4/9/22

The book is made up of 3 short stories, all pretty good. I like Spillane's short stories better than his novels. In all 3 stories, the hero is shown in a terrible light at first & is slowly redeemed.

The first story is "Kick it or Kill!" & is centered around drugs. Spillane drew around the famous bust of the Mafia in Appalachia, even referring to it to add some depth to the story.

The second story, "The Seven Year Kill" is about a disgraced newspaperman who is drinking himself to death when a huge coincidence gives him a chance at redemption.

The last story is "The Bastard Bannerman" which especially interested me because he later changed & expanded it into [b:The Erection Set|189221|The Erection Set|Mickey Spillane|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1262116421s/189221.jpg|1878713], one of my favorite novels by him. Both stories work off the idea that the bastard of a high society family comes home after disappearing decades before. An inheritance is at stake & the bastard is a man of mystery that everyone thinks is a very tough hood. The way he expanded the original short story into a novel is interesting. He threw in about everything including the kitchen sink.

All are quite romantic, optimistic pieces in their way. I must say that Spillane's ideas of romance are pretty bad, but kind of fun, anyway. These are typical. All in all, they were fun reads. ( )