Written in 1989, The Killing Man is the first Spillane novel I've read since 1955. The violence and sexual content that intrigued me as a pre-teen in the early fifties are rather tame relative to current standards. The hard-boiled, raunchy machismo of Mike Hammer has mellowed a bit and delicate broads have morphed into ambitious assistant district attorneys and armed CIA agents in keeping with the times. Some things haven't changed though. Spillane is still an easy read, just not as entertaining as when I was eleven years old.
The action starts quick with Mike Hammer finding his secretary bashed, bloody and barely alive, and a dead man strapped into Mike's chair, minus his fingertips. The plot and sub-plot twist through dead bodies, an international hitman, the mafia, missing cocaine and a somewhat unbelievable alliance between the FBI, CIA, State Department, the DA's office and the NYPD before culminating in big Mike once again laying the hammer on the bad guy.