Publisher, Blackstone Audiobooks (December 2009)

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

Listen to a FREE audio clip.

Winner of the 2011 Audie® Award for Original Work

Private eye Mike Hammer is no stranger to murder, but this time he has two to untangle: the killing of the Captain, a legless, homeless panhandler, dismissed by the police as “minor,” and the slaying of gambling kingpin Marty Wellman. Marty’s lady friend, Helen Venn, turns to the P.I. for help when the Mob fingers her for the next kill. Seems the new kingpin, Carmen Rich — with whom Hammer has a violent history — thinks Helen made off with ten mil in skim money courtesy of her late lover. But Mike Hammer knows a damsel in distress when he sees one and takes up Helen's cause, igniting a series of hit attempts on his life by a small army of out-of-town shooters. Such minor distractions can't prevent the toughest detective of them all from solving two murders and avenging a "little death" in a big way.

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.”