Wednesday, February 29, 2012

To Love And Yet To Die by Stephen Frances

Amateur agent John Gail takes on a madman's challenge,
in a bizarre mission that marks him as a target of both sides!


He had already lived through what most men could never survive. Now John Gail faces his most terrifying assignment. He has to guard the life of a beautiful and desirable woman, a woman pursued day and night by ruthless men. She was a priceless secret, too dangerous to fall into the hands of a power hungry man who can dictate his own terms to world governments. 

Once again British agent John Gail finds himself on a mission of madness and murder, a mission so mysterious that even he doesn't know who is enemy is, or why. Only that the encounter, when it comes, will be dangerous, decisive, and deadly!

Printing History
Written by Stephen D Frances

copyright 1966
Published by arrangement with Mayflower Books Ltd.

Award Books
A 602X (1970)

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Het Mysterie van De Grijze Dame by Carter Brown

Dutch Edition of The Lady Is Transparent


Read more here
The Lady is Transparent

Printing History

Middernacht #53
No Date

Trivia
 This title was published with nothing on the back cover.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Doctor DNA by Robert E Vardeman

Virulent disease becomes a global threat at Nick Carter races to discover its source.

George Gross Cover
When he witnessed the deadly tsetse fly claim its first victim, Nick Carter knew this would be no ordinary assignment. Dr. Bron Faber, the brilliant Afrikaaner biochemist, would use his genetically mutated flies to carry out his ultimate goals. To become dictator of all Africa, and then the world! Nick's only chance to stop Dr Faber's diabolical scheme is through his beautiful wife, Alleen. Only she can provide him with the information needed to locate the laboratory where the fatal diseases are being engineered. But it looks like Nick is too late when he discovers that the mad doctor is about to release flies infected with his latest disease. One that will cause massive plagues worldwide, wiping out everything in its path!

Printing History
Written by Robert E Vardeman

Charter Books
November 1982
441 15676

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Long Story Magazine #17 by Carter Brown

Long Story Magazine #17
Walk Softly, Witch


A terrified brunette heiress, an uninhibited blonde 'farm girl', and a corpse in the pigpen set Danny Boyd on an investigation that's strictly murder.

Printing History

Long Story Magazine #17
December 1960

Trivia
Wrong title on the cover, actual title is Terror Comes Creeping. Long Story Magazine #9 has the incorrect title of Terror Comer Creeping in actuality the title should be Walk Softly, Witch.

Friday, February 24, 2012

The Copulation Explosion by Rod Gray

The Lady From L.U.S.T #14
Eve goes ape trying to catch a man the scientists made into a monkey.


The Ape Caper
(Or Eve Goes Bananas)
Eve drum literally goes ape when she finds herself up against a man-made monster, half gorilla, half cheetah, but all male in his lust for the Lady. The scientists goofed and not it's Eve's job to get this murderous man-monkey back to his cage. It's a beastly assignment, but the The Lady From L.U.S.T. never met a man, or monster, she couldn't make or break. With bare skin and bare knuckles, Eve beats the bushes to make the monkey say uncle.

Printing History
Written by Gardner F Fox

Belmont Tower Books
First Printing B95-2008 (1970)
Second Printing 50678 (May 1974)

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Long Story Magazine #20 by Carter Brown

Long Story Magazine #20
The Savage Salome

March 1961

The primitive passions of a temperamental opera company provide the overture to friendly dramatic murder when Danny Boyd clashes with.....The Savage Salome

Read more here

Trivia
Both the UK and Aussie editions were published in the same month with the only difference in covers as the month stated on the cover corresponds to the Aussie editions and the stated number on the cover were published in the UK.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Death Star Affair by Jack Canon

Nick Carter enters the arena of multi-national corporate dynamics, 
where death and deception play the leading roles...

