Publisher, Blackstone Audiobooks (May 2010)

NOTE: RETAIL EDITIONS are packaged in attractive, compact cardboard, jewel-case or DVD shrink-wrapped boxes, with full-color art.

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In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers are not so lucky. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men, meeting changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance.

Originally begun and outlined by Spillane in the mid-sixties, and expertly completed by his longtime collaborator Max Allan Collins, The Big Bang is vintage Mike Hammer on acid — literally. Hammer and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda take on the narcotics racket in New York, just as the streets have dried up and rumors run rampant of a massive heroin shipment due any day.

About the Authors: FRANK MORRISON SPILLANE (1918–2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in New Jersey. He started writing while in high school. Many of his crime novels feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally. By 1980, he was responsible for seven of the top fifteen all-time best-selling fiction titles in America. He received an Edgar Allan Poe Grand Master Award in 1995.

MAX ALLAN COLLINS, is the author of the acclaimed graphic novel Road to Perdition, which became the Academy Award-winning Tom Hanks film. A New York Times best-selling author, Collins has won two Best Novel "Shamus" awards from the Private Eye Writers of America for his Nathan Heller series. He co-wrote the screenplay for the film-festival favorite, The Last Lullaby, based on his novel The Last Quarry. He collaborated with Mickey Spillane on numerous projects and was Spillane’s choice to work with his estate to complete a number of unfinished Mike Hammer novels.

Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins collaborated on numerous projects. They co-edited four anthologies presenting new and/or classic stories by a variety of American crime writers, and their co-creation, the science-fiction incarnation of Mike Danger, was a popular comic-book series in the 1990s. With Spillane’s cooperation and help, Collins edited or co-edited six volumes collecting previously uncollected Spillane short stories and comics work. Occasional actor Spillane also appeared in Collins’ two "Mommy" films, as a criminal lawyer, and was the subject of an award-winning Collins documentary. Both writers received the Eye Award for Life Achievement from the Private Eye Writers of America.

About the Performer: STACY KEACH, known worldwide for his television portrayal of detective Mike Hammer, is a consummate actor equally at home on stage, film, television, and audio narration. He has garnered numerous awards for his stage roles, most recently as Richard Nixon in the Kennedy Center’s production of “Frost/Nixon.”