With Hammer, Spillane secured his place in the pantheon, alongside such mystery greats as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Its success led to a dozen more Mike Hammer mysteries over the decades, including, in quick succession, “My Gun Is Quick” (1950), “Vengeance Is Mine” (1950), “One Lonely Night” (1951), “The Big Kill” (1951) and “Kiss Me, Deadly” (1952). Dutton, “I, the Jury” did not become a worldwide phenomenon until it was released as a 25-cent Signet paperback by 1952, some 4 million copies had reportedly been sold. What I want to read is the royalty checks.”įirst published in hardback by E.P. In another, he said: “I don’t give a hoot about reading reviews. “I pay no attention to those jerks who think they’re critics,” he proclaimed in one interview. glorification of force, cruelty and extra-legal methods.” The Saturday Review denounced its “lurid action, lurid characters, lurid plot, lurid finish.”įor his part, Spillane let the critical barbs roll off him like Jack Daniels over ice. Mystery expert Anthony Boucher called it a “vicious. I only had a moment before talking to a corpse, but I got it in.
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