Sign Of The Cobra by James Fritzhand

A doomsday weapon, a sadistic mass-murderer, and a vicious terror gang play a game of life and death with Nick Carter Killmaster.

Tandem Edition

A series of diplomatic hoaxes has brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Shiva, a subversive organization based in India, could be responsible. Only Nick Carter Killmaster can find out for sure.

Award Edition

In New Delhi, the back streets prove hot and hazardous. Nick has to handle a band of crazed assassins, a heroin deal, a bizarre religious cult, a vengeful Indian warlord, and a new, awesomely destructive super-weapon. If he wants to stay alive he has to follow his hunches and watch out for the sign of the cobra.

Charter Reprint

Allan Wingate Hardcover Edition

Printing History

Written by James Fritzhand

Award AN 1270 1974

Charter Reprint 76346 1977

Charter Reprint 76347 1981

Tandem 18067 1977

Allan Wingate 3001 1977

Notes

Sign Of The Cobra is one of two Nick Carter titles to be issued in hardcover

The Sometime Wife by Carter Brown

They carried on their scandalous marital games from the beach shack to boardroom until one of them proved all's fair in love and murder.

Horwitz Edition

Three lovely, lying ladies do their best to sidetrack Danny Boyd as he tried to unravel their marital mixups, which include errant husbands, jealous lovers, and a corpse who keeps switching wives.

Robert McGinnis Cover

A lisping playboy is married to a rich nympho. Who is the mistress of a prominent corporate president. Who is the husband of a tempestuous blonde. Who has her own discreet diversions.

This wild marriage go round comes to a dead stop when someone murders someone. New York's toughest private eye, Danny Boyd, finds that before he can capture a killer, he has to catch a corpse that won't stay dead.

Double Edition

Printing History

Horwitz Publications

Numbered Series #128 1966

Double Edition Series #016A 1982/1983

New American Library

Signet Books

D2757 September 1965

Double Edition AE 2014 January 1983

The Vatican Vendetta by George Snyder and Ralph Eugene Hayes

Nick Carter hunts a lethal enemy he's already killed years before!

Who is the man known as Judas?

To Italian Intelligence, he's a faceless killer behind the plot to assassinate the Pope.

To AXE, America's super secret espionage network, he is the key to an ingenuous, brutal espionage plot.

To Nick Carter, he's a walking corpse, an enemy Nick had slain years before, and now must kill once more.

Printing History

Award AN1263 1974

The DumDum Murder by Carter Brown

Raven hair, scarlet leotards, she made the most beautiful corpse.....

Especially for someone who was not really dead!

Horwitz Edition

Al Wheeler knocked at the door of the moldering mansion, and there she was, looking like nature's answer to the mantrap. A blonde Amazon, too kittenish for her size, just dying to love someone to death.

Signet Edition

Celeste Campbell: A female contortionist who can twist her gorgeous curves in any guy's direction.

Sebastian: A man of mystery, a master illusionist, a crack shot.

Bruno Breck: A wizened Satan, who specialized in monologue, funny patter, and the pursuit of malice.

Antonia The Great: A blonde Amazon, six feet five inches tall, 44-26-45, a giant of a gal with a giant yen, for men.

Pop Livvy: Owner of the moldy mansion, a smooth sophisticate with a a Noel Crawford complex and dreams of past glory.

Which one of these five was the murderer? Which one is responsible for the corpse in the garage, the dead man who lies resting on the hood of an antique automobile, his throat half shot away by a vicious, soft-nosed bullet.

Double Edition

Printing History

Horwitz Publications

as The Dum Dum Murders

Numbered Series #103 1962

International Series #54 1967

Double Edition Series #014A 1982

New American Library

Signet Books (US and Canada)

S2196 October 1962

D3348 January 1968

AE1873 November 1982

w/ The Hellcat

Vintage Nick Carter

The Diamond Trail 

by Nicholas Carter

New Magnet Library No 1136

The Diamond Trail 

or Nick Carter's Best Guess

  Published in July 1924

Copyright 1903 and 1905 by Street & Smith

Nick Carter stories from New Magnet Library priced at 15 cents. 

Nick Carter stands for an interesting detective story.

More Ice Trap Terror

The Tandem Edition

By Jeffrey Wallman

1977 Tandem Edition

A Murderer Among Us by Carter Brown

Troubleshooter Rick Holman is hired to clear a volatile, big money actress of a murder charge. 

Before the murder happens!

