: Actually, wasn't that Hammer's girlfriend at the
conclusion
: of _I, The Jury_? Not that I don't like the idea of her
being a
: transvestite....this will add a whole new dimension to the
book.
I think there's a bit of a mix-up between _I, the Jury_ and
_Vengeance
is Mine_.
At the end of _I, the Jury_, Hammer is alone with Charlotte,
who takes
off her clothes. "The smell of her was like an exhilirating
perfume.
Slowly, a sigh escaped her, making the hemispheres of her
breasts
quiver. She leaned forward to kiss me, her arms going out to
encircle
my neck." But she's got a gun hidden in a plant pot, and
Hammer
shoots her.
"How c-could you?" she gasped.
I only had a moment before talking to a corpse, but I got it
in.
"It was easy," I said.
At the end of _Vengeance is Mine_, Hammer faces Juno,
polishes up some
plot lines and shoots her. "The rod was jumping in my hand,
spitting
nasty little slugs that flattened the killer against the wall
with
periods that turned into commas as the blood welled out of
the holes.
Juno lived until the last shot had ripped through flesh and
intestines
and kicked the plaster from the wall, then died with those
rich, red
lips split in a snarl of pain and fearful knowledge."
Paging
Dr. Freud!
The last two lines are:
Juno was a queen, all right, a real, live queen. You know the
kind.
*Juno was a man!*
A brief looks at some other titles shows that _The Big Kill_
ends with
Marsha getting shot (not by Hammer), _My Gun is Quick_ is a
change of
pace with a man getting it in the last couple of lines, and
_Kiss Me,
Deadly_ ends with him setting a woman on fire. I can't
remember which
is the one where the woman tries to shoot him with a shotgun
but he's
jammed the barrel so she blows her own head off.
I've always wondered what Spillane's wives thought when he
showed them
his new manuscripts.
Bill
--
William Denton | Toronto, Canada | http://www.vex.net/~buff/ | Caveat lector.
"Let's keep the party polite."
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