Description:

The Mafia, a serial killer, the government—everyone is out to get PI Mike Hammer in this relentless thriller featuring Mickey Spillane’s “customary mixture of violence and witty dialogue” (Booklist) He was the killer and I was the target.It should be a mellow time for America’s toughest PI. He and Velda are planning their nuptials, and Captain of Homicide Pat Chambers is nearing retirement. Then an assassin’s bullet almost brings Mike down on his office doorstep. Could the attempted hit have anything to do with the impending release of a serial killer put away by Mike and Pat?  There’s also the small matter of the $89 billion in Mafia money stashed in a cave, in a location known only to Hammer. With everyone from wiseguys to the US Government on his tail, Mike must prove that he is just as sharp, and deadly, as ever.

Hammer finds himself up against a clever serial killer targeting only cops. A killer his old friend Captain Pat Chambers had put away many years ago is suddenly freed on new, seemingly indisputable evidence, and Hammer wonders if this seemingly placid, very odd old man might somehow be engineering cop killings that all seem to be either accidental or by natural causes. At the same time Hammer and Velda are dealing with the fallout -- some of it mob, some of it federal government -- over the $89 billion dollar cache the detective is (rightly) suspected of finding not long ago.