Mike Hammer steals a ride on a train upstate to Killington. But he is welcomed by a nasty surprise: he is accused by police of raping and murdering a young woman near the freight yards. Roughed up by the cops and facing a murder charge, Hammer's future looks bleak. Only a beautiful blonde, Melba Charles--daughter of powerful Senator Charles--might possibly save him... if he pays the price.

But why would Melba help save a man she has never met? And, more to the point, where is the real murderer?

From a brittle, brown manuscript, the first Mike Hammer novel--begun by Mickey Spillane in the mid-forties and completed seventy years later by Max Allan Collins--is a gift to mystery fans on the occasion of the noir master's 100th birthday.