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Mike Hammer #7-9
The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 3: The Girl Hunters / The Snake / The Twisted Thing
A trio of classic novels in the third omnibus from “the king of hard boiled crime fiction” ( USA Today ).
“ There's a kind of power about Mickey Spillane that no other writer can imitate” ( New York Times ), and it's in full force in this collection of three of his greatest Mike Hammer
The Girl Hunters : Hammer's voluptuous, long-lost love is targeted by the mastermind assassin known as the Dragon.
The Snake : Protecting a runaway blonde, Hammer trades barbs and lead with crooked politicos, snarling hoods, and sex-hungry females.
The Twisted Thing : A kidnapping case links Hammer to a fourteen year-old mystery and the most venomous killer the private eye has ever faced.
“ There's a kind of power about Mickey Spillane that no other writer can imitate” ( New York Times ), and it's in full force in this collection of three of his greatest Mike Hammer
The Girl Hunters : Hammer's voluptuous, long-lost love is targeted by the mastermind assassin known as the Dragon.
The Snake : Protecting a runaway blonde, Hammer trades barbs and lead with crooked politicos, snarling hoods, and sex-hungry females.
The Twisted Thing : A kidnapping case links Hammer to a fourteen year-old mystery and the most venomous killer the private eye has ever faced.
544 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 2010
66 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
About the author
Mickey Spillane
315 books449 followersMickey Spillane was one of the world's most popular mystery writers. His specialty was tight-fisted, sadistic revenge stories, often featuring his alcoholic gumshoe Mike Hammer and a cast of evildoers who launder money or spout the Communist Party line.
His writing style was characterized by short words, lightning transitions, gruff sex and violent endings. It was once tallied that he offed 58 people in six novels.
Starting with "I, the Jury," in 1947, Mr. Spillane sold hundreds of millions of books during his lifetime and garnered consistently scathing reviews. Even his father, a Brooklyn bartender, called them "crud."
Mr. Spillane was a struggling comic book publisher when he wrote "I, the Jury." He initially envisioned it as a comic book called "Mike Danger," and when that did not go over, he took a week to reconfigure it as a novel.
Even the editor in chief of E.P. Dutton and Co., Mr. Spillane's publisher, was skeptical of the book's literary merit but conceded it would probably be a smash with postwar readers looking for ready action. He was right. The book, in which Hammer pursues a murderous narcotics ring led by a curvaceous female psychiatrist, went on to sell more than 1 million copies.
Mr. Spillane spun out six novels in the next five years, among them "My Gun Is Quick," "The Big Kill," "One Lonely Night" and "Kiss Me, Deadly." Most concerned Hammer, his faithful sidekick, Velda, and the police homicide captain Pat Chambers, who acknowledges that Hammer's style of vigilante justice is often better suited than the law to dispatching criminals.
Mr. Spillane's success rankled other critics, who sometimes became very personal in their reviews. Malcolm Cowley called Mr. Spillane "a homicidal paranoiac," going on to note what he called his misogyny and vigilante tendencies.
His books were translated into many languages, and he proved so popular as a writer that he was able to transfer his thick-necked, barrel-chested personality across many media. With the charisma of a redwood, he played Hammer in "The Girl Hunters," a 1963 film adaptation of his novel.
Spillane also scripted several television shows and films and played a detective in the 1954 suspense film "Ring of Fear," set at a Clyde Beatty circus. He rewrote much of the film, too, refusing payment. In gratitude, the producer, John Wayne, surprised him one morning with a white Jaguar sportster wrapped in a red ribbon. The card read, "Thanks, Duke."
Done initially on a dare from his publisher, Mr. Spillane wrote a children's book, "The Day the Sea Rolled Back" (1979), about two boys who find a shipwreck loaded with treasure. This won a Junior Literary Guild award.
He also wrote another children's novel, "The Ship That Never Was," and then wrote his first Mike Hammer mystery in 20 years with "The Killing Man" (1989). "Black Alley" followed in 1996. In the last, a rapidly aging Hammer comes out of a gunshot-induced coma, then tracks down a friend's murderer and billions in mob loot. For the first time, he also confesses his love for Velda but, because of doctor's orders, cannot consummate the relationship.
Late in life, he received a career achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America and was named a grand master by the Mystery Writers of America.
In his private life, he neither smoked nor drank and was a house-to-house missionary for the Jehovah's Witnesses. He expressed at times great disdain for what he saw as corrosive forces in American life, from antiwar protesters to the United Nations.
His marriages to Mary Ann Pearce and Sherri Malinou ended in divorce. His second wife, a model, posed nude for the dust jacket of his 1972 novel "The Erection Set."
