Bookworms: King of the Weeds (2014) by Spillane & Collins

At his time of life, Mike Hammer should be taking life easy and planning his future with fiancée Velda. Maybe he and his friend Pat Chambers, the Captain of Homicide, should be thinking about retirement. When you’re the toughest PI in the world, things are never simple. A serial killer Hammer and Chambers put away years ago is about to be released because of new evidence. To make matters worse, someone is trying to kill Mike. Are the two things related? And how does the suspiciously high number of accidental deaths of NYPD officers fit in? Then there’s the $89 billion of Mafia money stashed away in a place known only to Hammer, with everyone from the mob to the US Government after him. And just who is the mysterious criminal mastermind, the “King of the Weeds”?

Created by Mickey Spillane, Mike Hammer is the prototype tough detective who first appeared in 1947 with a mind as quick as his fists and trigger finger. Mickey Spillane died in 2006 after passing on several detailed manuscripts to Max Allan Collins. King of the Weeds was conceived as the final Mike Hammer novel, but no previous knowledge of the series is needed.

Set in the late ‘90s with Mike in his mid-sixties (in the notes, it tells you that Mike should be about ten years older if the timeline was completely accurate), King of the Weeds manages to keep Mike traditional but gives a nod towards the more modern setting, with Velda talking about chauvinism with Mike and laughing at his dated terminology – “Mike, you have got to stop talking like that. People are starting to look at you funny.” Hammer is now committed to Velda, so his general roving eye and lust for the ladies has been toned down from previous novels. It just about does enough to update the character without changing him too much, which is a clever way of doing it.

Reading King of the Weeds was a strangely emotional experience. I was transported back to my younger days when books about tough detectives weren’t afraid of anyone were the norm. It has all the pace and action you would expect from a Hammer novel, yet there’s a bittersweet feel about it. Velda and Pat have been with Mike since book one, and it’s great to see them still around. Velda has a more prominent role in Mike’s life. Pat is disappointed to not get promoted above the rank of Captain. They got old together, and unless a lost manuscript turns up this is their final adventure. It’s a touch of nostalgia wrapped around a fist that punches you in the gut, and I liked it. King of the Weeds is a good read. It’s definitely recommended for fans of Mike Hammer, and worth a look if you’ve never tried one before.