Not even the Evil Empire can stop Mike Hammer.
Author:
Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
What They Say
Mike Hammer accompanies a conservative politician to Moscow on a fact-finding mission. While there, he is arrested by the KGB on a bogus charge, and imprisoned; but he quickly escapes, creating an international incident by getting into a firefight with Russian agents.
On his stateside return, the government is none too happy with Mr. Hammer. Russia is insisting upon his return to stand charges, and various government agencies are following him. A question dogs our hero: why him? Why does Russia want him back, and why (as evidence increasingly indicates) was he singled out to accompany the senator to Russia in the first place? And why does every beautiful woman he encounters seem to have a seductively hidden agenda?
The Review:
Mike Hammer isn’t so much a detective as he is a force of nature: a 1950s pulp superman who’s lethal, loyal, and accountable only to his own sense of morality. In this novel (begun by Hammer’s creator Mickey Spillane and finished by Spillane’s good friend Max Allan Collins) Hammer travels to Russia, acting as bodyguard to a conservative senator undertaking a fact-finding mission. The detective is picked up by the KGB on vague charges, but manages to escape, cutting a bloody swath through Russia and parts of Europe as he tries to make his way back home.
That in-and-of itself could be an entire novel, but most of Hammer’s adventures behind the Iron Curtain are told in flashback to a Senate subcommittee. The meat of the novel consists of attempts by Russian agents to recapture Hammer, the various political intrigues occurring behind the scenes, and Hammer’s attempt to discover why he was captured in the first place. With the ever faithful and resourceful Velda by his side, Hammer’s New York becomes a battleground of spies and private detectives.
There’s something incredibly charismatic about Spillane’s private detective. He possesses a raw, masculine, no-nonsense quality backed by a strong moral compass that is very appealing. In a way, Hammer is a thug, but his redeeming quality is that he’s only that way to those that deserve it. As the character E. K. Hornbeck said in Inherit the Wind: “I may be rancid butter, but I’m on your side of the bread.”
Undoubtedly there’s an element of wish-fulfillment in this character. Mike Hammer is a character that always stands up for himself and for the downtrodden. The scenes in the beginning of the novel when he refuses to play the subcommittee’s games and pops the egos of the various members were some of my favorite in the entire story. No matter the situation, Mike Hammer remains in control, and that’s a very appealing quality.
Another element that makes Mike Hammer stories so engaging is the lean quality of the writing. Spillane possessed a clean, direct style that carried a great deal of energy. The prose bulls forward with the same single-minded momentum as its main character, making it not only a quick read, but a compelling one, too. Max Allan Collins—who last year finished another Spillane Mike Hammer novel with Lady, Go Die!—does an excellent job of maintaining Spillane’s strong authorial voice to the point where it would be difficult to tell where one writer ends and the other begins if not for the use of italics to indicate just that.
Complex 90 is two-fisted storytelling in the classic Spillane style. Everything is written just a little larger than life at a pace that barely stops to catch its breath. It’s a fun, roaring yarn that should satisfy long time Hammer fans and those new to character.
Content Grade: A
Published By: Titan Books
Release Date: May 7th, 2013
MSRP: $22.99
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