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Detective   (Engels) 

Even iets anders, een goeie oude Mike Hammer.

The main character of I, the Jury is Spillane?s most famous creation, Mike Hammer ? tough, implacable, and prone to violence, with perhaps even a touch of madness. When his war buddy is murdered, Hammer swears to get revenge: ?And by Christ, I?m not letting the killer go through the tedious process of the law.?
Hammer smashes his way through the suspects (?My fist went in up to the wrist in his stomach?) until he determines the guilty party, whom he has sworn to kill in exactly the same way his friend was murdered. Along the way, he meets the nymphomaniac Bellemy sisters, one of whom has a strategically located strawberry birthmark; Charlotte Manning, a beautiful psychiatrist; Hal Kines, the improbable white slaver; and of course he fends off the advances of Velda, his sexy, loyal secretary.

   He finally confronts the killer in a slam-bang ending never to be forgotten by anyone who has read it, concluding with perhaps the best last line in all of Spillane?s books, most of which have memorable, melodramatic climaxes.

   Spillane?s novels have been attacked for their violence and their vigilante spirit, and no doubt these things are present in the books. But Spillane is first and foremost a storyteller, and his stories, no matter how improbable, always work, pulling the reader along willingly or unwillingly into Mike Hammer?s violent world.

   I, the Jury was brought to the screen in 1949, with Biff Elliott in the starring role. Like the novel, it emphasizes violence and has an ending to enrage the sensibilities of any feminist who happens to watch it. 

ALs je de spot meeneemt, laat dan a.u.b. een berichtje achter, dan weet ik dat er belangstelling voor is en ik het niet voor de kat z'n ... doe. Kudos neem ik ook graag mee, maar hoeft niet.

Ook gespot in a.b.e-book