With an introduction by Max Allan Collins: the first collection of stories starring legendary Mike Hammer, the toughest private investigator in history

It starts with a few near-accidents: A car almost swipes Mike Hammer when he’s crossing the street. A junkie robs the notoriously hardboiled detective at knifepoint. A fight on a subway platform comes close to pushing him in front of a train. While any one of these could be a coincidence, together they make a conspiracy—one that Hammer will have to end in order to survive. And when it comes to finishing something—or someone—nobody does it better than Hammer.

One of the twentieth century’s bestselling American mystery authors, Mickey Spillane changed noir fiction forever when he loosed Mike Hammer on the world. Now these eight short stories, collected and finished by Max Allan Collins, show that Spillane is still capable of redefining the genre.

The stories in A Long Time Dead have received numerous accolades, including an Edgar Award nomination, two International Association of Media and Tie-in Writers “Scribe” Awards, and a Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award.

When private investigator Mike Hammer accompanies a conservative politician to Moscow on a fact-finding mission, he is arrested and imprisoned by the KGB on a bogus charge. 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 Hammer. Russia is insisting upon his extradition, and various government agencies are following him. A question dogs our hero: why him? Why does Russia want him back, and why was he singled out to accompany the senator to Russia in the first place?

The legendary Mike Hammer continues to thrill readers everywhere, even after the passing of his brilliant creator, Mickey Spillane. Complex 90, begun in 1964 by Mickey Spillane, was completed almost forty years later by the writer chosen by Mike Hammer’s creator himself.

For twenty years, former NYPD cop Jack Stang has lived with the memory of his girlfriend’s death in an attempted abduction. But what if she weren’t actually dead? What if she somehow secretly survived–but lost her sight, and her memory, and everything else she had except her enemies? Now Jack has a second chance to save the only woman he ever loved–or to lose her for good.

Legendary crime writer Mickey Spillane’s celebrated tin-star hero Caleb York returns in the explosive
Western saga by New York Times bestselling author Max Allan Collins. This time, the revered New Mexico
gunhand unloads his .44 in a brewing storm brutal enough to freeze the blood.

A killer blizzard sweeping across the Southwest threatens the livelihoods of everyone in the town of Trinidad. But
it’s two gunshots that fell Sheriff Caleb York’s unlucky deputy. As sure as the blood pooling in the snow, York knows it
was a case of mistaken identity. The bullets were meant for him.

It’s the first nasty step in a plan rustled up by former Quantrill’s Raider Luke “Burn ‘Em” Burnham–eliminate the
law, corral a team to rob a bank in booming Las Vegas, New Mexico, then lay low. With a treacherous local merchant
for cover, and York out of the picture, all they’ll have to do is wait for the calm. Then they get wind of one little hitch:
not only is York still alive, but he’s gunning for justice–and revenge.

As the winter weather bears down, the stir-crazy outlaws aim to finish what they started–take down York and
disappear into the blinding storm. As a chilling cat-and-mouse begins, York isn’t about to let Burnham and his
damnable gang get away. It’d be a cold day in hell if he did.

The course of true love never did run smooth for PI Mike Hammer. His secretary and partner Velda has walked out on him without explanation, and Mike is just surfacing from a four-month bender. But then an old cop turns up murdered–a 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, now 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 turned gun moll in Florida?

It keeps coming back to Hammer…

The image of bloodshed in his office remained etched in Mike Hammer’s mind forever – his secretary sprawled on the floor and a stranger sitting dead and mutilated at his own desk. In one moment a storm of madness entered the private eye’s life. As he starts hunting for the killer, Hammer is haunted by the message left on his desk: “You die for killing me.” Suddenly, he is in too deep with a lethal blonde who has big ideas, a CIA secret, another set of murders, and the trail of an international hitman named Penta. Now Hammer knows it’s only a matter of time…

In what Mickey Spillane had planned to be the final Mike Hammer novel, Hammer finds himself up against a clever serial killer targeting only cops.

A killer Mike Hammer’s old friend Captain Pat Chambers had put away many years ago is suddenly freed on new, seemingly indisputable evidence, and Hammer wonders if this outwardly placid, very odd old man might somehow 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 cache the detective is (rightly) suspected of finding not long ago.

Mike Hammer has been away from New York for too long. Recuperating in Florida after the mob shoot-out that nearly claimed his life, he learns that an old mentor on the New York police force has committed suicide. Hammer returns for the funeral—and because he knows that Inspector Doolan would never have killed himself. But Manhattan in the seventies no longer feels like home. Hammer’s longtime partner, Velda, disappeared after he broke it off for her own safety, and his office is shut down.When a woman is murdered practically on the funeral’s doorstep, Hammer is drawn into the hunt for a cache of Nazi diamonds that makes the Maltese Falcon seem like a knickknack and for the mysterious woman who had been close to Doolan in his final days. But drug racketeers, who had it in for Doolan, attract Hammer’s attention as well. Soon he is hobnobbing with coke-snorting celebrities at the notorious disco, Club 52, and playing footsie with a sleek lady DA, a modern woman on the make for old-fashioned Hammer. Everything leads to a Mafia social club where Hammer and his .45 come calling, initiating the wildest showdown since Spillane’s classic One Lonely Night.

