A Mickey Spillane companion /

Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Pittsburgh and editor of some dozen Greenwood companions, dictionaries, and encyclopedias-most of which treat mystery writers-Gale is well prepared to defend Spillane, one of the best-selling authors of all time, against any detractors. Acknowledging in his introduction that Spillane is held in low esteem by academics, he counters that Spillane has outsold Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald combined. He therefore aims his book at those whose "lust for gore" has kept Spillane such a popular author. This alphabetically arranged work has hundreds of entries that summarize the plots and describe the characters that appear in Spillane's 24 novels and 19 short stories. Some of the longer entries include bibliographies, which are for the most part references to articles on the mystery/crime genre. This unique and well-edited book deserves a place on the reference shelf of any library where Spillane's writings are either read or studied. [Spillane, who has been publishing since 1947, will release yet another thriller this December; see Prepub Alert, LJ 8/03.-Ed.]-Peter Dollard, Alma Coll. Lib., MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.