The Will to Kill Read online

  Both Spillane (who died in 2006) and Collins have received the Private Eye Writers life achievement award, the Eye, and the Mystery Writers of America “Grandmaster” Edgar.

  MIKE HAMMER NOVELS

  In response to reader request, I have assembled this chronology to indicate where the Hammer novels I’ve completed from Mickey Spillane’s unfinished manuscripts fit into the canon. An asterisk indicates the collaborative works (thus far). J. Kingston Pierce of the fine website The Rap Sheet pointed out an inconsistency in this list (as it appeared with Murder Never Knocks) that I’ve corrected.

  M.A.C.

  I, the Jury

  Lady, Go Die!*

  The Twisted Thing (published 1966, written 1949)

  My Gun Is Quick

  Vengeance Is Mine!

  One Lonely Night

  The Big Kill

  Kiss Me, Deadly

  Kill Me, Darling*

  The Girl Hunters

  The Snake

  Complex 90*

  The Big Bang*

  The Will to Kill*

  Murder Never Knocks*

  The Body Lovers

  Survival… Zero!

  Kiss Her Goodbye*

  The Killing Man

  Black Alley

  King of the Weeds*

  The Goliath Bone*

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  LADY, GO DIE!

  MICKEY SPILLANE & MAX ALLAN COLLINS

  Hammer and Velda go on vacation to a small beach town on Long Island after wrapping up the Williams case (I, the Jury). Walking romantically along the boardwalk, they witness a brutal beating at the hands of some vicious local cops—Hammer wades in to defend the victim.

  When a woman turns up naked—and dead—astride the statue of a horse in the small-town city park, how she wound up this unlikely Lady Godiva is just one of the mysteries Hammer feels compelled to solve…

  “Collins knows the pistol-packing PI inside and out, and Hammer’s vigilante rage (and gruff way with the ladies) reads authentically.” Booklist

  “A fun read that rings true to the way the character was originally written by Spillane.” Crimespree Magazine

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  COMPLEX 90

  MICKEY SPILLANE & MAX ALLAN COLLINS

  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?

  “It may be Spillane’s hero throwing the punches in these stories, but make no mistake—it’s the writer who knocks you out.” BarnesandNobleReview.com

  “[Collins’s] prose never lets up for a second… a slam-bang climax that had us needing a drink when it was over.” Pulp Fiction Reviews

  “Spillane at his best.” CrimeTime

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  KING OF THE WEEDS

  MICKEY SPILLANE & MAX ALLAN COLLINS

  As his old friend Captain Pat Chambers of Homicide approaches retirement, Hammer finds himself up against a clever serial killer targeting only cops. A killer Chambers had put away many years ago is suddenly freed on new, apparently indisputable evidence, and Hammer wonders if, somehow, this seemingly placid, very odd old man might be engineering cop killings that all seem to be either accidental or by natural causes.

  At the same time Hammer and Velda are dealing with the fallout—some of it mob, some of it federal government—over the $89-billion-dollar cache the detective is (rightly) suspected of finding not long ago…

  “Collins’ witty, hardboiled prose would make Raymond Chandler proud.” Entertainment Weekly

  “Another terrific Mike Hammer caper that moves non-stop like a flying cheetah across the reader’s field of imagination.” Pulp Fiction Reviews

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  KILL ME, DARLING

  MICKEY SPILLANE & MAX ALLAN COLLINS

  Mike Hammer’s secretary and partner Velda has walked out on him, and Mike is just surfacing from a four-month bender. But then an old cop turns up murdered, an old cop who once worked with Velda on the NYPD Vice Squad. What’s more, Mike’s pal Captain Pat Chambers has discovered that Velda is in Florida, the moll of gangster and drug runner Nolly Quinn.

  Hammer hits the road and drives to Miami, where he enlists the help of a horse-faced newspaperman and a local police detective. But can they find Velda in time? And what is the connection between the murdered vice cop in Manhattan, and Mike’s ex turning gun moll in Florida?

  “[O]ne of his best, liberally dosed with the razor-edged prose and violence that marked the originals.” Publishers Weekly

  “For Mike Hammer’s fans—yes, there are still plenty of them out there—it’s a sure bet.” Booklist

  “It’s vintage peak-era Spillane so seamless it’s hard to see where the Spillane ends and the Collins picks up.” Crime Time

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