Kiss Her Goodbye
Mike Hammer, recuperating in Florida after a mob shoot-out that nearly claimed his life, learns that an old mentor on the New York police force has committed suicide. Hammer returns for the funeral—and because he knows Inspector Dooley would never kill himself. But Manhattan no longer feels like home. Hammer’s longtime partner, Velda, disappeared after he broke it off for her own safety, and his office is shut down. When a woman is murdered, Hammer is drawn into the hunt for a cache of Nazi diamonds that makes the Maltese Falcon seem like a knickknack and for the mysterious woman who was close to Dooley in his final days. Soon Hammer is hobnobbing with coke-snorting celebrities at the notorious disco, Club 52, and playing footsie with a sleek lady D.A. It all leads to a Mafia social club where Hammer and his .45 come calling.
