Nobody Move, This Is A Review: THE GOLIATH BONE by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

Herewith be the gist of a review of THE GOLIATH BONE, to wit:

Spillane, one of the best-selling crime fiction writers of all time, who died in 2006, wrote a first draft of the story in the wake of 9/11, with the manuscript being finished by his long-term collaborator and friend, the author Max Allan Collins. It’s a crude and blustering tale with right-wing overtones, although the trouble with criticising the novel on that basis is that it’s supposed to be. Mike Hammer was celebrated by his fans for being politically incorrect, a 20th century throwback to the Wild West sheriff, a larger-than-life hero who made up in pithy quips and dead bodies what he lacked in finesse and sophistication.
  On that basis, Collins has provided a fitting tribute to Spillane’s career. For those who aren’t fans of Spillane’s cartoonishly hard-boiled style, however, THE GOLIATH BONE has all the hallmarks of a novel too hastily conceived in the aftermath of 9/11. It offers a simplistic, knee-jerk response to the threat of terrorism, for the most part championing Hammer’s singular vision of good versus evil – Hammer and his trusty .45 represent good, and everyone else, until they prove otherwise, represent evil …

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