Robert McGinnis Cover

Cinematic Sex Kitten

Maxine Barr was cuddly and cooperative as long as she got what she wanted. But her tiger blood showed the day she learned she was to be replaced by an old-time rival as the star of a Broadway play. Maxine began screaming threats in public. The rival began having near misses with death. Had the feline actress finally turned savage? Or was some one casting Maxine Barr, femme fatale, in the role of murder.

Robert McGinnis Cover

Printing History

Horwitz Publications

as The Murderer Among Us!

Numbered Series #104 1962

International Edition Series #55 1968

New American Library

Signet Books

S2228 December 1962

P4081 1969/1970

Massacre In Milan by Al Hine

Nick Carter Killmaster stalks the decade's most vicious killers: Arab terrorists.

Tandem Edition

A plot more savage than the brutal slayings of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games.

A terrorist scheme more bloody than the real-life shootout at Tel Aviv's Lod Airport.

Murder and treason to rival the real drama of Mideast assassination and terror!

The United States isn't about to sit still for blackmail. 

The order was chilling and it catapulted Nick into one of the most explosive assignments in which Arab terrorists, a Nazi superspy, and Israeli counter-agents fought each other in a deadly game of oil diplomacy and even deadlier espionage.

Award Edition

Printing History

Written by AL Hine

Award AN1251 March 1974

Award AQ1455 May 1975

Tandem 18091 1977

The Lady Is Murder by Carter Brown

Here we have the very first Carter Brown mystery published by Transport Publishing Co in 1951.

First Lovely Mystery Novelette

Publishing History

Transport Publishing Company 1951, August 1954

w/Madame, You're Morgue Bound and Cyanide Sweetie

First Collectors Series No 5 1955

Title changes to The Lady Is A Killer in 1958

w/Murder By Miss Take 

Second Collectors Series Vol 1 No 18

Note

Horwitz Publications Inc issued the early novelettes and novels on behalf of Transport Publishing Company

A Siren Signs Off by Carter Brown

An act like this dame's sure has a future, and I am the guy who's out to call off her funeral.

Horwitz Edition

When a curvy actress agrees to tape a torrid love scene, she doesn't know that she is being measured for a tight-fitting shroud.

Signet 1st Printing

The brunette heiress likes strange men until one amorous flirtation pays off in lethal currency.

The red-haired actress likes to take bubble baths until she get into deep water with a killer.

The blonde receptionist likes to talk until a bullet shuts her up permanently. 

Signet 3rd Printing

And for out hero, he just likes to live dangerously, to play with dolls and death, at one and the same time.

Printing History

Horwitz Publications Inc

Numbered Series #56 1958

International Edition #22 1962

as Myopic Mermaid

New American Library

Signet Books

as The Myopic Mermaid

S1924 April 1961

T5273 1972

Note

The original title had character Danny Boyd, but was revised as character Max Royal in the Signet Edition and in the revised 1962 Horwitz Edition.

Ice Trap Terror by Jeffrey Wallman

Nick Carter had fought madmen before, but never one with the Colonel's cunning, fanatical lust for power. For this man was not only a lunatic, with his formidable scientific genius, he had actually invented a new ice age to destroy the world!

Award Edition

Already the snow was falling. A seriously wounded Nick Carter has to forge his way across  a frozen continent to stop the ice machine before it froze the planet. Battling Nick every inch of the way were the Colonel's crack troops. His only allay was a beautiful Russian agent with orders to kill him as soon as she can!

Printing History

Written by Jeffrey Wallman

Award AN1227 January 1974

Charlie Sent Me! by Carter Brown

Larry Baker, a fun-loving, women-chasing, TV Gag writer, finds out that murder can be a serious business.

Horwitz Edition

When the gaunt hood walked into the room and said "Charlie sent me," and beat up Eddie Sackville, top rated TV comedian, he started a gruesome events for script-writer Larry Bake which started with murder and finished with murder....

Printing History

Horwtiz Publications Inc

Numbered Series #114 1963

International Edition Series #46 1965

New American Library

Signet Books

G 2394 November 1963 

T4775 September 1971

T4775 September 1971 Canada

Note

Originally published as Swan Song For A Siren

Swan Song For A Siren

Assassin: Code Name Vulture by Ralph Eugene Hayes

Two men with the same face. 

One a professional assassin, the other his next victim. 

Nick Carter must find them both!

Award 2nd Printing

The Death Dealer

He was a highly paid professional, killing anyone, anywhere, for a price. A murderer who relished his work, lovingly watching each victim writhe in blood. The Intelligence establishment named him The Vulture "the scarlet vulture," his mechanized talons dripping with human blood. Destroying The Vulture was Nick Carter "Killmaster" next assignment. But before Nick could get to his lethal quarry, he had to hunt down another man. A bizarre double of The Vulture, forced into becoming the assassin's perfect weapon, and his next victim!