George Gross Cover
Corporate intrigue and manipulation become the foundation of terror as Nick Carter is forced to match wits and weapons with the self-made, megalomaniac industrialist, Constantin Braga, whose sole wish is to corner the market on world domination. Using the cover of an industrial attache, Nick slowly uncovers, layer by layer, the demonic plot to dissolve the national boundaries and governments of the entire world by global, laser blackmail. Only the tables are turned against Nick, first once twice, then three times as close friends become ruthless enemies, and the hated enemies become valuable allies!

Printing History
Written by Jack Canon

Charter Books
441 14172
October 1982

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Long Teeth by Marvin Albert

Stone Angel #4
 Pete Sawyer must keep his eyes open and his gun at hand to solve this family affair


When Arlette Alfani, a lawyer as competent as she is beautiful, asks Pete to help her client whose wife has been kidnapped, Pete agrees. Only to find that the man in question is none other than Karl Malo, the inconceivably wealthy patriarch of the Malo Transport family. Completely in love for the first time in his life, Malo is inconsolable over the kidnapping of his third wife, Jacqueline. But no sooner has Pete done all he can to get Jacqueline back than Malo has another problem. Someone very close to him has betrayed him. Is it his brilliant, rebellious son, Alexandre? His once wild daughter, Claudette? His impeccably tailored son-in-law, Jean-Noel?

Printing History

Fawcett Gold Medal Books
449 13161
July 1987

Monday, February 20, 2012

Meisje In Moeilijkheden by Carter Brown

Dutch Edition of None But The Lethal Heart


Read more here.
None But The Lethal Heart II

And here.
None But The Lethal Heart

Printing History

Middernacht #11
No Date

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Mendoza Manuscript by Robert Randisi

The top governments of the world will kill to get their hands on the one manuscript that could destroy them......

George Gross Cover
The Mendoza Manuscript
Ricardo Mendoza: He has been they top free-lance agent in the world of espionage, and how he is  retiring, but with one hitch. He will leave behind something the world will remember him by....The Mendoza Manuscript.

Nick Carter: The top AXE agent and the best in the business, has to get a hold of the manuscript first and stop it from being published. The contents, a revealing expose that could be both embarrassing and crippling to the top governments of the world, including the United States!

Printing History
Written by Robert Randisi

Charter Books
441 52447 
September 1982

Saturday, February 18, 2012

But A Short Time To Live by James Hadley Chase

There was only one way out.
Murder............

Cover by Keith Inman
Even when Harry Ricks discovers that the girl he intends to marry is a pickpocket, working for a gang led by an unscrupulous criminal, he still believes he can influence her and prevent her returning to her old way of life. But then from out of the past come a man to blackmail Clair, and her reckless reaction to his demands finally leads to...murder.....

Printing History
copyright 1951 
Jarrolds Publishers Limited

Panther Edition
586 01103
1960, 1961, 1963, 1964 (twice), 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Im Kille-Kille-Keller by Carter Brown

German Edition of The Loving And the Dead

Robert McGinnis Cover

Read more here
The Loving And the Dead

And here
The Loving And The Dead (UK)

Printing History
Ullstein Bucher #1255 (1969)
Printed In West Berlin

Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Ravagers by Donald Hamilton

Mission #8 The Ravagers


It was not a peaceful way to die. But there was nothing Matt Helm could do for him now. Scratch one agent. Cross off the pretty boy with the face women just couldn't resist. The poor bastard was lying dead in a Canadian motel room, with no face at all. It had been eaten away with acid, corroded beyond all recognition. And the most likely patsy was a women Matt had orders to protect, no matter what the cost. 

Printing History
Written by Donald Hamilton

copyright 1964.

Fawcett Gold Medal 
k1452 Sept 1965 (0.40)
T2366 (0.75)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Retreat For Death by David Hagberg

It's a race against time as Nick tries to prevent another Jonestown massacre.

