The Books
All books were published by Avon Books:
1. Undeclared War, 392 pages, 2004
2. Hostile Borders, 362 pages, 2005
3. Weapons Grade, 373 pages, 2006
The Hunter (John Yard )
Five books by Ralph Hayes
John Yard is a Vietnam veteran who was able to set himself up as a big-game hunter in Africa, thanks to an inheritance from a rich uncle. He and his friend Moses Ngala, a private investigator, become hunters of men when Maurice Lavelle, owner of Maurice Pharmaceuticals, sells drugs to a friend of Yard's that cause chromosome damage to infants.
After that hunt, Yard and Ngala decide to hunt down men, predators who operate outside the law and cannot be handled by the system, including a former Nazi turned mercenary and a scientist using homeless subjects to test a new supervirus designed for biological warfare. In A Taste for Blood, Yard and Ngala are stranded in an African swamp after a plane crash and one of their fellow passengers is a communist assassin wiping out the party one by one. While Yard uncovered the first of their targets, Maurice Lavelle, it is Ngala who uncovers most of their target through his investigations. The pair rationalizes their hunts as a similar service to killing rogue elephants or man-eating lions.
Behind the Scenes
Ralph Hayes was born in 1927 and served in the Air Force 1945-47. After leaving the Air Force, he studied and became a lawyer, specializing in insurance. In 1969, Hayes became a freelance writer, writing a number of travel guides and individual novels as well as the Buffalo Hunter western series and Stoner, Agent for COMISEC and Checkforce series. Under the Nick Carter house name, he wrote eight Killmaster books. Hayes travelled extensively and utilized that experience for his travel guides and the settings for his books (Contemporary Authors Online, 2002).
The Books
All books were published by Leisure Books:
1. Scavenger Hunt, 183 pages, 1975
2. Night of the Jackal 179 pages, 1975
3. A Taste for Blood, 186 pages, 1975
4. Track of the Beast, 1975
5. Deadly Prey, 174 pages, 1975
Iceman (Henry Highland West)
Seven books by Joseph Nazel
Henry Highland West grew up in Harlem and through a combination of brains and brawn was able to get out of the ghetto and become a very wealthy man. In the Nevada Desert, West runs the Oasis, a casino resort for the very wealthy. West keeps informed about his guests and their habits with a supercomputer. The man only known as XXL Christmas Tree is the Oasis' head of security and Tree is assisted by West's security force/harem of kung fu explosives experts. These women serve as both West's bodyguards and his lovers. West has the money for the finest equipment so we see him riding in caddys, helicopters, dune buggies and a private jet.
While West is now a successful man, he has not forgotten where he came from and he is always ready to help an old friend. This ranges from stopping the government from selling bad gas in his old neighborhood to travelling to Africa to fight a slavery ring and helping a beautiful singer when she discovers that her record company is controlled by the Syndicate. West's extensive business holdings also offer opportunity as the Mafia attempt to takeover the Oasis and crooked bookies try to ruin West's NFL Gridiron team.
Behind the Scenes
Joseph Nazel is an African-American writer, who served in Vietnam with the Air Force and studied to be a priest. The latter training was put to use in Black Exorcist, which is a blaxploitation novel about demon possession. Nazel's output of sixty novels ranged from horror to soft-core porn to biographies of Thurgood Marshall and Ida B. Wells. Later in his career, he served as an editor for Players Magazine, an African American version of Playboy.
He died at age sixty-two of a brain cancer.