No dame is pretty with a gun in her hand. But at least this one was alive. The last time Mike Hammer met up with a blonde she ended up dead, and Hammer inherited a war with the Mob. As he digs deeper, he discovers that about fifteen years ago the Mafia had been double crossed. Now, people are dying because of it and the girl with the gun is a crucial witness in the case. While Hammer’s enemies are searching the city for him, he is ready to go after them. Along the way, he’ll find out just how deadly a kiss can get…

“The next time you pull a gun on me I put one between your eyes.”

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

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

This is Mickey Spillane’s lost, never-before-published 1940s Mike Hammer novel, written between I, the Jury and My Gun Is Quick. Completed by Spillane’s friend and literary executor Max Allan Collins, Lady, Go Die! is finally making its way out into the world almost seventy years after its inception.

New York Times bestselling author Max Allan Collins again brings to life the legacy of crime-writing legend Mickey Spillane in another explosive chapter in this now-classic western saga. Caleb York has a tin star, a blazing gun, and plenty of courage. All he needs is a little luck to deliver big justice . . . On a lively night at the Victory saloon in Trinidad, New Mexico, Sheriff Caleb York interrupts his poker game to settle a minor dust-up that raises the stakes into major trouble. The wounded miscreant he ushers to the hoosegow spills the secret behind the mysterious disappearance of a certain stage coach. Bound for Denver, the stage carried three important passengers-beautiful ranch owner Willa Cullen, lovely temptress Rita Filley, and wealthy banker Raymond L. Parker. The two women are rivals for the lawman’s love, while Parker is a key investor in Trinidad’s future. But all are gone, with only the corpses of fellow passengers as bullet-ridden clues. York follows a trail of blood to a ghost town known as Hell Junction. To rescue his lady friends and the banker, he must infiltrate an outlaw den . . . and pray no one among the thieves, killers, and kidnappers will recognize him. With only his desert rat deputy to back him up, York must free the captives, round up the badmen-and, whenever necessary, send them straight to Hell.

Mike Hammer, the iconic PI created by hardboiled crime master Mickey Spillane and written by New York Times bestselling author Max Allan Collins, returns in Masquerade for Murder.

Hammer is at a high society party when a wealthy and well-respected man, Colby, is hit by a car and badly injured. When all he expected was a night on the town, Mike is hired to find out who was driving the car. His search leads him on a trail of murders, the victims often exhibiting the same kind of strangulation as the cause of death. How are they connected to an accident involving Corby, and why is the man himself acting so strangely?

For more hardboiled crime fiction featuring New York’s most extreme private eye, check out Murder, My Love, the latest pulse-pounding mystery in the Mike Hammer series.

A failed attempt on his life by a contract killer gets Mike Hammer riled up. But it also lands him an unlikely job: security detail for a Hollywood producer having a party to honor his beautiful fiancee, a rising Broadway star. But it’s no walk in the park, as Hammer finds violence following him and his beautiful private-eye partner Velda into the swankiest of crime scenes.

In the meantime, Hammer is trying to figure out who put the hit man on him. Is there a connection with the death of a newsstand operator who took a bullet meant for him? A shadowy figure looking for the kill of his life?

Mike Hammer is summoned to a meeting with Jamie Winters, a United States senator from New York, and Jamie’s lovely, very smart wife, Nicole, considered by many to be the power behind the throne. Winters is being blackmailed, and Hammer is given a list of suspects who may be behind the threats to the senator’s career. But when the suspects begin to drop like flies, Hammer realizes there is more to this case than just a salacious tape.

He called her Red.¬† She called him in from the cold.¬† For one short moment in the big, hard city they were friends–and then the girl turned up dead.¬† Mike Hammer will walk through walls to find out who she was and why she died, even if he doesn’t like the answers he gets.¬† Even if they are all about a seamy network of call-girls, blackmail, and hoods.¬† Hammer owes something to Red, and he plans to make good-because in this town a friend is hard to find.

Mickey Spillane has been hailed as “the most widely read writer in history.”¬† His novels celebrate¬†a tradition of gut-wrenching action, gritty realism, and the best in fast-paced mystery.

Nobody ever walked across the bridge at night. But on the foggy night that Hammer took that chance, his encounter with a gun-toting thug and a girl on the lam ended with both strangers dead. Soon Hammer is caught in a web of sinister gangsters and beautiful women the likes of which he’s never seen — and his only way out is to kill and kill again…even with his bare hands.

