In this morning's Guardian.co.uk online edition is an article by Chris Wiegand profiling mystery author Max Allan Collins who recently completed an unfinished Mike Hammer novel by Mickey Spillane.
When Spillane died in 2006 he was in the middle of writing The Goliath Bone, the 14th book in the series featuring the New York private eye. Knowing he may never complete it, he entrusted the book to Collins for completion. [MBN note: The Goliath Bone was published by Otto Penzler Books (Harcourt) last October.]
When asked what it was like to finish The Goliath Bone for his friend and colleague, Collins replied it was an honor, a responsibility, and a kid-in-the-candy-store sensation. "Mickey had been creating these half-manuscripts and setting them aside throughout our friendship," he said, "and I had a reasonable expectation that I'd be chosen to complete them. Just days before his death, he told his wife Jane, 'When I go, there's going to be a treasure hunt around here. Give everything to Max -- he'll know what to do with it.'"
But Wiegand reports that the story doesn't end with The Goliath Bone. Spillane left Collins enough material for five more novels, including two from the 1960s and one each from the 80s and 90s. "The most exciting is one from around 1948, what would have been the second Mike Hammer novel had Mickey completed it." And there's more: "If the public warms to Mike Hammer again, there are another half-dozen shorter manuscripts -- a chapter or two each -- that could keep him going for another good decade."
Return to Mystery Books News ...
0 comments:
Post a Comment