No cis woman would be named juno

The third book in the Mike Hammer series finds Hammer on the case of what the cops have deemed a suicide. The twist, right at the beginning, is that Hammer himself was passed out in the same room as the dead body, an old friend from the war. Hammer is suspicious though based on the gun recovered from the scene, Hammer’s gun, that only has 4 bullets in it. Hammer always has it loaded with six so…why are two bullets missing with only one in the body of his friend?

Another excellent entry in this hard-boiled series. The plot takes Hammer down a dark path, even for him, losing his PI license and license to carry a gun along the way. Modeling agencies, gaming joints, and the DA himself are all fair game for Hammer’s fact-finding excursions and he doesn’t hold back on any of them.

…you’ve forgotten something. You’ve forgotten that I’m not a guy that takes any crap. Not from anybody. You’ve forgotten that I’ve been in business because I stayed alive longer than some guys who didn’t want me that way. You’ve forgotten that I’ve had some punks tougher than you’ll ever be on the end of a gun and I pulled the trigger just to watch their expressions change.

Even his lovely secretary, Velda takes on a major role (and dangerous one) to help solve the case.

There is a huge twist right at the end of the book, one that I felt I should have seen coming…but didn’t. Readers are cautioned not to accidentally view the final page for the very real risk of major spoilage.

Originally published in 1950, this is Mickey Spillane in top form.

3/5
Another fun quick book. It was missing something though. The action was there but I feel like parts were missing that would of made it better

This wasn't as good as Spillane's first two Hammer novels, though I breezed through it, and mostly enjoyed the ride. There were a few things that got on my nerves, but was able to laugh them off and keep reading. Spillane goes way overboard with all the pretty "dames" that fall for Hammer. Juno was a completely unbelievable character, and the constant comparing her to a goddess drove me nuts. The main villain was too predicable. And, the most unbelievable part was the ending. No way the character of Hammer would have been deceived in that way. What I like about Spillane is that I don't have to read any PC crap. If you're one of the "woke", you won't like this novel.

Ugh.

I liked I, The Jury better, but this was still pretty good. A bit slow in setting up initially. However, once the pace picked up, the action did not let go until the very end. Quite a blackmail plot leading to murder was set up, and Mike Hammer is the only one who persists in getting to the truth. The twist at the end was quite a detail, which I will not give away. Overall, a nice little bit of escapist fun. I will certainly look for other Mike Hammer novels.

Not sure I can justify continuing to read Spillane. I am a big fan of hardboiled/Noir/PI novels and the brute force of the writing typical of the genre. Spillane is one of the crudest, and generally I enjoy it, despite (or because of?) the dodgy prose - laughing breasts, anyone? Thought not. But the levels of homophobia, racism, misogyny and - spoiler alert - transphobia were so high throughout the novel that I felt contaminated just reading it. I think this will be my last goodbye to Mike Hammer.