Mickey Spillane, pulp crime fiction giant, is dead

Tue, 07/18/2006 - 11:01am by sernabad

Mickey Spillane, creator of the Mike Hammer private eye novels, has died.

Mike Hammer, crime fiction’s politically correct nightmare, captured the attention of Spillane fans for decades. Brutal, violent, murderous toward women, and shaky on the subtle nuances of the law, Hammer kept readers demanding more for decades.

Spillane, a former Jehovah’s Witness, laughed at the scorn critics heaped upon his novels, such as Murder Is My Business, The Snake and Kiss Me, Deadly, one of several Spillane titles turned into a movie. He referred to his books as “the chewing gum of American literaure” and precious few reviewers disagreed.

Spillane, 88, died of cancer in South Carolina on July 17, 2006.