I, the Jury (Paperback)

In "I, the Jury" we have a lovable cad of a private investigator looking for the killer of his best friend. But he seeks justice in a very crude way - revenge (ie, he's out for blood). Of course during the way he meets with some sexy "broads" (to use the vernacular of the times) who, of course, fall madly in love with him. So far this doesn't sound far off from a Raymond Chandler novel. However with Mickey Spillane the dialogue is less clever (yet easier to read), the prose is only fair, and the story could have been told better. In "I, the Jury" the rather terrific ending is very quickly brought to the surface is an an abrupt way. So Raymond Chandler seems to be the much better writer, capturing the essence of 1940s Los Angeles and the folks who inhabit skid row. Mickey Spillane's book is set in New York but it could have been Anywhere, USA, and I didn't exactly feel hurdled back in time. But I enjoyed "I, the Jury" overall and I will read others in the Mike Hammer series.

Bottom line: a bit crude but very entertaining piece of private eye nonsense. In its own way it is deserving of its status as as classic.

We don't really know where he comes from. He hasn't been to therapy. He doesn't play soft jazz in his apartment, and have a collection of paintings, crockery, special fry pans and the poems of Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. He drinks a lot. He has a friend on the cops and a sexy, very sexy secretary.

It all starts with him. In his wake are Lehane, Crais, Lescroart, Parker, George, Margolin and the like.

There's also a nice collection of Mike Hammer including "My Gun is Quick" and "Vengeance is Mine," and you can now get several other novels together. Highly recommended. 5+ stars. Larry Scantlebury

The tough, no-nonsense Hammer is faced with the cruel shooting murder of Jack Williams, a close friend, and takes it hard. In front of Pat Chambers, another good friend who just happens to be the Captain of Homicide, he vows that when he catches the murderer he would gladly shoot him in the gut, just like Williams had been. The case quickly becomes a race between Hammer and Chambers, as Hammer is determined to have his vengeance.

This is hardboiled detective fiction as it should be. There are no qualms when it comes to violence, no regrets over shooting the bad guys, whisky is swallowed easily in one swallow and the dames are kept begging for more. We charge from suspect to suspect watching Hammer extract information under threat of violence, and following through on the threat whenever necessary. Moving at breakneck speed, the bodies pile up while Hammer finds himself falling in love. It makes for terrific reading for lovers of the hardboiled detective genre.