George Gross Cover
Retreat For Death
When Nick Carter agrees to help an old friend find her brother who has run off and joined the Church of the Final Reward, Nick ferars he might have stumbled onto another Jonestown incident. The members are required to sign away their fortunes which will go to the Church upon their deaths. But suddenly his friend disappears and his worse fears are confirmed as he follows her trail to the jungles of the Amazon where he makes a shocking discovery. After members are drugged, they are willingly led to the sacrificial altar to commit the ultimate act in the name of the Church...suicide. And it looks like Nick Carter might be too late to stop it.

Printing History
Written by David Hagberg

Charter Books
441 71539
August 1982

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Caviar To Kill by K.T. McCall

A Johnny Buchanan Story
Society gossip had her taped....
then she made headlines in murder....


She looked like a million dollars with the money invested in all the right places. A dame like this one was apt to think she could get away with murder. So she drove off with Johnny's Caddy, leaving him a corpse to remember her by. Then Harland Whitaker interrupted Johnny's vacation to prove his daughter was innocent. While Johnny was working for Whitaker's dough and Rosemarie Tiller's lover, his boss figured that he could show a baronet's nephew how a Silver Star operator operated. Which left him demonstrating how fast Johnny can move when three dolls and a couple of over enthusiastic crime enthusiasts are on the trail. Altogether it turned out to be quite a party. With invitations out to the right people and a double killer serving out the caviar.

Printing History
Written by Audrey Armitage and Muriel Watkins

Horwtiz Publications Inc.
Johnny Buchanan Series #16 (April 1958)

Monday, February 13, 2012

Gevaarlijk Spel by Carter Brown

Dutch Edition of The Bombshell


Read more here from March 2011

Middernacht M16
No Date

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Secret Mission: Istanbul by Don Smith

Istanbul: City of Barbaric Splendor

Espionage headquarters for both East and West.  
The city were Phil Sherman begins and ends, with this fantastic assignment.


A routine mission...no risks
You go to the sweltering seaside resort at the edge of Russia and pretend you're just another tourist. The brunette in the red bikini will make it easy for you to pick her up. Deliver the CIA message, that's all. But whe someone betrays you and a faceless voice whispers what they'll do to the golden body of the girl. And when  you  still don't crack, they abduct you in broad daylight and you're gripped by waves of unendurable pain as they torture you with careful cruelty. So you tell them everything and you lead them straight to the Russian spy trying to defect to the West. But there is one thing neither you nor the Red bully boys know. That you're all being used by the most incredible espionage plot ever conceived...by either side!

Printing History
Written by Don Smith

Award Books
Universal Publishing and Distributing Corp
A 446 (June 1969)
AQ 1498 (October 1975)

Friday, February 10, 2012

Appointment In Haiphong by David Hagberg

 One hundred and fifty POWs will be used to blackmail the United States.
Unless Nick Carter gets them out first!

George Gross Cover
The man was tall, gray-haired, and gaunt-looking, but in surprisingly good condition. As he pushed through the jungles of North Vietnam, he came to a small fishing village where he stole a small boat and set sail, heading out to the choppy sea. He was U.S.A.F Captain Robert Bruce, an M.I.A. in Vietnam since 1972. Ten long, incredible years.

When the United States learns that over one hundred and fifty Americans are being held prisoner at a highly organized camp at Yen Minh on the Chinese border, the only man that can get them out alive is Nick Carter. Posing as a monk, Nick has only one chance to get the POWs out of North Vietnam, but first he must keep an ......

Appointment in Haiphong

Printing History
Written by David Hagberg

Charter Books
ISBN 441 02592
June 1982

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Mayhem On The Coney Beat by Michael Geller

It Takes A Tough Cop To Walk The Coney Beat, 
And Bud Dugan Was A Tough Cop!


