Bullion by Michael Woodman

Fresh from his job a MI6 position, 

Paul Gane gets involved in scheme to steal a fortune but the double cross is rampant

Printing History

Written by Michael Woodman

Sphere

ISBN 722 19279

January 1971

Beagle Books

Beagle Boxer #95141

March 1971

Hong Kong Hit by Jack Canon

Agent N3 Is On The Poisoned Trail Of The KGB's 

Deadliest Seek-And-Sting Assassin

Scorpio!

Killmaster #253

Hong Kong. A city crawling with power, money, drugs, murder, and worse. It's here in the bustling center of the Orient that the KGB hired the world's deadliest assassin for a sabotage mission which threatens to jeopardize world peace. And it's here in this blood drenched underworld that Nick Carter takes on his deadliest assignment. To intercept this Soviet freelancer known as Scorpio. Or get stung in the process.....

Printing History

Written by Jack Canon

Berkley Publishing Group

Jove Books

Published by arrangement with The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

ISBN 515 10128

September 1989

Her Halo In Headlines by Marc Brody

"You're propositioning me?"

"That's right Marc, help me start a revolution...."

Marc kept a downtown rendezvous with a dame and finished up investigating her murder, or maybe it was an accident. But either way one could not forget she was associated with Sophia Nesbitt, the dame who had everything a man wants. Except one could not trust her and she was tied  up with a South American revolution conspiracy that made a murdering double cross look like a kid's game. So when Marc gets talked into the plot, and if there's a faster way of dying than in South American revolution, don't let him know. But, as Raymond Thompson said, it was a big story. So here he is in the middle of a revolution fighting on the wrong side, and the way it looks. If he wins or loses he would have to face either Karin Hedberg or General Tutay and his two murderous offsiders. Anyone traveling North?

Printing History

Written by W. H. ‘Bill’ Williams

Horwitz Publications Inc.

for and on behalf of Transport Publishing Company

Marc Brody Series

June 1957

Weird War Tales (Volume 4 No 26)

The Mystery And Madness Of.......

Contents

The Survivor

Story by John F Albano

Jump Into Hell

Story by Joe Orlando

A Time To Die

Story by Jack Oleck

Printing History

 National  Periodical Publications, Inc

June 1974 

Volume 4 No 26

Long Time No Leola (II) by Carter Brown

She was Hollywood

She was Sex

She was gone, really gone

 

 Why would a movie queen do a disappearing act when she could make a killing at home? 

 

Robert McGinnis Cover

The nasty old millionaire had a nasty yen. He owned a print of every one of Leola's movies and he slavered over them night after night. But that was not enough for a man who could afford everything. So when the sex queen of Hollywood disappeared, private eye Rick Holman looked for the millionaire and found him, and Leola, on a Riviera yacht. Watching movies. The distracted husband screamed white slavery. But Rick figured the setup was whitewash, for something much more deadly. And that was when someone decided that Holman was just too smart to live....!

 

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Horwitz Publications

Numbered Series #138 (1967)

New American Library

Signet Books

D3190 (July 1967)

Y6684 (1975)

 Bonus Covers

Denmark 

1983

Finland 

1969

Portugal

1969

Note

This title was originally published in September 2011

Long Time No Leola

USA Fiction Challenge: Michigan

We are rolling along on the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge

 The Next Stop

The State of Michigan

 Angel Eyes 
by Loren D. Estleman

Ann Maringer is a go-go dancer with a problem. Her life is in danger and she is certain that her end is coming very soon.

An exotic dancer by the name of Ann Maringer is in danger, she is scared and sure someone is out to get her. She turns to Amos Walker a private-eye from Detroit but then she disappears and Walker is out to find out what happened and where she is at.

Printing History
Written by Loren D. Estleman (195- )

Houghton Mifflin
September 1981
ISBN 395 31558

Kojak (1973-1978)

"Who loves ya, baby?"

 The series was set in the New York City Police Department's Eleventh Precinct Manhattan South Patrol Borough. The show revolved around the efforts of the tough and incorruptible Lieutenant Theodore ("Theo") Kojak a bald, dapper, policeman, who was fond of Tootsie Roll Pops and using the catchphrase, "Who loves ya, baby?" Kojak was stubborn and tenacious in his investigation of crimes, cynical wit, and aa tendency to bend the rules if it brought a criminal to justice.

