Synopses & Reviews
When Sam Spade gets drawn into the Maltese Falcon case, we know what to expect: straight talk, hard questions, no favors, and no way for anyone to get underneath the protective shell he wears like a second skin. We know that his late partner, Miles Archer, was a son of a bitch; that Spade is sleeping with Archer's wife, Iva; that his tomboyish secretary, Effie Perine, is the only innocent in his life. What we don't know is how Spade became who he is.
Spade & Archer completes the picture.
1921: Spade sets up his own agency in San Francisco and clients quickly start coming through the door. The next seven years will see him dealing with booze runners, waterfront thugs, stowaways, banking swindlers, gold smugglers, bumbling cops, and the illegitimate daughter of Sun Yat-sen; with murder, other men's mistresses, and long-missing money. He'll bring in Archer as a partner, though it was Archer who stole his girl while he was fighting in World War I. He'll tangle with a villain who never loses his desire to make Spade pay big for ruining what should've been the perfect crime. And he'll fall in love — though it won't turn out for the best. It never does with dames . . .
Spade & Archer is a gritty, pitch-perfect, hard-boiled novel — the work of a master mystery writer — destined to become a classic in its own right.
Review
"The violent death of his old cop mentor calls Mike Hammer back to New York and more of the same death-dealing intrigue he first made his specialty in I, the Jury 64 years ago. According to Capt. Pat Chambers, all the evidence indicates that Insp. Bill Doolan, retired and facing the end stages of cancer, shot himself in the heart. But Mike (The Big Bang, 2010, etc.) isnt buying it, and its not long before new evidence bears him out. A waitress is killed in a senseless mugging only a few blocks from Doolans funeral. A friendly hooker who has dinner with Mike is struck by a hit-and-run driver who was obviously aiming for her companion. The waitresss ex-boyfriend, who supposedly left town years ago, turns up dead. What can an aging private eye do? "I was older. I was jaded. I was retired," reflects Mike. "But I was still Mike Hammer." Naturally, hes lionized by everyone in the Big Apple, from rookie Congressman Alex Jaynor to kinky ADA Angela Marshall to reformed crime-family scion Anthony ("dont call me Little Tony") Tretriano, to hot Latina chanteuse Chrome, who sings in Anthonys club, to Alberto Bonetti, the druglord whose son Sal Mike killed in self-defense. Sal will be followed into the great beyond by over two dozen souls, most of them sent hither by Mike. Working from an unfinished novel by the late Spillane, Collins provides the franchises trademark winking salacity, self-congratulatory vigilantism and sadistic violence, topped off with a climax that combines the final scenes of two of Mikes most celebrated cases." —Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
A wonderfully dark, pitch-perfect noir prequel to The Maltese Falcon, featuring Dashiell Hammett's beloved detective, Sam Spade.
Synopsis
A wonderfully dark, pitch-perfect noir prequel to The Maltese Falcon, featuring Dashiell Hammett’s beloved detective, Sam Spade.
It’s 1921—seven years before Sam Spade will solve the famous case of the Maltese Falcon. He’s just set up his own agency in San Francisco and he gets off to a quick start, working cases (he doesn’t do domestic) and hiring a bright young secretary named Effie Perrine. When he’s hired by a prominent San Francisco banker to find his missing son, Spade gets the break he’s been looking for. He spends the next few years dealing with booze runners, waterfront thugs, banking swindlers, gold smugglers, and bumbling cops. He brings in Miles Archer as a partner to help bolster the agency, though it was Archer who stole his girl while he was fighting in World War I. All along, Spade will tangle with an enigmatic villain who holds a long-standing grudge against Spade. And, of course, he’ll fall in love—though it won’t turn out for the best. It never does with dames.
Synopsis
Mike Hammer stalks disco-era drug-runners and a fortune in Nazi diamonds in this two-fisted new Spillane novel.
Synopsis
“Entertaining . . . proof of how well Max Allan Collins has managed to mimic Spillane’s style.” —
The Onion, A. V. Club
Mike Hammer has been away from New York too long when he learns that an old mentor on the New York police force has committed suicide. Suspicious, Hammer returns for the funeral. When a woman is murdered practically on the funeral home’s doorstep, he gets drawn into the hunt for Nazi diamonds, a mysterious beauty who was close to Doolan in his final days, and a gang of drug racketeers. Soon Hammer is hobnobbing with coke-snorting celebrities at a notorious disco. Everything leads to a Mafia social club where Hammer and his .45 come calling, sparking the wildest showdown since Spillane’s classic One Lonely Night.
“[Spillane’s and Collins’s] risks pay off on the page, resulting in some of the finest novels of their respective careers . . . Kiss Her Goodbye is a throwback in the best sense of the word: it reminds us why Spillane was so good in the first place; and Collins, too . . . This is action-mystery par excellence.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
About the Author
MAX ALLAN COLLINS is the author of many works, including the best-selling graphic novel Road to Perdition and the Shamus-winning Nathan Heller novels.
MICKEY SPILLANE (1918-2006) sold hundreds of millions of books. He introduced iconic detective Mike Hammer to readers in 1947 with I, the Jury, and was named a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master in 1995.