Kiss Me, Deadly

Mikey Spillane's Mike Hammer #6. These are my easy to read guilty pleasure reads between other books, and this one was as good any any of the previous books in this series. This one was first published in 1952 (or ‘53, depending if you believe GR or my edition), and is early ‘Private Dick takes on the Mafia'.

Mike Hammer has to swerve to avoid a blonde in a trench coat (only a trench coat, as it turns out) who leaps in front of his car on a deserted road. He is surprised at a police checkpoint that they are looking for a woman who escaped from an asylum and was thought to be hitchhiking, but as he took a dislike to the cop, he lied and said she was his wife. Within a few miles his car was run off the road, she was tortured and killed, he was left for dead. They were both put back into his car which was pushed off a cliff... except that he wasn't dead, and he escaped.
Obviously, Mike Hammer is not happy about it...

The cops are not happy because he lied, and she died. The feds are not happy, and revoke his license to carry a revolver, because Hammer starts sniffing, and finds mafia. The mafia are obviously not happy. A lot of not happy.

An so Mike, accompanied by a series of attractive broads, sets about to piece together the jigsaw and sort out who did what to who and why.

This is a particularly violent story compared to the earlier books in the series, with Hammer responsible for a high body count, especially considering he isn't carrying a gun - I guess to do with the fact the cops, feds and Hammer all hate the mafia and their stoolies.

Solid 3 stars for me.