The Goliath Bone

I've been a big fan of Mickey Spillane and his Mike Hammer series since I was in high school, but I never understood just how talented he was. Until I started to read his stories all over again, and I never knew he was involved with these last two books before he passed away. Then it turns out he had several he was working on, and even though his wife and partner finished off these books. They are still in a class of there own, and I still think he was one of the finest writers I've ever read.

Mickey Spillane is (may he rest in peace) the greatest. I hope there are many more unplublished books by him. I have been a diehard Spillane fan since 1956. I know and appreciate the efforts of Max Allan Collins in putting this book together.

There is NOTHING bigger than Goliath-Mike Hammer Mickey Spilliane's last Mike Hammer novel was left uncomplete at the time of his death. Noted mystery author Max Allen Collins finished up this novel and we should all be beholding. Two young adults find a bone belonging to Goliath of biblical days. It brings out many factions to get this bone back. Hammer gets involved protecting these young people and get in the middle of a hot bed of a mystery What we have here is Mike Hammer's final case. Hammer shows his age, rather than being eternally young as he has been in the series of novels . He admits to wanting to retire with Velda. Spilliane's usually body count is lessen in this novel. He meshes modern day information with pulp sense of nostalgia. This is a modern mystery with old sense pulp novel earmark. Under the audio hand of Stacy Keach (yes TV's Mike Hammer himself) , this capture the characters and well as a great story. Keach who is so familar as Hammer, a role he has played on and off for 20 years, that this text is more like comfort food for a mystery fan. There are a few vocal slips, by on the whole... This is an audio treat for mystery fans and Hammer fans alike. I wish the good people at Simon and Schuster audio would re-release the older Mike Hammer's audios read by Keach Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

You would have expected the father of America's toughest private-eye to go out with a bang! And he does, in this, one of the two remaining Mike Hammer books Mickey Spillane was writing at the time of his death. Thankfully his close friend, and literary protégé, Max Allan Collins was on board to complete the both books. It's a loud bang of action, humor and a long fulfilled romance that had me hooked from page one. Nobody wrote tough-guy pulp like Spillane. It was a talent that never left him over his sixty year career as a crime writer. Mike Hammer is out and about on a cold New York City winter night when trouble comes calling in the form of two young people hurrying down the street unaware they've picked up a menacing shadow. Never one to mind his own business, Hammer takes off after them and their mysterious pursuer and arrives in the nick of time to save them from being gunned down. Hammer never goes anywhere without his trusty Colt .45 automatic. With a dead man at his feet, and two frightened innocents, Hammer whisks them off to the security of his office and thus the tale begins. The would-be victims are college sweethearts recently returned from a trip to Israel. After camping in the Valley of Elah, the two accidentally uncover a human femur bone the size of a railroad tie. They believe it to be the only remains of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath. The couple, Mark and Jenna, smuggle the bone out of the country by mailing it to a friend back home. Once back in New York, they retrieve it and are on their way to the university to deliver it to their respective parents who are both archeologists. Thus ends their tale at the point of being attacked by the unknown assassin and Hammer's timely appearance. Hammer immediately realizes the political implications of their discovery and the dangers they entail, to include the botched murder attempt. Leave it to Spillane to deliver a topical thriller, post 9-11, with Hammer ready to take on Islamic terrorists all by his lonesome. The plot moves at a fast clip and before long Hammer is embroiled with foreign dignitaries, government agents and criminal arms dealers, all the while having to protect the two young lovers. Thus the subplot of his long overdue marriage to Velda, his gorgeous, loyal secretary is truly poignant. Ever the skilled story-telling magician, Spillane pulls a few aces out his sleeve, including the reason why it has taken Hammer so long to make an honest woman of her. Their marriage and honeymoon adds a fitting chapter to Hammer's last case. The feelings of these two characters, their enduring love and its joyful resolution reminded me of what William Faulkner called "...the truths of the heart." But worry not, pulp fans. Before the two can sail off into the sunset, there is still the matter of a ruthless killer who has left a trail of bodies for Hammer to follow like a grisly invitation to a climatic showdown. Mike Hammer never walked away from a case un

Mickey Spillane may not have written GOLIATH BONE in its entirety, but Max Allan Collins has certainly done his friend -- and the iconic character of Hammer -- justice in completing it. To me, this Hammer feels like Hammer, albeit one nearing retirement and feeling every bit his age. It's a new world out there, pitting the P.I. against terrorists, but a bad guy's a bad guy, and Hammer aims to do away with them in his own blunt, un-PC style. It may be set in the present, but all the nods to Hammer's heyday are there, right down to the no-nonsense dialogue. The jacket's comparison to THE DA VINCI CODE is a bit stretching it, although the plot does deal with an artifact with religious significance, but it's nearly a Macguffin to simply get the thriller going.