JULY 2012 - AudioFile
Retired Manhattan cop Jack “The Shooter” Stang gets a tip that his former girlfriend—given up for dead 20 years earlier—is alive. But she’s blind and has lost her memory. Stang slowly discovers that her lost memory holds the key to a past crime—a secret that could get her killed should she be discovered. DEAD STREET is Spillane’s last cop novel, posthumously completed by Max Allan Collins. It’s a prime example of Spillane’s loner cop stories, with his trademark depictions of gun violence. Listeners are thrillingly immersed as Ferrone’s voice glides smoothly through the story. F.T. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
One of a handful of novels he was working on at the time of his death, this fine, perhaps final, work from hard-boiled fiction icon Spillane (1918-2006) was prepared for publication by Hard Case vet Max Allan Collins. In it, NYPD detective Jack Stang receives word that his old fiancée, Bettie, who supposedly died in a kidnapping-gone-wrong 20 years earlier, is still alive and residing in a small Florida coastal community. The good news is countered by the fact that, in the car crash that was supposed to have killed her, she lost her eyesight and all her memories. Even worse, the men who had her kidnapped in the first place have perfectly good memories and are still looking for her-and willing to kill for the information locked in her damaged brain. This is a more sentimental Spillane than readers might expect, but the women are still "dolls," the bad guys are still louses, and the hero still packs a helluva punch (along with his trusty .45, natch). Spillane always said he wrote for his fans, not for the critics, but both should be pleased with this late addition to the writer's canon. (Nov.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Library Journal
Nothing boosts some writers' productivity so much as their deaths. Best-selling author (I, the Jury; Kiss Me Deadly) and star of a famous series of Miller Lite commercials, Spillane died in July 2006, but no fewer than four new books he was working on at that time are scheduled to appear. This paperback standalone crime novel with a suitably lurid cover deals with Jack Stang, a retired New York detective, who discovers that Bettie, his beloved fiancée of 20 years ago, didn't really die then but had lost her memory, gone blind, and is currently living in a Florida retirement community. Trying to help the still-ravishing Bettie regain her memory leads Stang into unraveling a skein of dirty tricks long thought dead and buried that involves everything from nuclear fission to computer conglomerates and terrorists. Reading this is a bit like attending a meeting of the Policemen's Benevolent Association-full of piss and vinegar, but those old guys (even with one foot, or possibly both, in the grave) can still tell a good story. The many Spillane fans out there have a lot to look forward to. For all larger public libraries.
—Bob Lunn