The Books
All books were published by Holloway House Publishing:
1. Billion Dollar Death, 192 pages, 1973
2. Golden Shaft, 217 pages, 1973
3. Slick Revenge, 218 pages, 1973
4. Sunday Fix, 221 pages, 1974
5. Spinning Target, 224 pages, 1974
6. Canadian Kill, 224 pages, 1974
7. Shakedown, 221 pages, 1975
The Inquisitor (Francis Xavier Killey)
Six books by Simon Quinn
The Catholic Church has a secret order known as Militia Christi. The order conducts inquisitions and intelligence work for the church investigating terrorist threats, satanic cults and other threats to world security. The top operative for Militia Christi is Francis Xavier Killey, a Vietnam veteran and former CIA agent. Killey travels the globe fighting the threats that the Militia Christi assigns him, but Killey is equally likely to encounter threats from his earlier careers and to operate on his own, hunting down rogue soldiers and hunting for Soviet gold. At the end of each exploit Killey must attend confession and recount his adventures and for each life Killey takes he must do ten-day penance in the catacombs with only bread and water.
Behind the Scenes
Simon Quinn is a pen name used by Martin Cruz Smith. Born Martin William Smith in 1942, he legally changed his name to Martin Cruz Smith when he discovered that another Martin Smith was already publishing books. Smith is the author of Nightwing (1977) and Gorky Park (1981). Prior to the publication of those works, Smith published a number of books under pseudonyms, including the Inquisitor series and contributed to the Killmaster series as Nick Carter and the Slocum western series as Jake Logan.
The Books
All books were published by Dell:
1. His Eminence, Death, 160 pages, 1974
2. Nuplex Red, 192 pages, 1974
3. Devil in Kansas, 192 pages, 1974
4. Last Time I Saw Hell, 192 pages, 1974
5. Midas Coffin, 188 pages, 1975
6. Last Rites for the Vulture, 191 pages, 1975
Intersect Files
Two books by John Cannon
International Security Systems, Inc., better known as INTERSECT, was founded in the 1960s by Ronald Vicker, a former World War II Army Ranger and OSS operative with the single goal of the frustration and eradication of terrorism. The men and women of INTERSECT will go anywhere, do anything, at anytime to that end, for a price. As a private organization, INTERSECT is not bound by the same rules and regulations that often frustrate conventional anti-terrorist groups.
Vicker's most potent weapon in the war on terrorism is his elite team consisting of:
• Thomas Drake: former member of Britain's Special Air Service
• Brad Hunter: ex-United States Army Ranger and Black Beret
• Aaron Gold: retired member of Israel' Saiyet Commando Force
• Hans Schroeder: former member of West Germany's GSG 9
• Carlo Galante: trained by Italy's Squadra Anti-commando
• Paul Bouchard: veteran of France's elite Gigene.
These six men, drawn from six of the best anti-terrorist groups in the world, are the team sent in for the most dangerous missions, such as tackling a terrorist alliance striking all over the world or the liberation of a hijacked ocean liner.
Behind the Scenes
John Cannon is the pseudonym used by Mike Newton for this series. Newton trained with Don Pendleton co-writing several Executioners with Pendleton for Pinnacle Books and writing numerous books for that series for Gold Eagle, making him the most prolific writer of Executioner novels. Newton has also written several western series under the pen name Lyle Brandt as well as four entries in the Destroyer series. Newton is also the author or several nonfiction works, including How to Write Action-Adventure Fiction, and several reference works on serial killers and cryptozoology.
The Books
Both books were published by Carousel Adventure Books:
1. Web of Terror, 160 pages, 1980
2. Death Cruise, 160 pages, 1980
Invasion USA (Tom Brannon)
Two books by William Johnstone
Tom Brannon had served his country in Vi
etnam and returned to his hometown Little Tucson, Arizona, and raised his family and opened a small auto parts store. Then the Mexican gang Mara Salvatruca, more commonly known as M-15, decided that Little Tucson would be an ideal location to cross the border and ferry their contraband. Tom couldn't stand by and do nothing so he formed the Patriot Project to stop this corruption of his town after several murders. The Patriot Project patrolled the border with no support from any government department, especially the Border Patrol. This led to a final devastating battle for the town of Little Tucson. After the defeat of M-15, Tom returned to his regular life.
