Big news this week is that I have completed the new Heller, TARGET LANCER, dealing with the JFK assassination in an entirely new way. It was finished last week, and I spent the weekend tweaking it before shipping it this morning. The title refers to the code name the Secret Service gave JFK. There will undoubtedly be revisions and I am sending my research associate George Hagenauer a copy to check for Chicago inaccuracies. But I admit to feeling a huge weight is off my shoulders.
Be sure to check out the Amazon listings of the Nathan Heller reprint series. All of them are going for around $10 on pre-order, including the new short story collection, CHICAGO LIGHTNING.
Our illo this week is the new cover for TRUE DETECTIVE, though I believe it may change somewhat. There are possible issues over the Frank Nitti image. But this will give you the idea of the design flavor. I’ve been working closely with AmazonEncore on developing this look – after my dissatisfaction with so many other covers of mine, cooperation/collaboration like this is a real treat.
Over at the Top Suspense blog, we are starting an ongoing conversation on the writing of crime fiction. I have a posting later this week, but check out the conversation from the very start here.
The KISS HER GOODBYE reviews keep coming, and here’s a fun one.
And Audiofile weighs in favorably on Stacy Keach’s wonderful reading of KISS HER GOODBYE.
At the Tor/Forge blog, they are bragging about that starred review BYE BYE, BABY got last week from PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. I was interviewed by PW a few weeks ago, but it hasn’t appeared yet.
The KISS ME DEADLY Blu-ray is getting rave reviews. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY gave it a B+, mentioning the special features as a major plus, and even listed it on their front-of-the-mag MUST LIST. On the web the reviews of this great release are everywhere, and here is a nice example, and another one.
KISS HER GOODBYE has made several of these “Page-Turner” lists, apparently for so-called beach books. Here’s one of them. The overwhelmingly favorable response to the new Mike Hammer novel has been colored by frequent apologies from reviewers, most hilariously represented by the A/V Club review. Nobody apologizes for liking James Bond or Batman or Tarzan, but Hammer still seems to be a guilty pleasure. I don’t really care, as long as I’m able to get these books out there. Many reviewers assume I’m working from plot notes at this point, no matter how many times I state that Mickey left behind substantial manuscripts on six Hammer novels (not to mention DEAD STREET and the forthcoming Morgan the Raider sequel, THE DELTA FACTOR). So far, I have been working from fragments around 100 pages long or more. Usually there are plot and character notes, but not always. CONSUMMATA was around 100 double-spaced pages, without plot and character notes, though I had THE DELTA FACTOR to guide me.
M.A.C.
Tags: JFK, Kiss Her Goodbye, Mike Hammer, Nate Heller, Reviews, Spillane, Target Lancer, The Consummata, Top Suspense
I’ve been looking over the over Heller titles’ covers, and the style of the series is fantastic. Very eye-catching yet subtle.
I think the apologies come from the fact that — unlike Batman, Tarzan, or James Bond — for many readers, Mike Hammer is still a guilty pleasure. People are afraid that others will make judgments of them based on their liking of the books, so they feel the need to state, “I don’t usually read this sort of thing.”
Sort of like that time I reviewed a romance novel…. :)