Cast

Telly Savalas as Lieutenant Theodore "Theo" Kojak
Dan Frazer as Captain Frank McNeil (Kojak's boss)
Kevin Dobson as Detective Robert "Bobby" Crocker
George Savalas as Sergeant Heathcliff "Fatso" Stavros
Mark Russell as Detective Percy Saperstein
Vince Conti as Detective Lionel Rizzo

 Created by Abby Mann

Series aired 

October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978

118 Episodes

52 Pick Up by Elmore Leonard

In a game of sex and blackmail the only way to win was murder

Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell had only one affair in his twenty-two years of happy matrimony. Unfortunately, someone caught his indiscretion on film and now wants Harry to fork over one hundred grand to keep it a secret. And if Harry doesn’t pay up, the blackmailer and his associates plan to press a lot harder. Up to and including murder, if necessary. But the psychos picked the wrong person for their murderous scam. Because Harry Mitchell doesn’t get mad...he gets even.

Printing History

Written by Elmore John Leonard, Jr. (1925-2013)

Delacorte Press

1974

 

The Film

Directed by

John Frankenheimer

Cast

Roy Scheider
Ann-Margret
John Glover
Vanity
Kelly Preston

Triple by Ken Follett

In 1968, a secret arms race begins in the Middle East. Which nation will build a nuclear bomb first? Double and even triple agents steal each other's secrets, and the Israelis mount an incredible mission to hijack nuclear material 

As the nuclear arms race escalates in the Middle East, the Mossad, KGB, Egyptians, and Fedayeen terrorists will play out the final violent moves in a devastating game where the price of failure is nuclear holocaust...

 

The world's balance of power is about to shift dangerously as the ultimate weapon nears completion in a secret facility in the heart of the desert. Across the globe, operatives from the great nations set a deadly game in motion, covertly maneuvering pawns and kings to achieve a frightening advantage--while terrorists and their hunters prepare for the contest's final, bloody moves. And one man--a razor-sharp master of disguise, deceit, and triple-cross--must somehow do the impossible: steal 200 tons of uranium without any of the other players discovering the theft.

Printing History

Written by Ken Follett (1949- ) 

Arbor House 

October 1979 

ISBN 877 95223 

Set-Up For a Sinner by Marc Brody

She was the darling of all dames, a curvy countess in the middle of murder

Elena Ziravello was the darling of all dames, a curvy countess in the middle of murder. And she didn't have an alibi when her boyfriend was found with a bullet in his body and another in his head. Marc could not make her talk so he concentrated on the other suspects. Manuel Aquino, who had a peculiar skill with guns and knives. High pressure racketeer Kurt Lorenz, whose hired guns did his dirty work. These guys were alibi experts and left Marc wondering who was the killer and when would he strike again. Marc didn't have to wait long, he was next on the list......

Printing History

Written by W. H. ‘Bill’ Williams

Horwitz Publications Inc.

for and on behalf of Transport Publishing Company

Marc Brody Series

April 1957

Detour by Martin Goldsmith

Alex Roth is a musician who thumbs it out for L.A. with the woman of his dreams. Things hit a snag when the bookmaking driver Alex flags down, suddenly ends up dead.

Printing History

Written by Martin M. Goldsmith (1913-1994)

The Macaulay Company

1939 

The Film

Detour

1945

Cast
Tom Neal as Al Roberts
Ann Savage as Vera
Claudia Drake as Sue Harvey
Edmund MacDonald as Charles Haskell Jr
Tim Ryan as Nevada Diner Proprietor
Esther Howard as Holly, Diner Waitress
Don Brodie as the Used Car Salesman
Pat Gleason as Joe

Law Of The Lion by Shelly Loewenkopf

Global Mayhem Is Their Specialty

Nick Carter Is Their Enemy

Killmaster #252

They're a mercenary elite who'll take on any job. The more murderously spectacular the better, if the price is right. But their ultimate purpose isn't wealth, it's power in it's most raw and devastating form. They call themselves the Law of the Lion. Their base is the treacherous jungle of Central America And they hold no loyalty to any cause but their own. They're the most awesome terror army the world ever faced. And challenging them on their own turf is like diving into a pool of blood in shark filled waters. Only Nick Carter would try it. Only Nick Carter could win.

Printing History

Written by Shelly Loewenkopf  (1931- )

Berkley Publishing Group

Jove Books

Published by arrangement with The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

ISBN 515 10108

August 1989

A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan

Responsible for bringing to the general public's attention the full extent of Operation Market Garden, including the errors and miscalculations, while highlighting the extreme bravery of the participants.

