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A review by signalstation
The Consummata by Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins
1.0
I don't usually rate books with one star because I don't want to be thought of as saying a book isn't good... but the Goodreads scale is a personal one, with one star indicating that I don't like a book myself. And I don't care for Mickey Spillane.
His stories typified standard pulp: unstoppable masculine protagonists that all the ladies love. Fights where any guns present are kicked out of hands or dropped, and someone usually dies in a clinch (a knife slips, a gun misfires). Ladies exist to provide set up lines for the hero to respond to in a way that's usually just intended to convince us that he's cool, calm and capable. There's nothing wrong with it, and if it's your first introduction to that style of pulp noir fiction, great. I'm just kinda tired of it.
The BDSM elements and anti-Castro historical setting are the only decorative elements that are (kinda) unique to the narrative but it wasn't enough to get me interested in Spillane's antihero and whether or not he'd be able to recover some funds for anti-Castro rebels, fend off assassins and consummate his marriage with his wife in the CIA.
Max Allan Collins, whose work I enjoy, finished up this unfinished Spillane book and I hope it paid some bills for him. Every once in a while I thought I could pick up hints of his style, but it just left me wanting to read one of his Quarry books instead. That's just me.
His stories typified standard pulp: unstoppable masculine protagonists that all the ladies love. Fights where any guns present are kicked out of hands or dropped, and someone usually dies in a clinch (a knife slips, a gun misfires). Ladies exist to provide set up lines for the hero to respond to in a way that's usually just intended to convince us that he's cool, calm and capable. There's nothing wrong with it, and if it's your first introduction to that style of pulp noir fiction, great. I'm just kinda tired of it.
The BDSM elements and anti-Castro historical setting are the only decorative elements that are (kinda) unique to the narrative but it wasn't enough to get me interested in Spillane's antihero and whether or not he'd be able to recover some funds for anti-Castro rebels, fend off assassins and consummate his marriage with his wife in the CIA.
Max Allan Collins, whose work I enjoy, finished up this unfinished Spillane book and I hope it paid some bills for him. Every once in a while I thought I could pick up hints of his style, but it just left me wanting to read one of his Quarry books instead. That's just me.