Private eye Mike Hammer is recuperating in Florida after a mob shootout when he learns that his old mentor from the New York police force has taken his own life. All the evidence points to suicide, but Hammer knows that Inspector Doolan would never have killed himself - and that it's finally time for him to return to his once beloved New York.

When a woman is murdered just a few blocks from Doolan's funeral, Hammer is soon drawn into the hunt for a hoard of Nazi diamonds, and for a mystery woman who had been close to Doolan in his final days. Before long, the investigation leads him to a Mafia social club, and to a classic Spillane showdown.

A week before his death, Mickey Spillane entrusted all of his unfinished works to his frequent collaborator, Max Allan Collins. Kiss Her Goodbye is based on two of Spillane's unfinished novels.