The Last Cop Out

OK, lets throw it straight out there - Mickey Spillane books quite often have covers which have little relevance to the story within. This is one of those. This edition was a 1974 one from Corgi. I have been looking around for a substitute for Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe series, which I am quickly running out of, and I picked up a bulk lot of Spillane's books - some Mike Hammer, and some others.
This one is stand alone, and features a hard-man cop called Gill Burke.

It is loaded with rival mob gangs, revenge killings, payoffs and double crosses. It is noir, but it is a different style to Chandler - less clever, and less delicate around the sex storylines.

An enjoyable read, with twists and turns, and plenty of opportunity to puzzle over what is going on before the threads come together near the end, and then there is more cleverness to reach a conclusion.

Three and a half stars, which I am struggling to figure out whether I should round up or down... perhaps for the cover, and the awkwardness of reading this at lunchtime in the park, I will round it down!