In tribute to Mickey Spillane

Frank Morrison Spillane March 9, 1918 ~ July 17, 2006

Mickey Spillane was certainly not pretentious. He always referred to himself as a ‘writer' and not an ‘author.' The over 130 million books he sold will attest to the fact that whatever his title, people loved his work. He claimed that a ‘writer' is someone whose books sell. In answer to critics who dismissed his writing as ordinary, he said, “ Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.” Born in Brooklyn and coming up in the mean streets, Spillane wrote about those streets in a vivid style that took the reader right into the action. Although Spillane had other protagonists in his works, none is more familiar than Mike Hammer.

I found Mike Hammer as a teen in the mid-sixties, when his early books were still being reprinted as paperbacks. My parents were voracious paperback readers and I much preferred dad's Mickey Spillane and John D. McDonald to my mom's Harlequin Romances. The violence and sexy scenes in Spillane's Mike Hammer stories were villifed by critics who called it trash. What was racy and titillating then would be PG rated these days and in 1947 readers welcomed Spillane as a distraction in post WWII times.

“I, the Jury” was written while Spillane was living in a tent, building his first house, in 1946. Detective Mike Hammer was gritty and tough and the ladies loved him. Critics (and readers) were shocked when the woman he loves is killed in the end… by Hammer himself. No contemporary writers dared to use the level of violence and earthy sex that became Spillane's trademark.

Devoted readers came to know Hammer, his best friend Pat Chambers, right hand gal Velda and the burroughs where they worked and played. We knew that Mike carried a .45 named Betsy and the gang often met at the Blue Ribbon to grab a steak and and sort out cases. Although there were only 13 Mike Hammer novels, movies and television series made Mike Hammer larger than life and an enduring character. While Stacy Keach is probably the best known Hammer after his TV series, Spillane actually played his own literary character in The Girl Hunters , a 1963 movie. He played himself in Ring of Fear in 1954.

At the conclusion of “Black Alley,” thirteenth in the Hammer series (1996), Hammer has finally gotten a ring and a license to marry Velda. I'm sure readers were all pulling for them to get together in a ‘happily-ever-after.” For fans, it was like coming full circle.

However common Spillane's books might have seemed to self-professed literary greats, a look at a list of the Ten Best Selling Books in America in the 20 th Century will show you seven Spillane titles! In 1955, the Mystery Writers of America awarded him the title of Grand Master at the Edgar Allen Poe Awards. A children's book Spillane wrote (“The Day the Sea Rolled Back”) won the Junior Literary Guild Award in 1979. His goal was to give the public what they wanted, saying "I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends."

When cancer finally claimed Spillane at the age of 88, in his home in South Carolina , it silenced an honest writer. Spillane was a storyteller and in the noir grit of his mean streets there was a morality that has served us well. We all need heroes who fight for the underdog, and Spillane took on the critics as easily as Hammer took on the crooks and murderers.

The writer in all of us aspires to share our words with others. Great literary works may be immortal treasures, but most of us want to read work that takes us away from our mundane lives, stories that take us on a mini-adventure away from reality. We are storytellers looking for an audience and Spillane was one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

Critics be damned, Mickey Spillane will be remembered for the great gift he gave to armchair sleuths and everyday folks. He was indeed a master of his craft. Spillane certainly held his own through these sixty years, and his work will continue to give us lessons of old-fashioned morality in the classic mysteries that we love.

We salute you, Mickey. We honor you. We'll miss you.

COZY CORNER SUMMER READING

A vacation is as close as a book!

by Julie Obermiller

Packing for summer vacation means lots of sun block, traveling clothes and exciting plans. We have a tendency to pack a score of things we won't ever need, but the one thing we can't forget is a summer read…or three. Whatever your destination, ski lodge or sandy beach, only a book will make you instantly feel at home and help you to escape into yourself.

Some of us are going no farther than our own humble abode this summer, but book lovers know there are thousands of destinations and traveling companions between the covers of favorite tomes. From your most comfy chair, or sprawled across your rumpled bed, you can meet new people and experience new places with the flip of a page. Mystery lovers can help to solve the most perplexing riddles and catch the nefarious evildoer without breaking a sweat. We learned the wonderful art of escapism when we discovered the delight of books at our mother's knee. “Oh, the places we will go…”

Some new offerings will make you feel as though you are on trip of your own. Candy Calvert's “Dressed to Keel” from Midnight Ink will take you on a cruise with a ship full of senior citizens and emergency room nurse Darcy Cavanaugh. Add a murder, a handsome man and some hilarious happenings and you'll enjoy a lighthearted romp. (See the review in this issue of M-E).

Another shipboard adventure is Conrad Allen's seventh shipboard historical, “Murder on the Oceanic.” Husband and wife sleuthing team George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Masefield get involved in a murder and the theft of art treasures being brought by J.P. Morgan from Europe to New York . You'll be alone with a crowd of zany characters.

Also aboard an ultra-luxurious luxury liner are Judith McMonigle Flynn and cousin Renie Jones, who are taking a break from Hillside Manor B&B. They get as far as San Francisco when the pre-boarding party turns up a body in the piano, and the trip is postponed. More deaths occur amongst the land-locked cruise passengers and the gals team up with a husband and wife sleuthing team to solve the murders. “Dead Man Docking (A Bed and Breakfast Mystery)” takes off for adventure without leaving port.

How about Hawaii as a vacation destination? Fans of television's compulsive and cool Adrian Monk will feel at home settled in with “Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii .” Written by LeeGoldberg (created by Andy Breckman). Monk has crashed assistant Natalie's vacation and a TV psychic complicates things after a murder. This paperback will be great company on any trip.

“Burned” puts Carol Higgins Clark's Regan Reilly in Hawaii with pal Kit, looking for a fabulous getaway that turns into a murder scene (of course). Mind your sun block while you get engrossed with this one.

Staying closer to home? How about a visit to Cape Cod with some stiff-upper-lip New Englanders? Phoebe Atwood Taylor's “ The Perennial Boarder (An Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mystery)” is a smooth and delightful read. Stop over in Pennsylvania with Tamar Myer's “Grape Expectations: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes.” There's trouble afoot in Mennonite country when new grape farmers have a plan for a winery in the middle of a dry county. After a murder, Magdalena Yoder is on the case with her own brand of homespun detecting.

Travel further south and you'll come to Charleston , Virginia 's Indigo Tea Shop where Theodosia Browning is serving up more than tea in “Blood Orange Brewing.” Laura Child's series conjures up the beauty and character of the stately south, a travelogue within a mystery.

The prolific writing of new and old familiar authors gives us a delightful selection of people and places to spend our vacations with. Almost magically, the pages of a book unleash the settings, backdrops and cast of characters for a new adventure. Words create line drawings of unfamiliar things and our imaginations wash them in Technicolor, adding sounds and smells and creating another world within our own. We become players on a stage, marionettes moved with unseen strings by wordsmiths who have invited us into their worlds, if only for a time. Like a carousel, we can step on and off whenever we like, savoring the ride and going around again and again.

Will you find a new author to delight you this summer? Email your finds to juliechatterbox@msn.com and we'll share them with our readers. We are always on the lookout for new authors and characters to help us escape into the wonderful world of mystery fiction!

Have a wonderful summer wherever you journey, so you come back refreshed to your own ‘cozy corner'.