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PASSION FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

FANS of Mickey Spillane, remembered for his rollicking ’40s and ’50s crime novels featuring gumshoe Mike Hammer, are in for a treat. On his deathbed last year, the hardboiled pulp writer managed to crank out one last book – a fist-flying tale set in modern-day Manhattan. “Dead Street,” out next month from Hard Case Crime, focuses on tough ex-NYPD cop Jack Strang, who battles to save the woman – and the city – he loves from terrorist thugs. The tale makes reference to 9/11 and the Iraq war. “Part of the fun is seeing Spillane, who is ‘Mr. Trench Coat and Fedora,’ working in today’s New York,” said publisher Charles Ardai. Still, there’s still plenty of un-PC dialogue for purists of Spillane, whose novels include “Kiss Me Deadly” and “I, the Jury.” Strang refers to women as “dolls” and gushes in one love scene: “Every peak and valley of her long-legged body was exactly as my dreams had replayed them over too many years . . . I started out gentle but she urged me on. I let all of the pent-up passion out and into her.” Whew!