Back On The Beat
Former Detective Bud Dugan was back on the beat after roughing up a suspected dope peddler with connections. Dugan was sore, good and sore. And he didn't calm down any when he learned that his partner of three years, John Compagna, had been found dead of 'natural causes' in very suspicious circumstances. Bud wasn't going to let his friends death get swept under the rug. And he had a score to settle with angel Perez, the dealer who'd gotten him busted. But a good cop can't allow himself to get hung up on personal vendettas when all hell is breaking loose in his precinct. Bud had to deal with the Coney Island Bomber and the Jack-The-Ripper type who was slashing up the local prostitutes as well as the day to day routine of a cop on the Coney Island beat.

Printing History
Written by Michael Geller

Bud Dugan #1
Tower Publications, Inc
ISBN 505-51353 CDC
1979

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Bribe Was Beautiful by Carter Brown

The Bribe Was Beautiful

Horwitz Photo Cover

Seymour ran the political rackets in the town, but what he wanted to run more than anything else was Rex Blair, out of town. And all because Rex was acting for a gorgeous nightclub singer Lee Tsoong, who had enough on Seymour to wreck him. Seems that Seymour and Lee had been very, very close until another doll came along. Lee then wanted $20,000 heart balm. She did not get it but it was worked for her that she didn't have to worry about money anymore. She was too dead to care. Others had ideas of wrecking Seymour, including Marius Delmar, a psuedo-arty type who'd carve up his grandmother in the interest of art, or money. Delmar made Rex a proposition which put him right in the middle. And who was there in the middle with Rex? Eve, who didn't need a Garden of Eden to play in. By the time Rex figured her part in the deal, there was nothing he could do but pray......

Printing History

Horwitz Publications, Inc
as Lethal In Love
Novel Series (1953) 

as The Bribe Was Beautiful
Numbered Series #33 (1956)

Trivia
There are two titles Lethal In Love, one published in 1953 and the other is in the Numbered Series as #35 and published in 1956.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Master-Mind Menace by Belli Luigi

Imprisoned by a mind force which baffled science, 
could they recover the dreaded Master-Mind Menace.


He borrowed the mind of anyone he wished to command. And started the perfect crime wave by remote control!!

Printing History
Written by Gordon Clive Bleeck


Scientific Thriller
Transport Publishing Co Pty Ltd
Published by Horwitz Publications Inc
August 1950

World Distributors Manchester Ltd.
in collaboration with
Sydney Pemberton Publishing
1950

Monday, February 6, 2012

Operation: McMurdo Sound by David Hagberg

Massive death strikes the South Pole as Nick Carter races to uncover the source of a deadly biological nerve gas.

George Gross Cover
Operation: McMurdo Sound
The man had been driving much too fast, and suddenly his snowmobile plunged down into a deep ravine. As a hissing sound escaped from one of the gas canisters, he started screaming in horrendous pain, biting through his tongue and drowning in his own blood....

The helicopter with the pilot and crewmen landed safely at the research installation. But minutes later a horrifying scream for help came over the radio. And then nothing.....

When all contact is lost with an American research camp doing military work on genetic engineering, Nick Carter is sent to McMurdo Sound to do the obvious. But when one hideous corpse turns up after another, Nick soon realizes that nothing can prepare him for what he is about to discover.

Printing History
Written by David Hagberg

Charter Books
441 63400
June 1982

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Kiss My Assassin by Rod Gray

Lady From LUST #6

For most spies, a kiss is just a kiss.
But for Eve Drum, it's a deadly weapon!


Eve Takes Off

The Lady's latest assignment was a hot one, even for a spy whose stock in trade was sex, whose specialty is loving, L.U.S.T told Eve.

  1. Move into a gorgeous villa on the Amaifi Coast of Italy.
  2. Spend a million dolars buying pretty things from Pucci, Gucci, Flucci...and like that.
  3. Throw banquets, parties, hold open houses and orgies..wilder the better.
  4. Kill some people.
  5. Stay alive..if you can.
Join the fun as the world's sexiest spy takes off and takes it all off in her Italian paradise turned nightmare. Only the Lady could come out on top.

