The Cairo Mafia by Ralph Eugene Hayes

In 1971, relations were severely strained between Lyle Kenyon Engel and Award Books. Engel continued to be unhappy with the first person restrictions and with Award's slow and inconsistent royalty statements. Award neglected to inform Engel each time a new novel was published. Notes had to be compared to see which manuscript file to be able to figure out which one was published and when. The series was interrupted in 1971 for almost a year. It was unclear whether sales were a factor or not. This was the time when new action series, as "The Executioner" and "The Destroyer" were taking off. The James Bond craze had long since passed and war against the mafia book series dominated the field. The Nick Carter Killmaster Series returned in late 1972 with the title The Cairo Mafia.

Award Edition

Bloody vengeance in Cairo's underworld. In a small African jail, Nick Carter successfully carried out the first part of the assignment. The murder of a Russian agent. Now a second AXE man could accomplish Phase II. Bringing the microfilm, the secret plans for Russian's fastest fighter plane, into the free world. But in Cairo, the AXE courier was butchered to death. Now Nick has to recover the microfilm and also find the sadistic killer. To help him with the assignment, AXE assigned Fayeh, a golden skinned Egyptian Interpol agent. To feed Nick information, they send Thinman, a depraved addict who walked the narrow line between the law and the underworld for his daily fix. To fight Nick, they pit him against the New Brotherhood, the Arab version of the Mafia. The New Brother hood has the most lethal syndicate Nick had ever encountered. He only hoped he would live to tell about it.

Printing History

Written by Ralph Eugene Hayes

Award  Series

1st (AN 1001) August 1972

Tandem Series

Titled Cairo

1st (426 7085) 1972

Reprint (426 17304) date unknown

Tandem  Edition