Hammer's back

One of the cool things about attaining a "top reviewer" status at Amazon, as well as associating yourself with a small handful of other venues that happily publish your reviews, is that publishers, retailers, etc., start sending you things to read and watch. It'll probably happen even more, now that I've added my own blog to the list of places where I sound off. Anyway, It's thrilling at first, then a little daunting as books, DVDs, and all manner of other stuff start piling up, patiently waiting for your attention. It's definitely a situation worthy of the "be careful what you wish for" file.

In any event, the old "Wow, I'm getting stuff for free!" vibe comes back now and again when something you were looking forward to and absolutely was going to buy with your own money anyway is found sitting in your mailbox. That happened the other day when I received an advance reading copy of The Big Bang, the newly-completed Mike Hammer novel by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. If you're at all into hard-boiled detective material, you're probably already a fan of the late Mr. Spillane's work, and maybe even a fan of Mr. Collins (if you're not you should be). The Big Bang is the second Mike Hammer book completed by Mr. Collins from Mr. Spillane's notes and partially written book, with the blessing of Mr. Spillane and his estate. Even though I liked but didn't love their previous Mike Hammer collaboration, The Goliath Bone, I'm still greatly looking forward to diving into this one.

In fact, I'm actually a little jealous of the people who will pay for their own copy of the book, as my advance reading copy warns me that typos and other minor errors might still pepper the manuscript. Arrgh... I hope there aren't too many!

The Big Bang will likely be available on Kindle shortly, as The Goliath Bone has been available on Kindle since its release in 2008 (and is where I read it). Needless to say, I'll have more to say about The Big Bang once I dive into it.