Survivors include his third wife, Jane Rodgers Johnson, a former beauty queen 30 years his junior; and four children from the first marriage.
He also carried on a long epistolary flirtation with Ayn Rand, an admirer of his writing.
His writing style was characterized by short words, lightning transitions, gruff sex and violent endings. It was once tallied that he offed 58 people in six novels.
Starting with "I, the Jury," in 1947, Mr. Spillane sold hundreds of millions of books during his lifetime and garnered consistently scathing reviews. Even his father, a Brooklyn bartender, called them "crud."
Mr. Spillane was a struggling comic book publisher when he wrote "I, the Jury." He initially envisioned it as a comic book called "Mike Danger," and when that did not go over, he took a week to reconfigure it as a novel.
Even the editor in chief of E.P. Dutton and Co., Mr. Spillane's publisher, was skeptical of the book's literary merit but conceded it would probably be a smash with postwar readers looking for ready action. He was right. The book, in which Hammer pursues a murderous narcotics ring led by a curvaceous female psychiatrist, went on to sell more than 1 million copies.
Mr. Spillane spun out six novels in the next five years, among them "My Gun Is Quick," "The Big Kill," "One Lonely Night" and "Kiss Me, Deadly." Most concerned Hammer, his faithful sidekick, Velda, and the police homicide captain Pat Chambers, who acknowledges that Hammer's style of vigilante justice is often better suited than the law to dispatching criminals.
Mr. Spillane's success rankled other critics, who sometimes became very personal in their reviews. Malcolm Cowley called Mr. Spillane "a homicidal paranoiac," going on to note what he called his misogyny and vigilante tendencies.
His books were translated into many languages, and he proved so popular as a writer that he was able to transfer his thick-necked, barrel-chested personality across many media. With the charisma of a redwood, he played Hammer in "The Girl Hunters," a 1963 film adaptation of his novel.
Spillane also scripted several television shows and films and played a detective in the 1954 suspense film "Ring of Fear," set at a Clyde Beatty circus. He rewrote much of the film, too, refusing payment. In gratitude, the producer, John Wayne, surprised him one morning with a white Jaguar sportster wrapped in a red ribbon. The card read, "Thanks, Duke."
Done initially on a dare from his publisher, Mr. Spillane wrote a children's book, "The Day the Sea Rolled Back" (1979), about two boys who find a shipwreck loaded with treasure. This won a Junior Literary Guild award.
He also wrote another children's novel, "The Ship That Never Was," and then wrote his first Mike Hammer mystery in 20 years with "The Killing Man" (1989). "Black Alley" followed in 1996. In the last, a rapidly aging Hammer comes out of a gunshot-induced coma, then tracks down a friend's murderer and billions in mob loot. For the first time, he also confesses his love for Velda but, because of doctor's orders, cannot consummate the relationship.
Late in life, he received a career achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America and was named a grand master by the Mystery Writers of America.
In his private life, he neither smoked nor drank and was a house-to-house missionary for the Jehovah's Witnesses. He expressed at times great disdain for what he saw as corrosive forces in American life, from antiwar protesters to the United Nations.
His marriages to Mary Ann Pearce and Sherri Malinou ended in divorce. His second wife, a model, posed nude for the dust jacket of his 1972 novel "The Erection Set."
Survivors include his third wife, Jane Rodgers Johnson, a former beauty queen 30 years his junior; and four children from the first marriage.
He also carried on a long epistolary flirtation with Ayn Rand, an admirer of his writing.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 7, 2026
The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 3 contains books 7-9 of Mickey Spillane's classic noir NY detective series: The Girl Hunters, The Snake, and The Twisted Thing
The Girl Hunters:
"Then suddenly I felt like myself again and knew that the road back was going to be a long one alive or a short one dead and there wasn't even time enough to count the seconds."
It has been ten years since the last episode of the Hammer series "Kiss Me, Deadly" (1952) ended with a fantastic finish and sent the NYC PI Mike Hammer off the deep end. Now waking up after a seven-year drunken bender in a literal gutter, being accosted by two cops, he's summoned to his old friend Pat Chambers who forces him to get information from a gunshot victim. Hammer quickly sobers up and finds new purpose when the victim tells him that his lost love Velda is still alive, and that this gunshot victim was shot by a villain monikered the Dragon, who also shot a New York Senator years ago. Now, Hammer and the Dragon are "the Girl Hunters" (1962), tracking down Velda's whereabouts... if she is, in fact, still alive.
Hammer's journey from the bottom of the trash heap to a new life spurred by vengeance and anger at those who may be involved in Venda's disappearance is a wild ride that touches international espionage, early-60's New York City street surroundings, and post-WWII politics. Hammer is at first an annoyance to his enemies but then a real threat.
