Mike Hammer: Masquerade for Murder

Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author of Road to Perdition breathes new life into Mickey Spillane’s iconic character, Mike Hammer—the hard-boiled PI who paved the way for James Bond and 24’s Jack Bauer. A martial arts killer terrorizes Wall Street—and only tough-guy, rough-around-the-edges Mike Hammer can bring him to justice. After Mike Hammer witnesses Wall Street superstar Vincent Colby getting clipped by a speeding red Ferrari, the shaken victim’s stockbroker father hires Hammer to find the driver. But the toughest private eye of them all soon is caught up in a series of bizarre, seemingly unconnected slayings marked by a forbidden martial arts technique. What do a lovely redhead, a short-tempered bartender, an exotic call girl, a murdered police inspector and a movie stuntman have to do with a scheme that might have transformed young Colby into a psychological time bomb?