Inspired by the timeless westerns of John Wayne and the hardboiled heroes of classic crime fiction, bestselling legends Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins turn up the heat on their tin-star tough guy Caleb York–in a gun-blazing showdown with two women ranchers calling the shots . . . It starts with an abusive, drunken young scoundrel who resists arrest, holds a barmaid hostage, and gets what he deserves from the blazing .44 of Sheriff Caleb York. The New Mexico lawman doesn’t regret taking such deadly action, but the late youth’s powerful mother, cattle baroness Victoria Drummond, seems bound to feel differently. To York’s surprise, Victoria takes the news with stoic resignation–all she asks of him is a favor: help her convince Willa Cullen–the love of Caleb’s life–to sell her the spread that Willa’s late father had carved out of the wilderness. Willa, every bit as strong-willed as her rival, refuses to give up her land without a fight. Sheriff York anticipates an ugly showdown brewing with himself in the dangerous middle. And before he can stop it from escalating, the seductive cattle queen sends an army of hired guns to Sugar Creek, the sole source of water available for Willa’s herd. York finds himself caught in the crossfire of a savage shoot-out between Willa’s cowboys and Victoria’s gunfighters. No matter who wins, it’s going to be a bloodbath. . . . In a climax in the tradition of Spillane’s classic I, the Jury, York must face a beautiful deadly female who promises heaven but intends hell, while the devils in her employ plan to remove Caleb York from God’s good earth.

In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers are not so lucky. Hammer considers the rescue a one-off, but someone has different ideas, as indicated by a street-corner knife attack. With himself for a client, Hammer–and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda–take on the narcotics racket in New York just as the streets have dried up and rumors run rampant of a massive heroin shipment due any day. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men, meeting changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance.

Originally begun and outlined by Spillane in the mid-sixties, and expertly completed by his longtime collaborator Max Allan Collins, The Big Bang is vintage Mike Hammer on acid–literally.

The rain clawed at the windows of the bar.¬† Hammer was angry and wanted to be left alone.¬† But when he sees a desperate guy abandon his kid in a bar just to step outside and get blown away, Hammer’s mood switches from bad to worse.¬† By the time he reaches the dead body, he knows he will have to pound his way through a world of thugs and wiseguys to find out how a reformed ex-con got desperate enough to die like that.¬† What Hammer doesn’t know is how a beautiful woman will figure in–and how many bullets justice will take.

They killed the new sheriff. Now they’ll have to deal with Caleb York. Times are changing. Caleb York is saddling up to try his hand as a Pinkerton man out California way. But before he can leave Trinidad, New Mexico, a peaceful morning erupts in a barrage of gunfire. When the dust settles, Caleb has gunned down two bad men, with another just dodging a ticket to hell . . . but leaving one very good man lying dead in the street. Lightning quick, Caleb rides after the fleeing gunman, only to be swept up in an evil wind blowing back through the sleepy town, threatening its very existence. Caleb s only chance to restore justice is to load his guns, dig in his spurs, and take on a ruthless killer. In a town drowning in blood, riddled with bullets, and hoping for a hero, Caleb York is the right man at the right time ready to face the vengeful outlaws in a chilling, storm-swept showdown.

Mickey Spillane’s larger-than-life lawman Caleb York is back-in the latest tough-as-nails Western novel from New York Times bestselling author Max Allan Collins. This time Caleb may be outnumbered.but not outgunned. The Santa Fe Railroad wants to build a spur through Trinidad, New Mexico, linking the town to the cattle trade. Only one man stands against it-rancher George Cullen. At the request of the town council, Sheriff Caleb York rides out to the Bar-O to reason with his old friend. Even Cullen’s daughter Willa, Caleb’s former flame, is for the railroad. But the stubborn blind rancher won’t budge. Cullen’s former partner, Burt O’Malley, has recently returned from a twenty-year stint in the pen for manslaughter. And hired gun Alver Hollis, the much-feared Preacherman, has also shown up with two cronies, claiming they’re in town for the biggest poker game in the territory. With murder in the wind, the whole town’s in danger. Who will be the next target? To bring a killer to justice, and protect the woman he loves, Caleb York must strap down his Colt .44, enter the big game, and bet his life on the turn of a card.and the speed of his draw.

The bestselling American mystery writer of all time brings back his world-famous PI, Mike Hammer, for his biggest and most dangerous case yet.

In the midst of a Manhattan snowstorm, Mike Hammer halts the violent robbery of a pair of college sweethearts who have stumbled onto a remarkable archeological find in the Valley of Elah: the perfectly preserved femur of what may have been the biblical giant Goliath. Hammer postpones his marriage to his faithful girl Friday, Velda, to fight a foe deadlier than the mobsters and KGB agents of his past: Islamic terrorists and Israeli extremists bent upon recovering the relic for their own agendas.

Completed after Spillane’s death by his collaborator, Max Allan Collins, this thriller is as classic as Spillane’s own I, the Jury and as contemporary as The Da Vinci Code.

He was a nice guy. Now he’s dead. That’s all Hammer knows about the stiff in the hotel room. But that isn’t enough because Hammer suspects murder while the cops are calling it a suicide. Without a license or a gun, Hammer is pushing his way through a swirl of sex-and-game clubs, high priced models and not just a little blackmail. Someone is working hard to frame Hammer and he’s working hard to find out why. Everywhere he turns, he keeps coming up against a blonde beauty named Juno. She holds the key to the crime wave that could unlock the mystery behind the nice guy’s murder.