Just in time for Mickey Spillane’s 100th Birthday celebration, Titan Books has published the first Mike Hammer novel. No, I, the Jury was actually the second Mike Hammer novel Mickey Spillane wrote. Spillane wrote Killing Town in 1946 or 1947, a year before I, the Jury. Mike Hammer steals a ride on a train to Killington, Rhode Island. He’s framed for the rape and murder of a woman. The cops work Hammer over and are set to send him to prison when the daughter of the town’s most powerful merchant steps in and frees Mike Hammer. You can imagine the vengeance Hammer promises to visit on the corrupt Police Department! All the raw power and violence of I, the Jury are on display in Killing Town. This never before published “first draft” of Mike Hammer takes the reader on high-octane joy ride. My head is still spinning! GRADE: A-
Glad you liked it. Read some Spillane back in the 60’s. Didn’t think they were very well written.
Steve, Mickey Spillane’s writing style captured the fascination of the post-World War II generation. His books sold millions of copies and made Spillane a celebrity.
Wow! I think I’ll have to get that …
In the early 60s I was fascinated by Spillane and the others – they were so far away from what you got in German books or even in translations from English like Agatha Christie.
I once read something like all that fascination with crime in the cities came to be after the soldiers came home from WW2 – used to killing and horrible experiences …
Does that ring true?
Wolf, Spillane’s stories of lone-wolf vengeance with sex and violence found an audience with post-WWII America. Spillane was the complete opposite of Agatha Christie!
Still waiting for my comment on the last post to be moderated! Can’t you end that? I’m getting lost in the dust!
Bob, your comment is up. WORDPRESS takes extra time to approve your comments for some unknown reason. But, we’re all glad to read them when they finally show up!
Interesting. Does it explain why it wasn’t published then, or in all the years since?
Jeff, according to Max Allan Collins’s INTRODUCTION, Spillane would stop writing one story if he got another “inspiration” for another story. Collins found several uncompleted stories and novels when he went through Spillane’s papers. But KILLING TOWN shares the relentless fury of I, the Jury.
Looking forward to it.
Jerry, I remember the first time I read I, the Jury back in the 1960s. Blew me away!
The Girl Hunters – especially the movie with Spillane as Hammer also left a big impression on me and my friends.
Wolf, THE GIRL HUNTERS was a huge best seller. The movie did well at the box office, too.
This actually sounds pretty good, and I’ll check it out. But I’m seriously beginning to wonder how many of these unfinished/unpublished/choose your adjective Spillane works there could be.
Michael, I suspect we’re close to the end of the unfinished/unpublished manuscripts of Mickey Spillane. Collins and TITAN BOOKS saved the best for the late, great Mickey Spillane’s 100th Birthday year.
A bit OT again re Titan Books:
I still remember my first experiences in London with them in the early 80s – especially Nick Landau and his wife Vivian Cheung (very nice people btw!) when they started the Forbidden Planet store too.
A real success story, defining a new market, and a very interesting read – of course also with personal conflicts between the founders of the business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Landau
Wolf, TITAN BOOKS has been growing over the past couple of years. The Mickey Spillane books are well done. TITAN BOOKS also publishes some attractive science fiction, too.
George, of course – that’s how those people started: SF and comics fans 🙂
I met them several times – as one of Forbidden Planet’s best customers I was invited to business parties and birthday parties of the people working there.
I may have told that story before:
We were lost in Central London once in the evening after business closed because the tube was on strike and buses were more than full …
I was staying with my friend, one of the managers and he told his boss that I had brought lots of German beer, schnapps and some Black Forest ham and the guy said: Oh, I’d like to try that!
So he, his wife and the others went with his car to East London (me and two other guys sitting in the trunk of his station wagon …). Don’t remember whether it was Landau (probably) – but I know he was Jewish, still liked that ham … 🙂
Wolf, TITAN BOOKS grew successful in England. In the past five years or so, TITAN BOOKS has expanded operations in the United States.