Months after the battle for Little Tucson, Tom's niece Laura from Laredo, Texas, is on a field trip when her class is kidnapped by Los Lobos de la Noche, the Night Wolves, to sell as sexual slaves. But this was merely a diversion by Night Wolves leader Col. Guerrero to cover the kidnapping of his daughter, Angelina. When the American authorities discover that the girls have been taken into Mexico, they abandon them in the interest of good international relations and so Tom forms a small team of the combat veteran parents of the students to rescue the girls. These veterans of the Gulf and Iraq wars are joined by various law enforcement officer and mercenaries.
Behind the Scenes
The series was created by William W. Johnstone, author of numerous horror, adventure and western novels. Johnstone was discharged from the French Foreign Legion for being underage, then worked in a carnival, became a deputy sheriff and did a stint in the Army. He started writing in 1970 but did not make his first sale until 1979 with The Devil's Kiss. Johnstone died in 2004 in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The Books
Both books were published by Kensington Pinnacle Books:
1. Invasion USA (with Fred Austin), 302 pages, 2006
2. Invasion USA: Border War (with J. A. Johnstone), 319 pages, 2006
Jason Striker: Master of Martial Arts
Five books by Piers Anthony and Roberto Fuentes
Jason Striker is a martial arts master who operates his own dojo. Striker leads a quiet life, training his students and preparing them for tournaments, until the day that he is challenged to a match by a renegade Judoka, wanted for murder. The match ends with a draw and Striker is drawn into the seamy side of the martial arts. Striker investigates the murders that Judoka is accused of and discovers that a rival instructor is killing the competition with a death touch.
The murders are being committed so that the killer can win the tournament organized by a Nicaraguan millionaire to find the best martial artist in the world. Striker's star pupil is to attend this tournament but when he is injured in training, Striker takes his place and wins the contest. In winning, Striker discovers that the killer is ninja master Fu Antos and is struck by a death touch. Striker then travels to the island of Hokkaido to find a Ki master who may be able to save him. Attacked by waves of ninja, Striker is able to find the master and be saved. Striker then begins a quest to find and destroy Fu Antos. He travels the world hunting Antos and his minions and fighting to earn money.
Behind the Scenes
Piers Anthony was born in England in 1934 and his family moved to America in 1940, where he became an American citizen. Being British made Anthony something of an outsider, bullied and picked on by bigger children. Anthony's escape was in books and reading, a love that his parents had instilled in him from young age.
After a two-year stint in the Army (1957-59), Anthony went to college, decided to become a writer and started writing and selling short stories. Working primarily in science fiction and fantasy, Anthony is the author several series such as Bio of a Space Tyrant, Xanth, Geodyssey, Cython, Mode and Apprentice Adept.
Roberto Fuentes is a judo instructor and has collaborated with Piers Anthony on several books, including Dead Morn and the Jason Striker series.
The Books
All books were published by Berkley Books:
1. Kia!, 191 pages, 1974
2. Mistress of Death, 192 pages, 1974
3. Bamboo Bloodbath, 188 pages, 1974
4. Ninja's Revenge, 188 pages, 1975
5. Amazon Slaughter, 204 pages, 1976
Killmaster (Nick Carter)
261 books by Nick Carter (Pseudonym)
There have been three incarnations of Nick Carter over the years (for an examination of the earlier two, see Jess Nevin's site http://www.geocities.com/jessnevins/carter. html). The third incarnation is the super spy Nick Carter, the Killmaster. Nicholas J. Huntington Carter served as a soldier in World War II before joining the OSS and then moving to AXE, the super-secret agency that reports only to the National Security Council, Secretary of Defense and the President. Nick Carter gets his missions from David Hawk. Carter is codenamed the Killmaster and is classified N3, AXE's equivalent to James Bond's license to kill, and Carter used that license quite frequently in his missions.