Tandem Edition

Printing History

Written by Ralph Eugene Hayes 

Award AN1239 January 1974

Award AQ1454 May 1975

Tandem 18358 1977

Maid For Murder by Carter Brown

She called for protection when murder haunted Bramley Manor. 

But who would want to make a ghost out of a beautiful dame like Prudence?

Cover by Bernard  Blackburn

Printing History

Main Character: Gregory Fenner

Transport Publishing Co Pty Ltd.

January 1955

Second Collectors' Series

Volume 1 Number 6 1957

w/Sob-Sister Cries Murder

Reprint By Demand Series

#32 1960

The Exotic (Audio) by Carter Brown

Read by Sean Mangan

Bolinda Publishing  put this out in 2001. I picked this up somewhere a few years ago. Do not have a cassette player so can not listen to it.

The Peking Dossier by Linda Stewart

Nick Carter combats a terrifying army, bred to kill!

George Gross cover

Born To Kill!

KAN: Whatever it meant to the Chinese, to Nick Carter it spelled death. Quick, brutal, efficient death to Americans by a squad of first-class assassins.

KAN: The ultimate death force with the ultimate weapon. A soulless, relentless army. It is Nick's most deadly assignment yet. As AXE's number one agent and his beautiful help-mate face a seemingly endless succession of single-minded, purebred murderers!

Tandem Edition

There was blood all over. It had seeped into the old wood floors, staining the obscene color of death. It had congealed in the cracks between the floorboards. It had spattered the white-muslin upholstery. An AXE-issued wrist watch lay smashed, stepped on. An AXE automatic covered in blood, sat useless on a flowered chair. And an axe, a real one, dyed red, had been tossed next to the first place.

The fireplace.

It was still glowing. Still giving off heat. In the grate was a pile of warm ashes. In the corner where it must have tumbled escaping the pyre was.....a man's hand.

Award Edition

Printing History

Written by Linda Stewart

Award AN1217 December 1973

Award AQ1388 December 1974

Tandem 17988 1976

Charter 65800 August 1979

The Mini-Murders by Carter Brown

When six harem playmates all scheme to be Number One houri, where can it lead to but murder?

Horwitz Edition

The brunette wore a bored look and nothing else. But she quickly put on a smile when Danny Boyd walked in. The scene was the workroom of Dion Freidel, world famous dress designer with a manic passion for women, and a secret new collection that was being systematically sabotaged.

Robert McGinnis Cover

With a built-in harem of restless house models, private eye Danny Boyd figures he is on to a fun case. Then somebody starts slashing necks, and proves that fashion is still a cutthroat business. 

Signet Edtion

Printing History

Horwitz Publications Inc

Numbered Series #143 1968

Printed in Hong Kong

New American Library

Signet Books

D3585 September 1968

Y7263 1976

The Death's Head Conspiracy by Robert Colby

The deathmaker was a small device, no larger than a heart patient's pacemaker. But it had the power to kill millions.

Star Edition

Knox Warnow, ex-U.S. atomic scientist, knew this. He had the device implanted in his chest. He also knew that if his heart stopped beating, the bombs that he had planted across America would automatically explode. New York, Chicago, Washington, San Fransisco, and L.A. would be wiped off the face of the world. 

Tandem Edition

Nick Carter did not know, and his assignment was to assassinate Warnow. By the time Nick discovered Warnow's deadly secret, it was going to be too late.

Award Edition

Printing History

Written by Robert Colby

Award AN1178 1973

Award 1977 Cancelled

Tandem 17662 1976

Star 30482 1979

Lover, Don't Come Back! by Carter Brown

She was a truly hell-fired blonde. A devil's delight who wanted Danny Boyd to find her killer..after she was dead.

Horwitz Edition

"I want you to find my murderer, Mr Boyd," she said gently, "after I'm dead."

The girl was a kook, a nut, a psycho, but she was the most gorgeous kook Danny Boyd had ever seen. Her figure would have sent Cleopatra into hiding. And her face was everything a face should be; classic, sensuous. An enticing face with a go-to-hell gleam in enormous blue eyes and a derisive smile of invitation on wanton lips. One look and Danny was her willing slave, ready to do her bidding, to follow no matter where she might lead.

Robert McGinnis Cover

Printing History

Horwitz Publications

Numbered Series #102 1962

International Series #53 1967

Horwitz Double #013A 1982

New American Library

Signet Books

S2183 August 1962

P3963 1969

Signet Double 1982

The Spanish Connection by Bruce Cassiday

In a bloody race from Mexico to Spain, Nick Carter Killmaster stalks a man he's never seen. A Mob killer running for his life from the men who knew him best.

