And then Jack learns something new. Twenty years ago, Bettie, Jack’s fiancée at the time, was kidnapped by the mob and supposedly died in a crash when the kidnapper’s vehicle went over the side of a bridge, plummeting into a river. Bettie actually survived the accident and was rescued from the water by a veterinarian whose office happened to border the river. Bettie had lost her vision and her memory but she was alive. The veterinarian had seen the story on the news and decided that it would be safer for Bettie if the mob believed that she had died so he secretly nursed her back to health. Gangsters are a suspicious lot though, and until a body could be produced they considered Bettie to be alive and still a threat to their organization. The mob never gave up the hunt for her.

Now, two decades later, with the old neighborhood dying behind him, Jack Stang sets off for Florida to be reunited with a lover who he knows will no longer be able to see or even remember him.

The only problem is that the mob has been keeping an eye on Stang’s movements hoping that he would eventually lead them to Bettie... and he’s headed directly to her doorstep.

Mickey Spillane had not quite finished writing Dead Street when he died, but he had left copious notes for Max Allen Collins, Mickey’s buddy and protegé, so that the work could be completed seamlessly.

I’m not sure whether it’s the staccato tempo of the dialog or the short chapters that give Spillane’s stories their signature sense of urgency but I experienced a certain sadness in knowing that this was the last Mickey Spillane novel I would review. Spillane was a master to the end. Dead Street is a must read for all mystery fans.