This wasn't as good as Spillane's first two Hammer novels, though I breezed through it, and mostly enjoyed the ride. There were a few things that got on my nerves, but was able to laugh them off and keep reading. Spillane goes way overboard with all the pretty "dames" that fall for Hammer. Juno was a completely unbelievable character, and the constant comparing her to a goddess drove me nuts. The main villain was too predicable. And, the most unbelievable part was the ending. No way the character of Hammer would have been deceived in that way. What I like about Spillane is that I don't have to read any PC crap. If you're one of the "woke", you won't like this novel. ( )

3/5
Another fun quick book. It was missing something though. The action was there but I feel like parts were missing that would of made it better ( )

I liked I, The Jury better, but this was still pretty good. A bit slow in setting up initially. However, once the pace picked up, the action did not let go until the very end. Quite a blackmail plot leading to murder was set up, and Mike Hammer is the only one who persists in getting to the truth. The twist at the end was quite a detail, which I will not give away. Overall, a nice little bit of escapist fun. I will certainly look for other Mike Hammer novels. ( )

I don't do reviews but wanted to leave a note that this book has the worst plot twist that I have ever come across ! ( )

“Vengeance Is Mine,” first published in 1950, is the third Mike Hammer book by Mickey Spillane. The title pretty much says it all. Spillane created Hammer as the toughest, most uncompromising private eye that ever existed on the pages of any publication. He is not simply for sale to any client to protect the reputation of the rich client’s two psychotic daughters. Hammer sees injustice and goes out and knocks head to wreak vengeance, particularly where the legal system is too incompetent or corrupt to do what it needs to do on its own.

In this particular novel, Spillane takes on a theme that is found in many fifties hardboiled novels, that of a man wrongfully accused of murder and at odds and often on the run from the legal system while trying to solve the crime on his own. Spillane, however, takes this theme and weaves it a little differently from most authors. Hammer, here, goes on a all-night bender with a friend from out of town and, when he wakes up in a hotel room with his friend on the other bed, the friend has a hole in his chest and isn’t going to be out carousing with anyone ever again. Hammer has his license taken away and has to operate sort of outside the system with Pat being his only friend on the force. The theme of a lone man out to do justice when no one else cares rings true here. Everyone officially says it was a suicide, but Hammer can’t buy it and there is a web of corruption and dirty dealing that is unearthed here. What Hammer finds when he scratches the surface of the city is not pretty. Nor are the bodies that keep piling up. All the people who lost their lives because Hammer poked his nose into this business.

The writing in this book is very typical Spillane from the very first line: “The guy was dead as hell. He lay on the floor in his pajamas with his brains scattered all over the rug and my gun in his hand. I kept rubbing my face to wipe out the fuzz that clouded my mind but the cops wouldn’t let me.” Wow! What an opening. In just a few short lines, Spillane has blood and guts and guns and his protagonist in a jam.

Velda is more prominently featured here than in the first two Hammer books. In fact, when Hammer’s license is taken away, he reminds her that she has a license and a gun, too, and she’s now the boss of the operation. “There wasn’t any kitten-softness about her now. She was big and she was lovely, with the kind of curves that made you want to turn around and have another look. The lush fullness of her lips had tightened into the faintest kind of snarl and her eyes were the carnivorous eyes you could expect to see in the jungle watching you from behind a clump of bushes.”

The action here mostly takes place in the Bowery and Spillane describes it as “a street of people without faces” and “pleading voices from the shadows and the shuffle of feet behind you.” “The bars were lined with the left-overs of humanity keeping warm over a drink or nursing a steaming bowl of soup.”

There are a few scant references to characters from the first two books (Charlotte and Lola), but not much and the references are merely to show the variety of emotions that Hammer feels, particularly towards these women in his past.

All in all, “Vengeance is Mine!” is yet another terrific, top-notch Spillane thriller and, as always, his books are at the top of the whole genre of hardboiled crime fiction even sixty-four years after publication. ( )