Dectective Mike Hammer is determined to catch and kill the person who shot his close friend dead, so he follows clues that lead to a beautiful, seductive woman.

It's nearly Christmas, but Mike Hammer is on the vengeance trail when Jack, his wartime buddy, is murdered. Hotheaded Hammer sets out to find the killer, working his way through an increasingly-large pile of suspects--and corpses. Along the way, he meets a new love interest, psychologist Charlotte Manning; a treacherous Santa; a gangster named Kalecki; and two weird sisters, the Bellamy twins.—Mike Rogers <[email protected]>

As Christmas approaches in New York City, hard-boiled ex-cop turned private investigator Mike Hammer, with help from his assistant Velda, has inserted himself into the murder investigation of insurance investigator Jack Williams, a friend from when they served in the war together. Lead police investigator, Captain Pat Chambers, not only knows that he wouldn't be able to stop Mike in being Jack's friend, but provides some assistance for Mike in having a crime-beat reporter print a front-page story insinuating that Mike has clues to the identity of the killer (which he doesn't) and in providing Mike with the guest list of a recent party held at Jack's, the lead suspects from among that list. One person among the guests not a suspect in Mike's mind is Jack's fiancée Myrna Devlin, a singer and ex-junkie/ex-con whom he fears could turn to old habits to cope with Jack's death. In sussing out the party guests, Mike further learns that most were expecting a visit from him. At the top of Mike's suspect list is boxing manager and art collector George Kalecki, a man with a past who on the surface had no real reason to be invited to the party. In the process of his investigation, Mike starts to fall for one of the party guests, psychoanalyst Charlotte Manning, who had and has been treating Myrna. Mike realizes that he must be getting close in not only finding a path of further murders behind him, but that he is a target himself.—Huggo