Dennis Kennedy

I'm a fan of classic American film noir and the hard-boiled detective novel genre.

I decided to mark the recent passing of one of the masters of the genre, Mickey Spillane, by rereading two excellent collections of Mike Hammer novels: The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 1 and The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 2.

Each volume has three novels. Each novel grabs you and compels you to read it from start to finish.

I like the spare and lean writing style, the relentless narrative pace and the twists and turns. It's tough and violent and a great read, although not for those with gentle sensibilities.

I'm intrigued at how the novels seem to bet set so concretely in and capture a specific era and place - New York City in the 1950s - and, yet, it in intriguing way, also capture something essential about our current times, if you suspend judgment and let the stories take you for the ride.

There are still a few more weeks left in summer and it's hard to find a better set of summer reads.

There's even a legal angle: the book "I, the Jury" may change how you think about juries.

Anyway, I found my re-reading of these collections a good and appropriate way to mark the passing of another American icon.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

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