The story of a failed Allied attempt to break through German lines at Arnhem across the river Rhine in occupied Netherlands during World War II. Code named Operation Market Garden as set in September 1944. The title of the book comes from a comment made by British Lt. Gen. Frederick Browning, who was the deputy commander of the First Allied Airborne Army. He told Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery before the operation, "I think we may be going a bridge too far."

Printing History
Written by Cornelius Ryan (1920-1974)

Simon & Schuster
1974
ISBN 684 80330
 

 The Film

1977

 

Director

Richard Attenborough

 

 

Cast

  Dirk Bogarde James Caan Michael Caine Sean Connery

Edward Fox

Elliott Gould  

Anthony Hopkins Gene Hackman Hardy Krüger Laurence Olivier

Ryan O'Neal  

Wolfgang Preiss

Robert Redford Maximilian Schell

Liv Ullmann

 

USA Fiction Challenge: Massachusetts

We are rolling along on the Eastern Seaboard in the USA Fiction Challenge

 The Next Stop

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Featuring

Promised Land

by Robert B Parker

Spenser is hired by Harvey Shepard to find his runaway wife, Pam. He soon locates her, but promises not to force her to return to her husband against her will. He begins to suspect that Harvey Shepard has been threatened by a big-time loan shark by the name of King Powers. Spenser leaves when he sees Hawk at Shepard's house. Harvey fires Spenser because Spenser refuses to disclose Pam's location. Pam soon becomes entangled in a bank robbery that resulted in the shooting death of a bank guard and calls Spenser for help. Spenser's dilemma is that he wants to reunite Harvey and Pam while also making sure that culprits go down for the bank guard's murder while simultaneously setting up King Powers to go to prison. He has to do all this while somehow managing to keep the Shepards and himself out of jail and still alive.

Printing History

Written by Robert B Parker (1932-2010)

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN 395-24771

1976

Trivia

This title was adapted into the pilot episode of Spenser: For Hire

TV Series

Spenser For Hire (1985-1988)

Cast

Robert Urich (1946-2002)
Avery Brooks
Barbara Stock
Ron McLarty
Carolyn McCormick
Richard Jaeckel (1926-1997)

Murder! She Says! by Carter Brown

Louis's making his dough from the clip joints 

and owing the redhead and me plenty.

I can't figure a way to collect until.................

Printing History

Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Transport Publishing Company

for and on behalf of Horwitz Publications, Inc

 

 Novelette Series 1954

First Collectors' Series Volume 13 (1955)

w/Perfumed Poison and Sin-Sation Sadie 

Second Collectors' Series

Volume 1 #23 (1959)

w/Strictly For Felony

The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins

Considered to be among the first mystery novels

 

A young Walter Hartright first meets a mysterious woman in white. He helps her on her way, but later learns that she has escaped from an asylum. The next day he travels to Limmeridge House, having been hired as a drawing master on the recommendation of a friend. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain make for a mysterious thriller.  From the hero’s foreboding before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning the beautiful Laura.

Printing History

Written by William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)

All the Year Round (UK)

November 1859 – August 1860

Harper's Weekly (US)

November 1859 - August 1860

The Film

1948

 Directed by Peter Godfrey

Cast

Alexis Smith as Marian Halcombe
Eleanor Parker as Laura Fairlie / Ann Catherick
Sydney Greenstreet as Count Fosco
Gig Young as Walter Hartright
Agnes Moorehead as Countess Fosco
John Abbott as Frederick Fairlie
John Emery as Sir Percival Glyde
Curt Bois as Louis
Emma Dunn as Mrs. Vesey
Matthew Boulton as Doctor Nevin
Anita Sharp-Bolster as Mrs. Todd
Clifford Brooke as Jepson
Barry Bernard as Dimmock

 

USA Fiction Challenge: Maryland

USA Fiction Challenge: State of Maryland

Baltimore Blues

by Laura Lippman

 

Until her paper, the BALTIMORE STAR, crashed and burned, Tess Monaghan was a damn good reporter who knew her hometown intimately, from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill. Now gainfully unemployed at twenty-nine, she is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent, including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton.

In a city where someone is murdered almost everyday, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety, and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancee, make the case front page news. And points to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence couls prove costly to Tess and add her name to that infamous ever-growing list.