Printing History
Written by Gardner F Fox (1911-1986)

Belmont Tower 
BT 50594 CDC (1973)

Trivia
According to Lynn Munroe's website at LUST Checklist This title was #7 in the first series, but this book is #6 in the second series.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Hi-Jack For Jill by Carter Brown

Hi-Jack For Jill


Don Sanford had a nice peaceful job in a nice hotel until somebody shot somebody in the foyer. Sanford was the house detective. The Theodore family owned the hotel. There was the daughter, Lucrece. In terms of women one could describe her as the ultimate. There was also the old man's secretary, Mara Frantzen, a Nordic blonde. One would know that even an iceberg melts with applied warmth? There were also other charming characters around town who had a vital interest in the hotel. The "Syndicate" was one group. If one said Lamotte was a snake and Rondo was a snake one would be right. But they didn't frighten Sanford. Well not that much! He had some bright ideas of clearing up the murders. Yeah, there were three of them. And at the same time, clearing out the mobs. Remember the old idea, killing three birds with one burst from a tommy gun. Sanford did not quite understand where it went wrong but Hell! How did he end up in the middle?

Printing History

Horwitz Publications Inc.
Numbered Series #16 (May 1956)
Reprinted By Demand Series #4 (February 1958)

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Hunter by David Hagberg

The Mission:
Confirm that DeGourcy and El Cazador are one and the same and...
destroy!

George Gross Cover
The Hunter
Wanted: Sprague DeGourcy, alias El Cazador, the notorious political assassin wanted dead or alive by a dozen governments including the U.S. and her allies. When Nick Carter "Killmaster N3" gets a tip that Sprague DeGourcy, the highly respected comptroller for the Bank of Geneva, might be the infamous El Cazador, he goes in to investigate. But suddenly the tables mare turned when Nick discovers that instead of being the hunter, he has become the hunted. By El Cazador himself. And "the hunter" will not rest until Nick Carter is dead!

Printing History
Written by David Hagberg

Charter Books
441 34999
May 1982

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Shadowers by Donald Hamilton

A madman's scheme to secretly follow prominent public figures runs smack in to Matt Helm....

Ballantine Second Printing
Mission #7
An agent like Matt Helm might be a nice man to live with for a while. But he's not the kind a woman would want to marry, Unless, perhaps, she had to. Unless, perhaps, the marriage was part of an ingenious cover. Here the man whose daily bread is violence takes himself the most unlikely bride in the world. Just to make sure that death doesn't part them....

Ballantine First Printing
Matt Helm like women just fine and more than once he's made a snap decision to get involved with a women he's just met. But an instant marriage is something else. In this case, it's all in the line of duty. A political maniac with a devious plan to shadow public figures, and kill them in a violent takeover plot, can only be stopped by using a beautiful women as bait. Matt's superiors decide she needs plenty of protection, in the form of a "husband" lurking nearby. 

1965 Edition
Printing History
Written by Donald Hamilton

Fawcett Gold Medal Books
Copyright 1964
First Printing (March 1964)
d1602 (December 1965)

Ballantine Books
449-14006-7 1st Printing (February 1984)
449-13193-9 Second Printing (February 1987)


Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Get Off At Babylon by Marvin Albert

Stone Angel #3
He's got American grit and French Savoir-Faire



Minding his own business at a favorite Nice creperie, Pete Sawyer notices a teenage girl hurrying by, with a desperate look on her face. Moments later, two cops arrive, a young actor named Bruno Ravic burst from a nearby doorway, shots are fired, and Pete's most dangerous case to date begins. The girl is Odile Garnier and her father, former Grand Prix champ Egon Mulhausser, hires Pete to find her. But what is the connection between Odile and Bruno, who is murdered just a few days later? And why do so many clues seem to lead to the Cannes Film Festival, and to a certain director? Pete Sawyer must go underground, literally, to save lives and to solve this sensational mystery

Printing History

Fawcett Gold Medal Books
449 12918
March 1987