Survival Zero

Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer #11. I have had to skip #10, as it is one of the few I have been unable to pick up, but I will double back to it. Published in 1970, there is a detectable change in the series where there is a small amount of swearing introduced, a few more risque comments and heroin use by one of the characters another was a pot-selling hippie. There is no shortage of violence in this one, but that is nothing new to this series!

There is a dual storyline in this novel. Hammer has a friend who is murdered ‘for no reason', but it gets minimal police interest and only a few lines of press - there is another bigger story breaking. Hammer decides to snoop around a bit, and it looks like his buddy was a pick-pocket, but he isn't convinced. The bigger story is a government coverup of a viral bacteria attack which killed a man in the subway, and the story is being locked down by the fed and the cops. As one can imagine, the strands of the stories meet towards the end!

In the mix are a couple of hot broads, as well as Velda acting as a streetwalker to get intel; politicians; crims and hoods. There is Pat Chambers to keep Mike in the know, and wrongly insinuate that Mike is knocking people off (Pat always picks which ones wrongly), and a television investigative reporter who is also a friend of Mikes. Plenty of old friends and acquaintances, does Mike Hammer have - many acquaintances are not so friendly too.

Perhaps a little weaker than the earlier books in the series, but this was Spillane's last for nearly 20 years!

3 stars