Mark,
Re your comments below:
"Let me first say that it's been a long, long time since I've
read any Spillane, and I only ever read a few, so my
conclusions may be more based on spotty memory than what is
actually on the pages. However, I seem to remember that the
investigations are more often of murders that affect Hammer
personally, not as a paid investigator."
That's essentially true, but it's also a common theme in PI
fiction by the time Spillane comes along. It's no less true
for Spade in THE MALTESE FALCON, the Op in most of RED
HARVEST, Marlowe in the second half of THE BIG SLEEP, and
Hammer's most obvious forebear, Carroll John Daly's Race
Williams in most of his appearances.
That Hammer has a personal stake doesn't make him any less a
professional detective. What it suggests is that, like
characters such as Harry Bosch, Hammer chose his profession
out of a sense of mission.
"In addition, I seem to remember that the ultimate killer
always turns out to be a woman. And not just any woman, but
the woman Hammer had put on a pedestal, the one pure madonna
in contrast to all the whores he slept with. So it is this
woman who personally betrayed Hammer, both as the killer of a
friend and as the woman he connected with on more than a
physical level, so he holds a special hatred of her and takes
special glee in killing her."
Again, by the time of I THE JURY, the "wenchdunit" gambit is
already a cliche is PI fiction, and the last chapter of the
book is essentially a rewrite of the penultimate chapter of
THE MALTESE FALCON, with Hammer shooting the murderess
instead of turning her over. But that's what he always said
he'd do.
As for enjoying it, the rest of the series doesn't seem to
bear that out. Hammer is haunted by his killing of the woman
he's fallen for, and the guilt eats at him throughout the
series, at least throughout the early entries.
As for who the ultimate villain is, it's men at least as
often as women.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER
Sticking to the earliest novels in the series, the ultimate
villain in MY GUN IS QUICK, ONE LONELY NIGHT, and VENGEANCE
IS MINE are all men (granting that, VENGEANCE IS MINE, we
THINK Juno's a woman until the last line of the book, the
fact of the matter is that, as Hammer puts it so poetically,
"Juno was a MAN!")
The main villains in I THE JURY and KISS ME, DEADLY are both
women, and both women Hammer is attracted to, but that's only
two out of five.
I don't recall who the villain was in THE BIG KILL. What
sticks to me more is the manner of the villain's death
(somebody besides Hammer blows the killer away with Hammer's
.45), so even if it was a woman, it wasn't Hammer who killed
her. In fact, still scarred after his experience in I THE
JURY, Hammer spends the rest of the series avoiding killing
women.
THE TWISTED THING, wasn't published until the late
'60's, but it was actually written right after I THE JURY. In
that one, the main villain is a man. Or at least a
male.
After a decade-long hiatus, Hammer makes his comeback in THE
GIRL HUNTERS. The main villain again turns out to be a woman
Hammer's become attracted to, but, again, Hammer arranges
things so he doesn't have to be the one who kills her.
In THE SNAKE, THE BODY LOVERS, SURVIVAL ZERO, THE KILLING
MAN, and BLACK ALLEY, the main villains are all, to the best
of my recollection, men.
And after all, as Spillane himself once put it when the
misogyny issue was raised, the killer's got to be either male
or female. You've only got two choices.
"He kills men in a more business-like way, hates them for
their 'job,' what they represent as criminals and/or commies,
not because they personally betrayed him."
Hammer never enjoyed killing the main villain (a man) as much
as he did in MY GUN IS QUICK. He spends the whole last
chapter explaining to the killer exactly how he's going to
kill him. And in that book, it IS a matter of personal
betrayal.
END SPOILER ALERT END SPOILER ALERT END SPOILER ALERT
"But as I said, it's been a long time since I've read him, so
my memories may be way off."
Well, not all of us get the benefit of a catechism-trained
memory.
JIM DOHERTY
__________________________________________________ Do You
Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 07 Jul 2006 EDT