Mickey Spillane - The Consummata (Hard Case Crime)

Authentic narrative drive and almost hypnotic conviction...set Spillane apart from all his imitators.

The New York Times

No one can twist you through a maze with as much intensity and suspense as Max Allan Collins.

Clive Cussler

A superb writer. Spillane is one of this centurys bestselling authors.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Collins never misses a beat...All the stand-up pleasures of dime-store pulp with a beguiling level of complexity.

Booklist

If you are a Spillane fan you will enjoy this one more than anything done before. It is fast-moving, easy reading, and has the greatest shocker of an ending.

Albuquerque Tribune

Max Allan Collins [is] like no other writer.

Andrew Vachss

Spillanes books...redefined the detective story.

Wallace Stroby

Collins has a gift for creating low-life believable characters [in] a sharply focused action story that keeps the reader guessing till the slam-bang ending. A consummate thriller from one of the new masters of the genre.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Spillane...presents nothing save visual facts; but he selects only those facts, only those eloquent details, which convey the visual reality of the scene and create a mood of desolate loneliness.

Ayn Rand

Theres a kind of power about Mickey Spillane that no other writer can imitate.

Miami Herald

Max Allan Collins is the closest thing we have to a 21st century Mickey Spillane.

This Week

Need we say more thanthe Mick is back.

Hammond Times

I sat forward. What can you tell me about Halaquez?

The madam was frowning. That he was a patron here. That hes a ruthless killer with sadistic tastes that bleed over into his sexual kinks. His needs extend well beyond what we provide here at Mandor.

Its a way to find him. You must know other houses or girls working solo, doing the S & M thing.

Bunnys eyes were tight. I think you will find Mr. Halaquez is banned from all such establishments. But I will give you a list, if you think that may help.

Its a start.

The only other thing...but its a long shot.

Hell. Guys get rich playing long shots. Go.

Again she chose her words carefully. There is a rumor...and for now its just a rumor...that the Consummata is setting up shop in Miami.

I blinked. Who or what is the Consummata?

A very famous dominatrix.

From Miami?

From nowhere. From everywhere. Her clients, they say, are among the most rich and powerful men. She is a rumor. A wisp of smoke. A legend. If Jaimie Halaquez hears that the Consummata has graced Miami with her presence, he wont be able to resist...

SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:

DEAD STREET by Mickey Spillane

THE FIRST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins

THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins

QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE by Max Allan Collins

QUARRYS EX by Max Allan Collins

TWO FOR THE MONEY by Max Allan Collins

DEADLY BELOVED by Max Allan Collins

FIFTY-TO-ONE by Charles Ardai

KILLING CASTRO by Lawrence Block

THE DEAD MANS BROTHER by Roger Zelazny

THE CUTIE by Donald E. Westlake

HOUSE DICK by E. Howard Hunt

CASINO MOON by Peter Blauner

FAKE I.D. by Jason Starr

PASSPORT TO PERIL by Robert B. Parker

STOP THIS MAN! by Peter Rabe

LOSERS LIVE LONGER by Russell Atwood

HONEY IN HIS MOUTH by Lester Dent

THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES by Jonny Porkpie

THE VALLEY OF FEAR by A.C. Doyle

MEMORY by Donald E. Westlake

NOBODYS ANGEL by Jack Clark

MURDER IS MY BUSINESS by Brett Halliday

GETTING OFF by Lawrence Block

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK

(HCC-103)

First Hard Case Crime edition: October 2011

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street

London SE1 0UP

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should know that it is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

Copyright 2011 by Mickey Spillane Publishing LLC.

Cover painting copyright 2011 by Robert McGinnis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Print edition ISBN 978-0-85768-288-8

E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-598-8

Design direction by Max Phillips

www.maxphillips.net

Typeset by Swordsmith Productions

The name Hard Case Crime and the Hard Case Crime logo are trademarks of Winterfall LLC. Hard Case Crime books are selected and edited by Charles Ardai.

Printed in the United States of America

Visit us on the web at www.HardCaseCrime.com

For Lynn Myers

one of Mickeys

favorite customers

In 1967, with some fanfare, Mickey Spillanes The Delta Factorintroducing Morgan the Raider as a new series characterenjoyed considerable critical and commercial success. After a disappointing experience producing a Factor film, however, the frustrated Spillane set aside the already-announced second Morgan novel, The Consummata. Twenty years ago, he entrusted the incomplete manuscript to me, saying, Maybe someday we can do something with this.

Thanks to Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime, that day is here.

The story is set in the late 60s, when Mickey began it.