Verdict: A wild and well-paced street vengeance tale with a hard-up widow he falls for, a former friend who is now his law-enforcing nemesis, some dead bodies not yet cold, an evildoer who might be too strong a threat for this down-on-his-luck self-abused protagonist now to deal with, a twisted conspiracy that involves his lost love, and a wild finish that is just perfect.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Perfect)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
The Snake:
New York PI Mike Hammer has reconnected with his long lost love Velda and, sure enough, in the very opening pages when the two finally fall into each other's arms, a mean brute forces open the door and holds a gun on them.
What follows is a NYC mob and police mystery surrounding the backstory for the city's former District Attorney and his odd but beautiful stepdaughter who is certain he's trying to kill her. Mike's interactions with snitches, cops, old-timers, and women (who all want a piece of Mike) bring up rumors of a bank heist thirty years prior and a thief who may have made off with $3 million in stolen cash.
Verdict: "The Snake" (1964) is a fun mystery with a more subdued Mike Hammer, though not to detrimental effect as this one takes the form of a more focused actual crime puzzle to solve with moments of tension and stakes. A short, entertaining noir crime lark with a wacky ending that only Spillane could write.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
The Twisted Thing:
New York PI Mike Hammer visits a town upstate where a wealthy man's son has been kidnapped. Mike is hired to find this boy, who apparently is publicly known as a young genius due to a strict educational, and perhaps controversial, upbringing at the hand of his father, with a number of other characters in his environment who may have been responsible for the crime.
The case and setting for "The Twisted Thing" (1966), a whodunit kidnapping and locked-room style detective puzzle with a dirty-cop vibe when Mike deals with the local yahoos, make for a bit of a strangely paced read but it still works.
Mike has always been an avenger of the victimized, a defender of the weak, a menace against authorities who don't have the right goals in mind, and a mystery solver with a feel for the streets and gutters of society. That's where "Twisted Thing" falters a bit, at least in comparison to the other Hammer novels I've read so far; the locale here isn't the streets and gutters of 1960's NYC but, instead, a small upstate community with a lot of open secrets, familial blackmail, and generational regrets. Kind of like how the final Chandler/Marlowe mystery took place in that remote California vacation town instead of the awesome LA streets. It just didn't feel as dangerous.
Verdict: A fun mystery with plenty of twists and turns and some interesting characters.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Averaging out the ratings, this collection gets a 4 / 5 and is just awesome.
The Girl Hunters:
"Then suddenly I felt like myself again and knew that the road back was going to be a long one alive or a short one dead and there wasn't even time enough to count the seconds."
It has been ten years since the last episode of the Hammer series "Kiss Me, Deadly" (1952) ended with a fantastic finish and sent the NYC PI Mike Hammer off the deep end. Now waking up after a seven-year drunken bender in a literal gutter, being accosted by two cops, he's summoned to his old friend Pat Chambers who forces him to get information from a gunshot victim. Hammer quickly sobers up and finds new purpose when the victim tells him that his lost love Velda is still alive, and that this gunshot victim was shot by a villain monikered the Dragon, who also shot a New York Senator years ago. Now, Hammer and the Dragon are "the Girl Hunters" (1962), tracking down Velda's whereabouts... if she is, in fact, still alive.
Hammer's journey from the bottom of the trash heap to a new life spurred by vengeance and anger at those who may be involved in Venda's disappearance is a wild ride that touches international espionage, early-60's New York City street surroundings, and post-WWII politics. Hammer is at first an annoyance to his enemies but then a real threat.
Verdict: A wild and well-paced street vengeance tale with a hard-up widow he falls for, a former friend who is now his law-enforcing nemesis, some dead bodies not yet cold, an evildoer who might be too strong a threat for this down-on-his-luck self-abused protagonist now to deal with, a twisted conspiracy that involves his lost love, and a wild finish that is just perfect.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Perfect)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
The Snake:
New York PI Mike Hammer has reconnected with his long lost love Velda and, sure enough, in the very opening pages when the two finally fall into each other's arms, a mean brute forces open the door and holds a gun on them.
What follows is a NYC mob and police mystery surrounding the backstory for the city's former District Attorney and his odd but beautiful stepdaughter who is certain he's trying to kill her. Mike's interactions with snitches, cops, old-timers, and women (who all want a piece of Mike) bring up rumors of a bank heist thirty years prior and a thief who may have made off with $3 million in stolen cash.
Verdict: "The Snake" (1964) is a fun mystery with a more subdued Mike Hammer, though not to detrimental effect as this one takes the form of a more focused actual crime puzzle to solve with moments of tension and stakes. A short, entertaining noir crime lark with a wacky ending that only Spillane could write.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
The Twisted Thing:
New York PI Mike Hammer visits a town upstate where a wealthy man's son has been kidnapped. Mike is hired to find this boy, who apparently is publicly known as a young genius due to a strict educational, and perhaps controversial, upbringing at the hand of his father, with a number of other characters in his environment who may have been responsible for the crime.
