levels of homophobia, racism, misogyny and - spoiler alert - transphobia were so high throughout the novel that I felt contaminated just reading it. I think this will be my last goodbye to Mike Hammer.
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