Mickey Spillane
I, the Jury (1947)
Author: Mickey Spillane
Genre: Mystery (Hard-boiled Detective)
Plot Summary:
Mike Hammer has been called to a crime scene. The dead body belonged to his army pal and long-time friend Jack Williams. Hammer is sickened by the sight and vows to all within earshot (including the police) that he’s going to avenge Jack’s death by doing what was done to Jack to the killer. There are a number of suspects: Myrna (ex-junkie and Jack’s wife), Charlotte (psychiatrist and sultry vixen), the Bellamy twins (one a nymphomaniac and the other not--both very rich), Hal Kines and George Kalecki (both with shady past and ties to the underworld) and others. Hammer starts by using his strong-arm approach to investigation and tries to wrangle a motive out of those who last saw Jack alive. This leads him into a world populated by heroin addicts and sex workers. But will the killer put a slug in Hammer before Hammer has a chance to exact his vengeance. SPOILER: The killer begins knocking off many of Hammer’s suspects. Spillane begins introducing other potential suspects in the third act, but it soon becomes obvious that Charlotte is the killer. But what keeps you reading is the desire to see how Hammer puzzles it out. One of the classic last lines of all-time.
Geographical Setting: New York City
Time Period: shortly after WWII
Series: this is the first of the Mike Hammer books. The next is My Gun Is Quick. You can find a complete list here.
Appeal Characteristics:
Spillane’s protagonist is a no-holds-barred, eye-for-an-eye detective. Spillane was reviled by the Left for being reactionary, sexist, and violent, but he is still one of the most popular mystery writers of all-time. His stories are fast-paced pulp that keep you turning the page. It is obvious that Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry owes a lot to Mike Hammer, and if that type of whatever-it-takes to see justice done kind of cop/detective appeals to a reader, then Mike Hammer is the protagonist for them. Spillane’s prose is fluid and while Hammer’s canned I’m-gonna-blow-a-hole-in-the-guy-who-did-this lines might not work in the context of other author’s tales, Spillane creates a world and character in the hyperbolic Hammer fits. The obvious appeal is for those who like gritty, hard-boiled detective stories.
Read-alikes: The closest match may be Carroll John Daly’s eye-for-an-eye detective Race Williams (The Hidden Hand). Also try Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe (The Big Sleep). These latter two lack the extreme violence of Hammer though Hammett’s Continental Op (start with Red Harvest is as violent but without the sex element).
Red Flags: sex, nudity, violence, drugs, disdain for police procedure.
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