Raves For the Work of MICKEY SPILLANE and MAX ALLAN COLLINS!
“Authentic narrative drive and almost hypnotic conviction...set Spillane apart from all his imitators.”
—The New York Times
“No one can twist you through a maze with as much intensity and suspense as Max Allan Collins.”
—Clive Cussler
“A superb writer. Spillane is one of this century’s bestselling authors.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Collins never misses a beat...All the stand-up pleasures of dime-store pulp with a beguiling level of complexity.”
—Booklist
“If you are a Spillane fan you will enjoy this one more than anything done before. It is fast-moving, easy reading, and has the greatest shocker of an ending.”
—Albuquerque Tribune
“Max Allan Collins [is] like no other writer.”
—Andrew Vachss
“Spillane’s books...redefined the detective story.”
—Wallace Stroby
“Collins has a gift for creating low-life believable characters [in] a sharply focused action story that keeps the reader guessing till the slam-bang ending. A consummate thriller from one of the new masters of the genre.”
—Atlanta Journal Constitution
“Spillane...presents nothing save visual facts; but he selects only those facts, only those eloquent details, which convey the visual reality of the scene and create a mood of desolate loneliness.”
—Ayn Rand
“There’s a kind of power about Mickey Spillane that no other writer can imitate.”
—Miami Herald
“Max Allan Collins is the closest thing we have to a 21st century Mickey Spillane.”
—This Week
“Need we say more than—the Mick is back.”
—Hammond Times
I sat forward. “What can you tell me about Halaquez?”
The madam was frowning. “That he was a patron here. That he’s a ruthless killer with sadistic tastes that bleed over into his sexual kinks. His needs extend well beyond what we provide here at Mandor.”
“It’s a way to find him. You must know other houses or girls working solo, doing the S & M thing.”
Bunny’s eyes were tight. “I think you will find Mr. Halaquez is banned from all such establishments. But I will give you a list, if you think that may help.”
“It’s a start.”
“The only other thing...but it’s a long shot.”
“Hell. Guys get rich playing long shots. Go.”
Again she chose her words carefully. “There is a rumor...and for now it’s just a rumor...that the Consummata is setting up shop in Miami.”
I blinked. “Who or what is the ‘Consummata’?”
“A very famous dominatrix.”
“From Miami?”
“From nowhere. From everywhere. Her clients, they say, are among the most rich and powerful men. She is a rumor. A wisp of smoke. A legend. If Jaimie Halaquez hears that the Consummata has graced Miami with her presence, he won’t be able to resist...”
SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:
DEAD STREET by Mickey Spillane
THE FIRST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE by Max Allan Collins
QUARRY’S EX by Max Allan Collins
TWO FOR THE MONEY by Max Allan Collins
DEADLY BELOVED by Max Allan Collins
FIFTY-TO-ONE by Charles Ardai
KILLING CASTRO by Lawrence Block
THE DEAD MAN’S BROTHER by Roger Zelazny
THE CUTIE by Donald E. Westlake
HOUSE DICK by E. Howard Hunt
CASINO MOON by Peter Blauner
FAKE I.D. by Jason Starr
PASSPORT TO PERIL by Robert B. Parker
STOP THIS MAN! by Peter Rabe
LOSERS LIVE LONGER by Russell Atwood
HONEY IN HIS MOUTH by Lester Dent
THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES by Jonny Porkpie
THE VALLEY OF FEAR by A.C. Doyle
MEMORY by Donald E. Westlake
NOBODY’S ANGEL by Jack Clark
MURDER IS MY BUSINESS by Brett Halliday
GETTING OFF by Lawrence Block
The CONSUMMATA
by Mickey Spillane
and Max Allan Collins
A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK
(HCC-103)
For Lynn Myers—
one of Mickey’s
favorite customers
CO-AUTHOR’S NOTE
In 1967, with some fanfare, Mickey Spillane’s The Delta Factor—introducing Morgan the Raider as a new series character—enjoyed considerable critical and commercial success. After a disappointing experience producing a Factor film, however, the frustrated Spillane set aside the already-announced second Morgan novel, The Consummata. Twenty years ago, he entrusted the incomplete manuscript to me, saying, “Maybe someday we can do something with this.”
Thanks to Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime, that day is here.
The story is set in the late ’60s, when Mickey began it.
CHAPTER ONE
They were closing in.
There were two up ahead, another pair behind me, and when I reached the corner the trap would snap shut...and only open again inside a maximum security prison where every contrivance devised by experts knowledgeable in the science of incarceration would be utilized to keep me there the rest of my life.
At least I had given them a run for the taxpayers’ money. Still, it was a damn shame this melodrama had to wind up on a side street in Miami with the federal boys having all the advantage, and me with the job I had to do so far from over.
In the reflection of an angled window, I saw a black sedan round the corner behind me and cruise at a walking pace. Modern technology was raising hell with being a fugitive—each two-man team carried an attaché case packed with a communications rig. That kept the pairs fore and aft in touch with the rolling forces as well as other teams that would be blocking off any remaining escape avenues.
It was my own damn fault, but part of the odds I had to face. When you come out into the open, knowing your photo is in every post office, representing a forty-million dollar haul every hood would like to hijack—and that any stool pigeon would like to cash in for big-league brownie points—well, you are really bucking the odds.
I had one thing going for me, anyway—this was a capture operation, not a hit. They’d have orders to go all out bringing me back alive, even risking taking on fire themselves. Your life carries a high premium when they think you’re the only guy who knows where a forty-mil payday got buried.