My Gun is Quick

New York: New American Library [A Signet Book], 1950. Later printing. Mass market paperback. Good. 174, [2] pages. Cover has some wear and soiling. Frank Morrison Spillane (March 9, 1918 - July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally. Spillane was also an occasional actor, once even playing Hammer himself. During World War II Spillane enlisted in the Army Air Corps, becoming a fighter pilot and a flight instructor. He received an Edgar Allan Poe Grand Master Award in 1995. Spillane's novels went out of print, but in 2001, the New American Library began reissuing them. The Signet paperbacks displayed dramatic front cover illustrations. Lou Kimmel created the cover paintings for My Gun Is Quick, Vengeance Is Mine, One Lonely Night and The Long Wait. "My Gun Is Quick," first published in 1950, was the second book in the Mike Hammer series by Mickey Spillane. Although throughout the 1950's there were many other pulp authors who wrote stories about private eyes and themes about corruption and gambling and call girl syndicates, no one wrote more stories more hardboiled than Spillane. The story starts with Mike Hammer meeting a red-headed prostitute in a diner. She is hassled by a man she appears to know and fear but Mike deals with him swiftly. Despite little conversation, he gives her some money to get a real job and leaves. The next day she is found dead, the victim of an apparent hit-and-run accident. Mike does not believe this and proceeds to hunt down her murderers. In the process he uncovers a massive and powerful prostitution ring in New York.