Seven years of hitting the hard stuff have taken it out of PI Mike Hammer. That's how long it's been since he gave his beloved secretary the job from which she never returned.

Now he's back with a vengeance. Velda is alive, if only he can reach her in time. But New York's toughest investigator still has friends in the right places. And his long-neglected .45 is definitely one of those.

Piecing together the puzzling deaths of a senator, a newsagent and an FBI man, Hammer finds the missing link in a murderous network of international spies. One that turns out to be Spillane's kind of beauty - and who knows a good deal more than she should.