Mike Hammer
Contents
Cover
More Mike Hammer from Titan Books
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Co-Author’s Note
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Tip of the Fedora
About the Authors
Mike Hammer Novels
Also Available from Titan Books
MASQUERADE FOR MURDER
A MIKE HAMMER NOVEL
MORE MIKE HAMMER FROM TITAN BOOKS
Lady, Go Die!
Complex 90
King of the Weeds
Kill Me, Darling
Murder Never Knocks
The Will to Kill
Killing Town
The Goliath Bone
Murder, My Love
The Big Bang
Kiss Her Goodbye (February 2021)
MASQUERADE
FOR MURDER
A MIKE HAMMER NOVEL
MICKEY SPILLANE
and
MAX ALLAN COLLINS
TITANBOOKS
Masquerade for Murder: A Mike Hammer Novel
Print edition ISBN: 9781785655562
E-book edition ISBN: 9781785655579
Published by Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark St, London SE1 0UP
First edition: March 2020
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.
Copyright © 2020 Mickey Spillane Publishing, LLC
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
What did you think of this book? We love to hear from our readers. Please email us at [email protected] or write to us at Reader Feedback at the above address.
To receive advance information, news, competitions, and exclusive Titan offers online, please sign up for the Titan newsletter on our website: www.titanbooks.com
FOR GARY SANDY –
who brought Mike alive on stage
CO-AUTHOR’S NOTE
Shortly before his death in 2006, Mickey Spillane told his wife Jane, “When I’m gone, there’s going to be a treasure hunt around here. Take everything you find and give it to Max—he’ll know what to do.”
Working under the death sentence of pancreatic cancer, Mickey had already called me to ask if I would complete his final Mike Hammer novel for him, if that became necessary, which it did—the greatest, if most bittersweet, honor of my career.
Half a dozen substantial Hammer manuscripts of 100 pages or more were found in the “treasure hunt,” conducted by Jane, my wife Barb and me. These five lost Hammer novels spanned Mickey’s career, from the late ’40s through the mid-’60s and on up to (and including) The Goliath Bone, which he was working on at the time of his passing.