MASQUERADE FOR MURDER

MASQUERADE FOR MURDER

A Mike Hammer Mystery

By Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

Titan Books

220 pgs

Honestly, having writer Max Allan Collins turn in another Mike Hammer novel in this Legacy series is like our enjoying the gift that never stops giving. With this entry, we find Hammer starting to feel his age though his style of dealing with scum hasn’t softened in the least bit. When young Vincent Colby, son of a wealthy stockbroker, is nearly run over outside a swank Manhattan steak house, Hammer and Detective Pat Chambers are among the witnesses. Was it an accident and attempted vehicular homicide? Hammer isn’t sure, but that doesn’t stop him from agreeing to investigate the incident at the senior Colby’s request.

Having been banged up by the collision, the debonair young playboy begins to exhibit severe mood swings bordering on physical violence. His father believes these are the after affects of the trauma the boy suffered. A few days later, Hammer successfully tracks down the driver only to find him dead with his chest caved in. Then a retired homicide detective is found murdered in the same fashion, followed soon after by a dominatrix; all of whom had some connection with young Colby.

Is the rich kid being framed or is he suffering from some mental illness causing him to commit these killings? And there is the gruesome manner of death. What kind of force can crush a person’s chest as if it had been hit by a cannonball? With each new page the case twists and turns; enough to tie Hammer in what looks like an inescapable knot. Of course before he can manage that trick, the weary private eye will have to depend on his quick trigger finger and darkly creative imagination. Blood flows as is the norm in any Hammer caper with a conclusion we soundly approved of.

We think you will too.