Mike Hammer: Killing Town

THE LOST FIRST MIKE HAMMER THRILLER! The lost book that begins the iconic Mike Hammer series by Mickey Spillane, finally completed by Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition.

"When someone frames me for rape and murder, I take it personal..."

Mike Hammer steals a ride on a train upstate to Killington. But he arrives to a nasty surprise; he is accused by police of raping and murdering a young woman near the freight yards. Roughed up by the cops and facing a murder charge, Hammer's fate looks bleak until a beautiful blonde, Melba Charles--daughter of Senator Charles--gives him an unexpected alibi. But there is a price for clearing his name: he is to marry her.

Why would Melba jump in to save a man she has never met before? And, more to the point, where is the real murderer?

Mickey Spillane is the legendary crime writer credited with igniting the explosion of paperback publishing after World War II as a result of the unprecedented success of his Mike Hammer novels. Spillane's novels sold tens of millions of copies - I, The Jury went through more than 60 paperback printings in 1947 alone. In 1995, he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Before his death at the age of 88 in 2006, Spillane chose long-time friend Max Allan Collins to complete his unfinished work and act as his literary executor.

Max Allan Collins is the bestselling, award-winning author of Road to Perdition, the graphic novel that inspired the Oscar-winning movie starring Paul Newman and Tom Hanks, and of the acclaimed Nathan Heller series of historical hardboiled mysteries. Also a filmmaker himself, Collins' films include the documentary Mike Hammer's Mickey Spillane.