Acclaim For the Legendary MICKEY SPILLANE!
“One of the world’s most popular mystery writers.”
—The Washington Post
“Authentic narrative drive and almost hypnotic conviction... set Spillane apart from all his imitators.”
—The New York Times
“There’s a kind of power about Mickey Spillane that no other writer can imitate.”
—Miami Herald
“Satisfying... its blithe lack of concern with present-day political correctness gives it a rough-hewn charm that’s as refreshing as it is rare.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“A superb writer. Spillane is one of this century’s best-selling authors.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Spillane’s books... redefined the detective story.”
—Wallace Stroby
“A wonderfully guilty pleasure.”
—Tim McLoughlin, The Brooklyn Rail
“A fun, fast read... from one of the all-time greats.”
—Denver Rocky Mountain News
“Spillane... presents nothing save visual facts; but he selects only those facts, only those eloquent details, which convey the visual reality of the scene and create a mood of desolate loneliness”
—Ayn Rand
“A writer who revolutionized a genre [with] heavy doses of testosterone, fast action, brutality and sensuality.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Sexy and frantically paced.”
—Chicago American
“Salty and satisfying... will hit like a slug of Old Crow from the bottom-drawer bottle.”
—The Buffalo News
“Machine gun pace... good writing... fascinating tale.”
—Charlotte Observer
“Simple, brutal, and sexy.”
—Kansas City Star
“As bang-bang as you’d ever want.”
—The Associated Press
“If you think he has lost his touch or drained the well, read this one... the new one is better than ever. If you are a Spillane fan you will enjoy this one more than anything done before. It is fast-moving, easy reading, and has the greatest shocker of an ending.”
—Albuquerque Tribune
“The socko ending is Mickey Spillane’s stock in trade, and never has he done it with greater effect... Sensational.”
—Buffalo News
“A swift-paced, pulsating yarn... which very definitely shows that Mr. Spillane still has control of his fast ball, plus a few sneaky slow ones for the change-up.”
—Springfield Daily News
“Need we say more than — the Mick is back.”
—Hammond Times
I had lain in the wet grass outside Buck Head Benny’s shack where he was holed up with three of his gang of damned killers all armed with AK’s and sawed-off twelve gauge shotguns, looking for more cops to kill. My backup was still a mile away and all I had was ... .45 with four shots left in the clip and their door swung open with a tiny creaking noise and they all came out too fast. They were ready but they didn’t know where I was until Buck Head Benny spotted me and raised the AK in my direction, but before his finger could tighten on the trigger I took him down and he spun into a crazy twist, the AK going into its staccato chatter with the spasmodic yank on the trigger dying men make and the chopper took out all of his killer buddies behind him.
Back then I wasn’t afraid of anything.
Now even breathing didn’t come easily...
SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:
THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block
THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE by Ed McBain
NIGHT WALKER by Donald Hamilton
A TOUCH OF DEATH by Charles Williams
SAY IT WITH BULLETS by Richard Powell
WITNESS TO MYSELF by Seymour Shubin
BUST by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr
STRAIGHT CUT by Madison Smartt Bell
LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark
THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
THE GUNS OF HEAVEN by Pete Hamill
THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge
GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange
THE PEDDLER by Richard S. Prather
LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block
ROBBIE’S WIFE by Russell Hill
THE VENGEFUL VIRGIN by Gil Brewer
THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN by David Goodis
BLACKMAILER by George Axelrod
SONGS OF INNOCENCE by Richard Aleas
FRIGHT by Cornell Woolrich
KILL NOW, PAY LATER by Robert Terrall
SLIDE by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr
Dead STREET
by Mickey Spillane
PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION BY MAX ALLAN COLLINS
A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK
(HCC-037)
First Hard Case Crime edition: November 2007
Published by
Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark Street
London
SE1 0UP
in collaboration with Winterfall LLC
Copyright © 2007 by Jane Spillane and Max Allan Collins
Cover painting copyright © 2007 by Arthur Suydam
All rights reserved.
In memory of Jay Bernstein
Chapter One
The street wasn’t dead yet. Not all the way. Old Charlie Wing had given the kids from the next block the last of the leechee nuts, and was packing his meager belongings for a U-Haul ride to Los Angeles and his relatives and then on by plane to his home province in China where he would be the richest man in the village and a big daddy to his horde of great and great-great grandkids.
Two houses down, the wicked witch of the neighborhood, ninety-year-old Bessie O’Brian, hung out the window, cushioning herself on a red velvet pillow as old as she was. When it snowed she stayed inside, only sliding the sash up if she heard gunshots. Hardly anything ever happened that she didn’t know about. She saw Findley get killed, the cops nail the pickup truck loaded with five million bucks worth of narcotics, was able to identify over twenty muggers and was the State’s foremost witness when Tootsie Carmody shot The Frog, the super peddler of heroin in the area. She wouldn’t go to court to identify the shooter. She made the court come to her and for one day her tenement building was jammed past inspection requirements by New York’s legal elite.
Bessie didn’t wave. She just yelled down, “Kill anybody today, Captain Jack?”
“Not yet,” I yelled back.
When I passed the brownstone where Bucky Mohler had lived, I could still see the faint outlines of the white 703 he had painted there when he was a trouble-making twelve-year-old punk. He had been knifed and shot twice before he was sixteen, then the Blue Uptowners nailed him with the radiator of a stolen car because he messed with one of their chicks.