Printing History

 Written by Laura Lippman (1959- )

HarperCollins

July 2006

ISBN 061 19362

William Morrow

December 2006

ISBN 061 21002

Avon Books

February 1997

ISBN 380 78875

  

Tribute To Lauren Bacall (1924-2014)

A Tribute to Lauren Bacall

Born: Betty Joan Perske

(1924-2014)

With Humphrey Bogart

To Have and Have Not (1944)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Dark Passage (1947)

Key Largo (1948)

Others

How To Marry A Millionaire (1953)

Sex And the Single Girl (1964)

Harper (1966)

A Void In Hearts by William G Tapply

A private detective is dead, and Brady suspects it’s murder

Brady is consulted by a private eye by the name of Les Katz, who was hired by a woman who suspected her husband of having an affair. Katz took some incriminating photos that he sold to the husband, now he is worried about the ramifications of his small-time blackmail. When Katz is killed in a hit-and-run accident, Brady is determined to find out if it was murder. His investigation leads to a money-laundering scheme involving high figures in the financial world and the leader of organized crime in New England. In developing the case, Brady finds complications of the heart as compelling as clues Still trying to define the relationship with Gloria, his former wife, he is fast drawn into an attachment with Katz's widow that is closer than he anticipated. The case is wrapped up in a suspenseful conclusion that brings Brady near death in the snow-covered hills outside Boston his own love life is not so easily resolved.

Printing History

Written by William G Tapply (1940-2009)

Scribner Book Company

September 1988

ISBN 684 18793

Ballantine Books

February 1990

ISBN 345 35868

G K Hall & Co

April 1990

ISBN 816 14822

Kindle Edition 

August 2013

Holliday In Hell by Jack Canon

Nick Carter is off duty

And on a savage kidnapper's trail!

Killmaster #251

Nick Carter needed a rest. A few weeks, a private yacht, the Mediterranean, and the beautiful Chandra Braxton. The perfect vacation.

Perfect. Except for the unexpected abductions, and his holiday becomes a high stakes death race where politics, intrigue, and terror are the ultimate enemies. If he loses, he'll get all the rest he ever needs..in his own grave!

Printing History

Written by Jack Canon

Berkley Publishing Group

Jove Books

Published by arrangement with The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

ISBN 515 10060

July 1989

Smithsonian Day

Today is Smithsonian Day

The Smithsonian is home to 137 million artifacts works of art, and speciments

James Smithson was an English chemist, mineralogist and an Oxford graduate. He devoted his life to science, as well he authored 27 published papers on mineralogy. Smithson did not even visit the USA, but when he died in 1829 he left his entire estate to the United States to found an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. This establishment was to be founded in Washington D.C. and to be called the Smithsonian Institution.

His bequest was sent to the US in the form of gold sovereigns filling 11 boxes, along with his personal papers, minerals, and library. The gold was sent to the Treasury in Philadelphia for a total over $500,000.

There are 19 different museums and galleries in the Smithsonian complex. One of the most popular exhibits in the Smithsonian is the Star Spangled Banner Flag, also called the Great Garrison flag. The flag flew over  Baltimore's Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. The flag was sewn by Mary Pickergill with 15 star and stripes in 1813 for the sum of over $405. The flag has undergone several restorations, first in 1914 and the most recent in 1999.

The National Air and Space Museum is home to a lunar roving vehicle, The B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, and Eugene Cernan's spacesuit. Cernan was the last person to walk on the moon on December 14, 1972.

USA Fiction Challenge: Maine

The next stop on the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge is the beautiful state of Maine.

Presenting
Murder Most Maine 

by Karen MacInerney

It's springtime on Cranberry Island, and love is in the air. It seems like every woman has the hots for buff trainer Dirk De Leon. He and his equally gorgeous business partner, Vanessa Black, are leading a weight-loss retreat at the Gray Whale Inn. Forcing innkeeper Natalie Barnes to lighten up her butter laden breakfast menu. The mood on the island darkens when two grisly discoveries are made. The first is a skeleton walled up at the island's lighthouse. The second is a corpse of the fresh variety. The handsome Dirk! Could the spirit that once embodied the skeletal remains, perhaps the lighthouse keeper who disappeared a century ago, be responsible for Dirk's death?

Printing History
 Written by Karen MacInerney

Midnight Ink Books
November 2008
ISBN 978-0738713007