Murder Never Knocks

A Tip of the Porkpie

Because my approach to completing Mickey Spillane’s unfinished novels is to set them in the period during which he began them, I find myself working from materials that were contemporary to my famous co-author but which require me to forge a novel that is a period piece bordering on an historical novel.

In that spirit, I wish to acknowledge Peppermint Twist (2012) by John Johnson, Jr. and Joel Selvin with Dick Cami, for information about the legendary Peppermint Lounge. Although the Genovese crime family’s involvement in the club is well-known, the treatment of the mob’s role here is fictional.

I also wish to thank and acknowledge my wife Barb Collins, with whom I write a very un-Spillane-like mystery series about antiquing, who gave me two extremely important suggestions that improved this book a great deal. Thanks also to my partner Jane Spillane, Titan editor Miranda Jewess, my lost brother Nick Landau, and my friend and agent, Dominick Abel.