The toughest private eye in mystery fiction is back - it's the middle of the Swinging Sixties in midtown Manhattan Hammer, recuperating from a near fatal mix-up with the Mob, disturbs some drug dealers assaulting a young motorbike messenger who was transporting medicine for a hospital He saves the kid but the muggers are not so lucky The Mob and a new young breed of drug trafficker assume he will target them, and they target him right back, with a street-corner knife attack...