I, the Jury

Viewed from a modern point of view, Mike Hammer's character is far from politically correct. He has not forgiven the Japanese for attacking Pearl Harbor and maiming his friend. In his favourite haunt, hard-drinking Hammer asks the waiter to bring him "a rye and soda every fifteen minutes". And finally, his relationship with women is highly ambiguous. He feels that "there's lots of dames I could park with if I felt like it". The games Hammer plays with Velda, his secretary, a licensed private investigator in her own right, are bound to be criticised: he never makes a pass at her, but he knows that she is in love with him and would marry him at once.