Mickey Spillane

Mickey Spillane was one of the most popular and influential American crime fiction writers of the twentieth century, whose hard-boiled detective novels featuring private investigator Mike Hammer defined a generation of tough-guy fiction. His novel Black Alley, published in 1996, was one of the last Mike Hammer novels completed before Spillane's death. Spillane burst onto the literary scene in 1947 with I, the Jury, which introduced Hammer as a violent, morally uncompromising detective operating in the shadowy world of postwar New York. His novels sold in the tens of millions and were adapted into films, television series and comic books. Spillane was both enormously popular and critically controversial, with admirers praising his visceral storytelling and detractors criticising his violence and simplistic morality. He influenced countless crime writers and helped establish the conventions of hard-boiled detective fiction that persist today. Born in Brooklyn in 1918, Spillane served in World War II before becoming a full-time writer. He died in 2006, with several unfinished manuscripts later completed by his friend and collaborator Max Allan Collins. His audiobooks continue to attract listeners who appreciate classic American crime fiction.