{"product_id":"the-big-kill-mickey-spillane-june-1953-reprint","title":"The Big Kill, Mickey Spillane — June 1953 Reprint","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublication:\u003c\/b\u003e London, Arthur Barker Limited, 1953\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormatting:\u003c\/b\u003e 8vo, pp. 192.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Report:\u003c\/b\u003e Very Good. The publisher's original blue cloth binding remains exceptionally bright and sharp, with unoxidised red lettering to the spine and virtually no shelf-wear to the extremities. The binding is tight, square, and structurally sound. Internally, the pages are largely clean, with some mild, customary age-toning and light foxing strictly confined to the text block edges and endpapers, typical of 1950s production standards. The original unclipped dust jacket presents well but exhibits some minor edge-wear, mild surface scuffing, and minor chipping to the spine ends and corners, alongside typical age-toning and spotting to the white rear panel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCatalogue Note:\u003c\/b\u003e This is an early UK reprint of Mickey Spillane's iconic thriller, originally published by E.P. Dutton in the US in 1951, and first issued in the UK by Arthur Barker in 1952. The copyright page identifies this as the June 1953 reprint, representing the third such reprinting following the initial UK publication.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume retains its original, vibrant pictorial dust jacket, bearing the 9s. 6d. net price to the front flap, celebrating the immense commercial success of the first American edition. Early UK hardback impressions of Spillane's Mike Hammer series retaining intact dust jackets are increasingly scarce on the open market, as the vast majority were read to pieces or heavily handled over the decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Big Kill\u003c\/i\u003e, Mickey Spillane brings back his quintessential, hard-hitting private investigator, Mike Hammer, plunging him into the gritty, violent underworld of the city. When a distraught man begs Hammer to protect his infant son just moments before being gunned down, Hammer is thrust into a chaotic web of blackmail, syndicate violence, and deadly femmes fatales. Driven by vengeance and his own uncompromising sense of justice, Hammer takes on the mob single-handedly to settle the score. Spillane’s rapid-fire, unapologetically tough prose cements Mike Hammer as a defining figure of post-war American hardboiled fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Broadhursts Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54566004228435,"sku":"5029","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/1469\/6787\/files\/20260809_192427.jpg?v=1786519181","url":"https:\/\/broadhurstsbooks.com\/products\/the-big-kill-mickey-spillane-june-1953-reprint","provider":"Broadhursts Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}