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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780451203526
ISBN number: 0451203526
Label: NAL Trade
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: June 01, 2001
Publishing house: NAL Trade
Release Date: June 12, 2001
Sale Popularity Level: 83361
Studio: NAL Trade
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Product Description:
SEX AND VIOLENCE. Mickey Spillane, the tough-as-nails, bestselling publishing phenomenon knew what readers wanted. Now he's really letting them have it...times three.
MIKE HAMMER-Spillane's ultimate creation, the original no-holds-barred private eye who became homicide's hottest anti-hero.
THE MIKE HAMMER COLLECTION, VOLUME 1-the first-ever trade anthology of Spillane's masterpieces of literary mayhem. In one exciting collection, here are the very first three novels featuring legendary detective Mike Hammer.
I, the Jury
My Gun is Quick
Vengeance is Mine!
Mickey Spillane is a master. (The New York Times)
Mickey Spillane is the living master of the hard-boiled mystery. (Detecting Men)
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Rated by buyers 
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Contents: I, the jury; My gun is quick; Vengeance is mine
Too much like self-parody to be good. Has its moments, but too much posturing. Mickey Spillane, and by extension his detective Mike Hammer, are tough-guy wannabes.
The progression from Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler is not only generational, but devolutionary.
Rated by buyers 
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Back in the day when I was teaching university literature courses, I would annually shock some English department colleagues by suggesting to students that Raymond Chandler was a better writer than F. Scott Fitzgerald. I smile to think of their reactions yesterday if I were teaching a course in American literature, in which I would spend serious time reading and discussing Mickey Spillane and his unforgettable character, Mike Hammer.
Spillane was never a trickster or sensationalist. He was a hard worker and a born storyteller who knew more about pacing and dialogue than most writers will ever know. He got readers to pay attention and turn the page, and he left the always wanting more. Even today, I dream of another new Hammer novel or two turning up somewhere in the dusty bottom drawer of a roll-top desk.
But even if they don't, I'll revisit Spillane/Hammer every few years, probably for the rest of my life. So many books are made for one reading, and that's it. Not these. Spillane succeeded in creating an iconic American character, a deeply flawed rebel with an unbreakable will and unwavering sense of what is right and good in life. The author and his main character were always true to themselves, and we're the beneficiaries of that truth.
Staying with these two is not tough to do; it's easy!
--Robert McDowell, The Poetry Mentor (www.robertmcdowell.net), author of POETRY AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE, July 15th, 2008, from Free Press.
Rated by buyers 
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It had been around fifteen or twenty years since I had last read a Mickey Spillane book before I had started the Mike Hammer Collection Volume 1. Back then, it had been the very first Hammer book, I, the Jury. Over the years, I had forgotten almost all about the book except the very end. Rereading it and the other two novels in this edition, I figured out that this was appropriate: Spillane ends his stories with exclamation points, not periods.
This omnibus edition contains the very first three Mike Hammer novels: in addition to I, the Jury, there is My Gun is Quick and Vengeance is Mine. As with the other books, I, the Jury doesn't waste much time with exposition. By the end of the very first page, we already have a dead body, in this case, Jack Williams, Hammer's best friend. Almost immediately, Hammer makes a vow: he will kill Jack's murderer. The bulk of the novel is Hammer's investigation, a combination of legwork, intuition, deduction and intimidation, with a little romance added into the mix. It is, in a way, a routine tough guy private eye story, with some decent writing and a memorable ending.
My Gun is Quick - the longest of the three novels - moves a little more slowly, with the very first death not occurring until the eighth page. In this case, it is a prostitute trying to get out of the business and who briefly befriended Hammer. The investigation again takes Hammer into the seedy side of New York City, and unlike the very first novel, Hammer takes a real beating this time. Eventually, however, he will get to administer his own violent sort of justice.
Vengeance is Mine! has a corpse not only on the very first page, but in the very first sentence. The trouble for Hammer is that the man was killed with the detective's gun while the hero was drunkenly unconscious. This leads to Hammer losing his license, but that doesn't stop him from finding the killer, in this case entangled with a modeling/call-girl outfit and an illegal casino.
Outside of Hammer, there are really only two recurring characters. Pat Chambers is a homicide captain who is Hammer's friend and tolerates Hammer's behavior because he delivers the goods. He is able to keep Hammer on a leash, but it is a long one and occasionally it doesn't work. Velda is Hammer's beautiful secretary, who adores her boss. Hammer knows he should marry her, but at the same time he can't keep away from all the other beautiful women who fall for his hard attitude.
Mike Hammer, however, is the center of each story, a narrator with barely restrained rage. He is often a bully, but he also has a sense of fairness and is more tolerant than many fictional detectives of this era, even having a love affair with a prostitute in My Gun is Quick. In I, the Jury, Spillane is still honing Hammer's voice, but by the second novel, he has Hammer perfected. This is not great art - I doubt even Spillane would have claimed that - but it is solid entertainment and really hard boiled fiction in the classic vein.
Rated by buyers -
These three novels are great fun. The publisher also deserves credit for an attractive product at a bargain price. I read all three novels within a few weeks, and then did the same with volume two. Anyone who likes these books will also enjoy reading Raymond Chandler. It's a close contest, but I liked Chandler even a little better. Chandler's main character (Phillip Marlowe) spends less time boasting than Spillane's (Mike Hammer), and is also more real-life in his need to make a living. But you are cheating yourself if you don't read them both.
Rated by buyers -
Bought this for my son so he could read something else besides Star War books. Growing up I bought and read every one. I never looked back.
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