Quotes from book
Black Alley

Black Alley
Mickey Spillane

Black Alley is Mickey Spillane's 13th novel featuring tougher-than-thou New York City private investigator Mike Hammer, and the last one he completed before his death in July 2006. Following the author's demise, the first of "five substantial Mike Hammer manuscripts," The Goliath Bone, was completed by his friend and colleague Max Allan Collins and published in 2008. Additional books based on Spillane's unfinished manuscripts have since been released, including Lady, Go Die! , Complex 90 and King of the Weeds . King of the Weeds is a direct sequel to Black Alley.

Mickey Spillane photo

“The phone rang.
It was a thing that had been sitting here, black and quiet like a holstered gun, unlisted, unknown to anybody, used only for local outgoing calls, and when it was triggered it had the soft, muted sound of a silenced automatic. The first ring was a warning sound. The second time would be death calling.”

Mickey Spillane book Black Alley

Black Alley (1996)

Mickey Spillane photo

“The temperature was six below zero and it kept me dying on the spot because the blood coagulated and clotted in ugly smears of cloth and skin and the pain hadn't started yet, so when the little fat guy who saw my eyes open and still bright pulled me away from the carnage he was almost in the shock I was going into. Nobody would listen to him. He was a drunk. I was nearly dead.
Sometimes the body responds to a stimulus that can't be explained. He got me upright. I walked woodenly, dyingly. I was sat in an old car. The fat man rolled down the windows. The blood stayed frozen. My hands were numb and I couldn't feel my feet. Idly, I wondered what frostbite was like. Breathing was a thing that was happening, but at a pace that said it could slow, then stop at any time. A dull, squeezing sensation of pain was beginning to gnaw on my insides and I knew that eventually, and very soon, it would grow into a terrible, devastating animal with an awful hunger and I would be eaten alive by it.
I wanted to scream but nothing would come out.”

Mickey Spillane book Black Alley

Black Alley (1996)

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