[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
...completely amoral lead hero... This guy just stinks and gives you a greasy, queasy feeling. The same unusual lack of morality...

[/ QUOTE ]

This is an interesting take. I don't recall whether I've seen the movie or not, but in reading the books I never found Mike Hammer to be amoral, or particularly immoral either. I got a sense of a definite moral code, albeit different than you or I may have in a lot of ways.