The case and setting for "The Twisted Thing" (1966), a whodunit kidnapping and locked-room style detective puzzle with a dirty-cop vibe when Mike deals with the local yahoos, make for a bit of a strangely paced read but it still works.
Mike has always been an avenger of the victimized, a defender of the weak, a menace against authorities who don't have the right goals in mind, and a mystery solver with a feel for the streets and gutters of society. That's where "Twisted Thing" falters a bit, at least in comparison to the other Hammer novels I've read so far; the locale here isn't the streets and gutters of 1960's NYC but, instead, a small upstate community with a lot of open secrets, familial blackmail, and generational regrets. Kind of like how the final Chandler/Marlowe mystery took place in that remote California vacation town instead of the awesome LA streets. It just didn't feel as dangerous.
Verdict: A fun mystery with plenty of twists and turns and some interesting characters.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Averaging out the ratings, this collection gets a 4 / 5 and is just awesome.
July 11, 2017
Comprises book 7 through 9 in the Mike Hammer series. The first two showed a different p.I to what Hammer fans are used to, one who at times reminded me of Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor. Velda's revelation in 'the snake' was a little hard to swallow, apart from that minor blight vol 3 was an enjoyable collection of Hammer novels with 'the twisted thing' being the highlight.
August 7, 2020
Like all of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer stories, this trio is dark and violent, and with dark twists at the end of each story. They also make up three of the four Mike Hammer novels the author wrote during the 60s. The introduction to this collection of three delves into some of the details as to why Spillane suddenly stopped writing Mike Hammer stories in the early 50s, in fact, leaving a 10-year gap from “Kiss Me Deadly” to “The Girl Hunters.”
Like all of the Hammer stories, a little bit goes a long way. I actually started reading this collection a few years ago, but even though I love hard-boiled, noire, pulpy detective fiction, I find it difficult to read more than one Mike Hammer story without taking a break before the next one – I can’t read them back to back. I enjoy them thoroughly, just not all at once.
Like all of the Hammer stories, a little bit goes a long way. I actually started reading this collection a few years ago, but even though I love hard-boiled, noire, pulpy detective fiction, I find it difficult to read more than one Mike Hammer story without taking a break before the next one – I can’t read them back to back. I enjoy them thoroughly, just not all at once.
June 6, 2025
I have been reading every Mike Hammer book since I was about 9. My Dad had several first addition paper backs which he loved. Once I started reading them I never wanted to stop. I can no longer read brinded books, so I am so glad I can get them on Kindle.
February 8, 2023
A (3) volume set with : The Girl Hunters, The Twisted Thing and the Snake. Pure, fun gumshoe genre.
December 23, 2021
Can't go wrong reading a good mystery thiller by Mickey Spillane
January 25, 2017
Spillane returns in the 60s with Mike Hammer, after laying off the series for a number of years. He's in form and Hammer is Hammer. Likeable and doing good, while kissing dames and shooting bad guys with his rod. Yes, really. Funny stuff from today's social standpoint.
Interestingly, the third story in the book (The Twisted Thing) was written in 1947-48, yet fits perfectly in with the other 60s novels. It's also one of the better Hammers in my opinion. The novels read quickly. There are 13 Hammers in all, and I'll likely read them all for fun - I want to see if he ever marries Velda LOL!
Interestingly, the third story in the book (The Twisted Thing) was written in 1947-48, yet fits perfectly in with the other 60s novels. It's also one of the better Hammers in my opinion. The novels read quickly. There are 13 Hammers in all, and I'll likely read them all for fun - I want to see if he ever marries Velda LOL!
November 21, 2015
I've read nine of Mike Hammer's adventures now, and they never get old. Sure, it's trash. Sex and violence are the order of the day. But there's also Mickey Spillane's atmospheric writing, the way he elicits the gritty side of New York, the intricate plotting, and the ubiquitous shock ending. Unfortunately, they apparently haven't collected a fourth book in this series yet, so I had to dig around for the individual titles. I'm looking forward to hours of escape with them.
January 19, 2011
If you like hard-boiled detectives, then Mickey Spillane delivers. Excellent noir.
May 13, 2011
A solid collection of Hammer novels. The latter is quite different in tone from the first two, and where the hell was Velda in the last one? Worth a read.
Want to read
January 2, 2012My father introduced me to these. I remember The Twisted Thing.
March 26, 2011
Review forthcoming...
April 20, 2017
have been a fan of Mike Hammer since my youth.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews