The Erection Set is Mickey Spillane's longest and in many ways, most complicated novel. In the first place substantial portions of it take place outside New York City in the aging New England industrial town of Linton where the central character's maternal grandfather, Cameron Barrin, founded his company. Dogeron (Dog) Kelly was conceived out of wedlock to the daughter of the old buccaneer, and, although his parents did formalize their relationship before he was born, Dog remains the wayward offspring.

Much of The Erection Set deals with economic classes and the tensions between those who have and those who do not have money. The theme of wealth appears in most of Spillane's fiction, and his central characters reject both the cash and those who have it. In this novel, though, the question of class and family takes on a central position, because, unlike Mike Hammer or...