Return of the Hood

Two separate novella in this publication from Mickey Spillane.

Return of the Hood is a story featuring Irish Ryan, a self styled hood who ends up assisting the law when he all at once ends up hunted by all parties (police, feds, and hoods alike). Of course there is a girl who ends up at the centre of things, who Ryan has to rescue. This is the follow up from Ryan's first adventure in the novella Me, Hood!. Solid, but with the usual level of far-fetched survival against the odds we come to anticipate with Mickey Spillane (not that I dislike it). 3/5

The Bastard Bannerman is a short story featuring Cat Cay Bannerman, the titular bastard (literally) who returns to his home town to pay a surprise visit to his cousin Anita (remembering he is a bastard, but still a cousin!) Visiting her means visiting his uncle and two cousins, now grown from the teenagers they were when they tormenting him as a youngster. We get the bones of the backstory (bastard not treated well by well-to-do family once his father passes away; leaves town to make his own way in the world; returns with the skills of a hood!). The family are being blackmailed by a mob of gangsters, and Cat is torn between tormenting them and helping them.
It was pretty easy to see how this was going to roll out, but there were enough little details to fold into the story to keep the reader interested. I am pretty convinced that there is an incorrect name in the text at the very conclusion, where Cat refers to Carl, where I think it should be Carlson, but it was fine after I re-read it twice! Enjoyable at a solid 3/5, which is my typical rating for most of Spillane's books.

Overall 3 stars.