[1] Before beginning his writing career, he worked as a draftsman, drummer, and bank messenger, and was stationed in Europe during the Second World War, where he served in a field artillery unit and anti-aircraft battalion.
Wells himself freely acknowledged Spillane's influence, writing in The Last Kill that "it was Mickey himself who showed me how to pack guts, gore and hot, suspenseful action into a mystery yarn.
"[9] An Oakland Tribune reviewer described the book as "crime, love and dope in a chili-hot potpourri in New Orleans' picturesque and wicked Latin Quarter.
"[12] The original cover illustrations of Wells' novels, both done by artist Robert Maguire, have been called some of "the most evocative and memorable of the period" by Lee Server, author of the Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers.
"[14] Even Wells' publisher had mixed feelings about his literary quality, if not his marketability: New American Library owner Victor Weybright overturned the original rejection of the novel, but in the same letter authorizing its publication, he called the book "God-awful trash, without Spillane's vibration and without plausible motivation, but abounding in retribution, lust, violence, booze, in the lower depths of New York and environs.