PG's Books

This is the second Mike Hammer book by Mickey Spillane and it is also the second book in the Mike Hammer Collection volume that I bought. In most aspects this book is similar to the first book which is to say that it is, to me at least, a good enough but not fantastic crime story about a hard-boiled, womanizing private eye.

I think I liked this book a little bit better than the first one though. The first one felt a bit more insecure which of course would not be that surprising since it was the first book in the series. The relationship between Pat and Mike is more developed in this book in that it is not so much Mike being able to do whatever he wants and then call Pat to clean up. Of course Mike does that anyway but that is besides the point. I have to say that the story was rather predictable though. It was certainly no surprise when the real bad guy was revealed.

Mike does still fall for every good-looking female that crosses his path though which is a wee bit ridiculous. I have seen a lot of people complaining about Mike Hammer being sexist, misogynist and other variations of the same thing. As far as I am concerned that is just a load of BS. If anything Mike treats women well, at least unless they are one of the bad guys. When reading a 65-year-old book one should perhaps not be surprised that it describes a world which is not holding to the standards of the modern world. Especially not the political correctness crap we have way too much of today.

Bottom line for me is that his is a readworthy book but perhaps more of a TV-series type of book than a classical masterpiece.