Carter undertakes everything: engaging in counter-espionage, helping defectors to the West, foiling Neo-Nazi plots, foiling Communist agents, killing traitors and stopping assassins. The Killmaster also exterminates religious cults, the Mafia and other threats to America. Carter is as attractive to the ladies as he is deadly and falls into bed with his female companions on his missions. Carter is the master of several martial arts and smokes custom-made cigarettes with his initials embossed on the tube and we discover that his parents were killed by a bomb.
Behind the Scenes
This reinvention of Nick Carter was the brain child of Lyle Kenyon Engel. Engel was behind the creation of a number of series, including The Baroness, Blade, The Butcher, as well as packaging a number of historical family sagas such as those of Pearl S. Buck and John Jakes. Engel also wrote a number of nonfiction works many of which were about cars and car racing.
Engel founded the fiction factory Book Creations, Inc. (BCI), in 1973. This company conceived books and series, then hired writers to write the books and then sold the publication rights to paperback publishers. Engel passed away in 1986. Control of BCI went to Engel's brother George who ran the company until 1991, when it ceased business.
Prominent authors include:
• Valerie Moolman, the first female writer of serial vigilantes, working with Michael Avallone on the first book in this series and contributing to another ten books. Moolmans other writings have been nonfiction and have included self-help books on sleeping, buying and selling cars and preventing burglary. She is also the author of a Time-Life series, the Epic of Flight.
• Michael Avallone, most famous as author of the private eye Ed Noon as well as writing tie-in novels for the Man from U.N.C.L.E., I — Spy and the Partridge Family television series. Avallone also wrote several books in the Butcher series under the name Stuart Jason.
• Joseph Rosenberger, who became a professional writer at the age of twenty-one after selling an article. After working a series of jobs including Korean karate instructor, circus pitchman and private eye, he became a full-time writer in 1961. Rosenberger was the author of the Death Merchant, the Murder Master, the Shadow Warrior and C.O.B.R.A. series and, under the pseudonym Lee Chang, created and wrote the first martial arts series Kung Fu (Mace).
• Chet Cunningham, who lives in San Diego. Cunningham has also written numerous western novels both under his own name and under pseudonyms. A veteran of the Korean War, Cunningham has also written several volumes of military history. Cunningham is also the author of the Avenger and the Specialists series; under the pen name of Lionel Derrick, he wrote The Penetrator. He has also written several Executioner and SuperBolan (see Executioner) novels.
• Jon Messmann (1920-2004) initially worked as a writer for Fawcett Comics and worked on Captain Marvel Jr. and Fawcett's western comics as Eric Jon Messmann. Messmann then branched out to crime fiction and westerns. Under the name Jon Sharpe he wrote several novels in the Trailsman and Canyon O'Grady western series. In the serial vigilante field, under his own name, he wrote the Revenger (Ben Martin).
• Dan Streib, born in 1928, served in the U.S. Ar
my during the Korean War (1950-53) and died in 1996 of a heart attack. An extensive traveler for both work and pleasure, San Diego based Streib used the locales he visited in his works which include the Counter Force series under his own name, Death Squad series as Frank Colter, romances under the names of Louise Grandville and Lee Davis Whilloughby, and westerns under the names Jonathan Schofield and J. Faragut Jones.
• Jerry Ahern is the author of the Survivalist and the Defender post apocalyptic series as well as the Takers and Surgical Strike and under the name Alex Kilgore (They CallMe) The Mercenary series. Ahern has also written more than 600 articles for various magazines and is the former president of Deutronics Firearms.
• Ralph Hayes, who was born in 1927 and served in the Air Force 1945-47. After leaving the Air Force he studied and became a lawyer specializing in insurance. In 1969, Hayes became a freelance writer, writing a number of travel guides and individual novels as well as the Buffalo Hunter western series and Stoner, Agent for COMISEC and Checkforce series. Under the Nick Carter house name he wrote eight Killmaster books. Hayes travelled extensively and utilized that experience for his travel guides and the settings for his books.
Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction. An Encyclopedia from Able Team to Z-Comm Page 14
