Toward that end, Mrs. Mickey Spillane—Jane Spillane—continues to make these efforts possible. My wife, writer Barbara Collins, continues her stellar work as in-house editor, always tempering criticism with praise (you have been spared a phrase I wrote, and cut, after she wrote “Yikes!” in the margin).

Finally, my longtime friend and agent Dominick Abel continues to be indispensable where his clients Mickey and Max are concerned.

About the Authors

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

MICKEY SPILLANE and MAX ALLAN COLLINS collaborated on numerous projects, including twelve anthologies, three films, and the Mike Danger comic book series.

SPILLANE was the bestselling American mystery writer of the 20th century. He introduced Mike Hammer in I, the Jury (1947), which sold in the millions, as did the six tough mysteries that soon followed. His controversial PI has been the subject of a radio show, comic strip, and several television series, starring Darren McGavin in the 1950s and Stacy Keach in the ’80s and ’90s. Numerous gritty movies have been made from Spillane novels, notably director Robert Aldrich’s seminal film noir, Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Girl Hunters (1963), in which the writer played his own famous hero, and I, the Jury (1982), which set the template for a decade of violent-crime-based action blockbusters.

COLLINS has earned an unprecedented twenty-three Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations, winning for the novels True Detective (1983) and Stolen Away (1993) in his Nathan Heller series, and in 2013 for “So Long, Chief,” a Mike Hammer short story begun by Spillane and completed by Collins. His graphic novel Road to Perdition is the basis of the Academy Award-winning Tom Hanks/Sam Mendes film. As a filmmaker in the Midwest, he has had half a dozen feature screenplays produced, including The Last Lullaby (2008), based on his innovative Quarry novels, also the basis of Quarry, a Cinemax TV series. As “Barbara Allan,” he and his wife Barbara’s collaborative novels include the “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mystery series (recently Antiques Fire Sale). The Grand Master “Edgar” Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America, was presented to Spillane in 1995 and Collins in 2017. Both Spillane (who died in 2006) and Collins also received the Private Eye Writers life achievement award, the Eye.

Mike Hammer Novels

MIKE HAMMER NOVELS

In response to reader requests, I have assembled this chronology to indicate where the Hammer novels I’ve completed from Mickey Spillane’s unfinished manuscripts and other materials fit into the canon. An asterisk indicates the collaborative works (thus far). J. Kingston Pierce of the fine website The Rap Sheet pointed out an inconsistency in this list (as it appeared with Murder Never Knocks) that I’ve corrected.

M.A.C.

Killing Town*

I, the Jury

Lady, Go Die!*

The Twisted Thing (published 1966, written 1949)

My Gun Is Quick

Vengeance Is Mine!

One Lonely Night

The Big Kill

Kiss Me, Deadly

Kill Me, Darling*

The Girl Hunters

The Snake

The Will to Kill*

The Big Bang*

Complex 90*

Murder Never Knocks*

The Body Lovers

Survival…Zero!

Kiss Her Goodbye*