It's in the Book
By Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
For years, cops have whispered legends that Don Nicholas Giraldi, the gentleman godfather, kept a ledger going back decades, keeping track of every police officer, mogul, and politician who took even a cent of his dirty money. Finding the register would put mayors, senators, and even a president or two on the hook for prosecution—or blackmail. When old Nic finally kicks the bucket, one such official comes to Mike Hammer and begs him to find the book before it falls into the wrong hands.
Mike has never believed the stories of the old don’s journal, but for $10,000, he is happy to play along. Every hood in town wants to get his hands on the book, and finding it will mean pushing to the very heart of Nic’s family. No matter how many years may have passed, Mike Hammer can still push harder.
The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.
Mickey Spillane
Mickey Spillane published his first novel, I, the Jury, in 1947. Since then his books have sold more than 140 million copies, and his private eye character Mike Hammer has become a household name. A Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, Spillane lived, fished, and found that writing just kept coming back to find him in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Mickey Spillane died July 17, 2006.
Read more from Mickey Spillane
A Long Time Dead: A Mike Hammer Casebook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Something's Down There: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941 - 1942 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Killer Mine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to It's in the Book
Titles in the series (45)
The Hemingway Valise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pretty Little Box Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book Thing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Acceptable Sacrifice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remaindered Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pronghorns of the Third Reich Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rides a Stranger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Virtue Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Scroll Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Seven Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Honest Horse Thief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Final Testament Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Book of Ghosts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Book Club Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Gospel of Sheba Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death Leaves a Bookmark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Sonata of the Dead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Seven Years Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mystery, Inc. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What's in a Name? Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's in the Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Compendium of Srem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From the Queen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of the Lion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sequel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Condor in the Stacks Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Haze Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Reconciliation Day Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dead Dames Don't Sing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nature of My Inheritance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related ebooks
Promised Land Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Long Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Goodbye: Jimmy "Soldier" Riley Noir Mysteries, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpenser: A Mysterious Profile Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Book Club Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dames Don't Care Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadow of the Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Private Practice of Michael Shayne Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trouble is My Business Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Bullet for Cinderella (Thriller) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Suspicion of Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Owls Don't Blink Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Archy McNally Series Volume One: McNally's Secret, McNally's Luck, and McNally's Risk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Motor City Blue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ask the Parrot: A Parker Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Woke to Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mum's the Word for Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Buffalo Job Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rides a Stranger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5McNally's Folly Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Marked for Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fala Factor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When the Sacred Ginmill Closes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burglars Can't Be Choosers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crime of Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5McNally's Luck Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blunt Darts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And One to Die On Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Ticket to the Boneyard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grinder: A Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Mystery For You
The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5False Witness: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Flight: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life We Bury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summit Lake Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunting Party: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kept Woman: A Will Trent Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5None of This Is True: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Club: A Reese's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Murdery Mystery Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finlay Donovan Is Killing It: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hidden Staircase: Nancy Drew #2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pieces of Her: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pharmacist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"A" is for Alibi: A Kinsey Millhone Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Did I Kill You?: A Thriller Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The ABC Murders: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Word Is Murder: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Lies in a Small Town: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sydney Rye Mysteries Box Set Books 10-12: Sydney Rye Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman in the Library: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The People Next Door Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for It's in the Book
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mike Hammer finds himself being approached by multiple representatives about an infamous ledger. The recent death of Mafia Don Giraldi, who Hammer did jobs for now and then, has left everyone scrambling to find the legendary ledger that the old man had filled with every murder, pay-out and exploit. Hammer isn't convinced the book really exists, but he doesn't mind telling everyone he'll look for it in exchange for cash.This is part of The Mysterious Bookshop series. At just 65 pages, it's a novella or long short story. The manuscript was begun by Spillane, then finished by Collins, who explains that it seems that Spillane was working on it in the 80's, so that's when Collins set it. It's a tidy little story, one that seems pretty tame aside from some language, and then a sudden burst of gunfire and case closed.
Book preview
It's in the Book - Mickey Spillane
Co-author’s note: It’s unclear when Mickey began this story, which I have developed from an unfinished typescript, but internal evidence suggests the 1980s, so I have made that the time period of the tale. M.A.C.
COPS ALWAYS COME IN TWOS. One will knock on the door, but a pair will come in, a duet on hand in case you get rowdy. One uniform drives the squad car, the other answers the radio. One plain-clothes dick asks the questions, the other takes the notes. Sometimes I think the only time they go solo is to the dentist. Or to bed. Or to kill themselves.
I went out into the outer office where a client had been waiting for ten minutes for me to wrap up a phone call. I nodded to him, but the six-footer was already on his feet, brown shoes, brown suit, brown eyes, brown hair. It was a relief his name wasn’t Brown.
I said, I can see you now, Mr. Hanson.
At her reception desk to one side of my inner-office door, Velda—a raven-haired vision in a white blouse and black skirt—was giving me a faintly amused look that said she had made him, too.
Mr. Hanson nodded back. There was no nervous smile, no anxiety in his manner at all. Generally, anybody needing a private investigator is not at ease. When I walked toward him, he extended a hand for me to shake, but I moved right past, going to the door and pulling it open.
His partner was standing with his back to the wall, like a sentry, hands clasped behind his back. He was a little smaller than Hanson, wearing a different shade of brown, going wild with a tie of yellow and white stripes. Of course, he was younger, maybe thirty, where his partner was pushing forty.
Why don’t you come in and join your buddy,
I said, and made an after-you gesture.
This one didn’t smile either. He simply gave me a long look and, without nodding or saying a word, stepped inside and stood beside Hanson, like they were sharing the wrong end of a firing squad.
Something was tickling one corner of Velda’s pretty mouth as I closed the door and marched the cops into my private office.
I got behind my desk and waved at the client’s chairs, inviting them to sit down. But cops don’t like invitations and they stayed on their feet.
Rocking back, I said, You fellas aren’t flashing any warrants, meaning this isn’t a search party or an arrest. So have a seat.
Reluctantly, they did.
Hanson’s partner, who looked like his feelings had been hurt, said, How’d you make us?
I don’t know how to give enigmatic looks, so I said, Come off it.
We could be businessmen.
Businessmen don’t wear guns on their hips, or if they do, they could afford a suit tailored for it. You’re too clean-cut to be hoods, but not enough to be feds. You’re either NYPD or visiting badges from Jersey.
This time they looked at each other and Hanson shrugged. Why fight it? They were cops with a job to do; this was nothing personal. He casually reached in a side suit coat pocket and flicked a folded hundred-dollar bill onto the desk as if leaving a generous tip.
Okay,
I said. You have my attention.
We want to hire you.
The way he hated saying it made it tough for me to keep a straight face. Who is we?
You said it before,
Hanson said. NYPD.
He almost choked, getting that out.