Tandem Edition

"We want to hear the music before his throat is slit."

Those were Nick's orders. Translated, they meant that Nick has to find Rico Corelli before the Syndicate killers did. Corelli had been controlling the international drug chain from Corsica for years. But when the Mob found that their profits were slipping and Corelli's were mounting, the heat was on and Corelli was on the run. If Nick Carter got to him first, Corelli could be made to talk and the drug chain would drop in AXE's lap. If the Mafia did, there would be one more bloody name on the Mob's death list. Armed with a beautiful female narc, and a flimsy cover. AXE's chief agent begins the hunt. But the Mafia's enforcers are with him all the way. And the first corpse is a ringer for the man a Nick Carter is supposed to impersonate.

Award 2nd Printing

Printing History

Written by Bruce Cassiday

Award AN166 Sept 1973

Award AD1656 Jan 1977

Tandem 16809 1976

Trivia

Bruce Cassiday had a title "Operation Goldkill" on a Nick Carter fly-sleeve around 1967.

The Dream Is Deadly by Carter Brown

US, Canada, and UK Cover by Barye Phillips

 Every night the gorgeous actress went insane to the staccato beat of an audience's applause. She ran the gamut of emotions in three acts. She laughed. she cried, she threatened, she pleaded. Then one weekend, at a posh party, she topped any performance she has ever given. She vanished without a trace for two years.

Signet 3rd Printing

A hot shot publisher hired Danny Boyd, the dashing and debonair private eye, to find out why the beautiful blonde was a dead issue and how she had disappeared. Boyd's investigation leads him headlong into a cast of oddball characters including a temperamental producer, a wanton redhead, a willing receptionist, and a plug-ugly killer, expert at calling the shots.

Signet/Horwitz Double

Printing History

Horwitz Publications

Numbered Series #89 1960

International Editions Series #23 1962

Horwitz Double #09A 1981

New American Library

Signet Books

S1845  October 1960

S1845 October 1960 (Canada)

T5272 1972

Signet Double E9776 May 1981

New English Library

Four Square Books

#604 1962

The Kremlin File by W.T. Ballard

There are many ways to kill a man...

Chinese assassins prefer a knife. Others use bare hands.

American pros favor high-powered guns.

Russian killers choose dynamite.

There is one man who can defeat the many ways of death. 

His name is Nick Carter Killmaster.

This time Nick will have to use his predatory skills to deal with the butchers sent his way.

Tandem Edition

The military dictator of a small, Caribbean island is killed in an air crash and a frantic scramble to fill the political vacuum begins. Before Cuba can establish relations, before the Russians set up important missile bases, before total chaos invades the island, Nick Carter must endeavor to reinstate the former benevolent president, Randolph Fleming. Willing to finance the whole project is a tycoon who owns valuable business assets on the island and is bitterly opposed to Communist takeover. Nick Carter was used to being shot at, knifed, poisoned and threatened in every possible way but he was only just prepared for the explosive Kremlin File.

Award Edition

Printing History

Written by W.T. Ballard

Award AN1165 September 1973

Award AQ1502 December 1975

Tandem 15720 1976

Blonde On The Rocks by Carter Brown

Someone tries to murder a top-talent actress' career and troubleshooter Rick Holman hires on to find out why. The only clue: her dead lover!

Robert McGinnis Cover #1

"They murdered me. They left the corpse stone-cold dead in the market, and didn't even worry about an obituary in the trade papers." In a small frozen voice the big-talent actress told Rick Holman how she has been unable to get any sort of a part in Hollywood for the past six months. Someone had been very successful in blacklisting her. She wanted to know who and why.

Horwitz Edition

Negligee-clad Della August was as seductively torrid as her last name. So troubleshooter Rick Holman jumped at the chance to help her by playing hero. Little did he guess that he would turn out fall guy in a drama where passion was the curtain opener on death.

Robert McGinnis Cover #2

Why was the once famous blonde movie star now living in seclusion?

How had the rising young actor met his sudden death by a genuine car accident or murder?

Where was the red-headed model who'd been his companion in the car?

Who was the unseen movie tycoon fighting an investigation every inch of the way?

If show business detective Rick Holman came up with the right answers on this case, his jackpot prize was a killer!!

Printing History

Horwitz Publications Inc

Numbered Series  #110 1963

International Series #41 1964

New American Library

Signet Books

G2328 July 1963

T4682 1971