The Consummata
Mickey Spillane & Max Allen Collins

Hard Case Crime
October 4, 2011 / ISBN: 987-0857682888
Mystery
Amazon

Reviewed by Dennis Collins

Morgan the Raider is a former government agent suspected of stealing $40 million. He is doing his best to avoid being arrested when he literally falls into the hands of exiled Cuban freedom fighters living in Miami. In return for rescuing him from the CIA pursuers, he is asked to try to recover some money that was stolen from guerillas. A once trusted collaborator is the prime suspect, and Morgan soon picks up his trail.
The perpetrator is very elusive, but Morgan uncovers evidence that the man has a compelling masochistic fetish and it's rumored that a legendary dominatrix is headed for Miami. The trap is soon set.

This novel was begun by Mickey Spillane in 1967 and was intended to be a sequel to The Delta Factor. Work was abruptly halted when a disagreement between Spillane and a Hollywood studio put an end to the Morgan series. It remained in limbo until sometime in the 1990s when he gave the uncompleted manuscript to his friend Max Allan Collins saying that he could try to make something out of it if he wished.

Max finished the book all right, but it's pure Spillane from beginning to end. It has Spillane's cadence, attitude, and raw edge. The reading experience is truly a step back into a very familiar time. It's impossible to tell where one author stopped and the other began.

I loved this book if, for no other reason than it is absolutely classic Spillane.