Wednesday, July 29, 2015

The Thousand Coffins Affair by Michael Avallone

In several towns around the world, a devastating new weapon is being tested by Thrush. Ultra sonic waves make up the killing power of this new device which turns its victims into screaming, mindless shapes babbling incoherent nonsense before dying a very painful death.


In Utangaville, Africa, it took two days. In Spayerwood, Scotland, it happened overnight. In each town, the people suddenly turned into mindless, babbling creatures who thrashed about wildly, uttering weird, half-human cries, then died. Doctors & scientists were baffled as to the cause. A sudden plague, some mysterious virus? But to the members of the United Network Command for Law & Enforcement, there could be only one answer: THRUSH had a deadly new weapon for world conquest.

Printing History
Written by Michael Avallone (1924-1999)

Ace Books
G-553
April 1965 

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Origin Of A Vendetta by Jerry Ahern

No one can escape the past
Those who try must pay the price



Even though Dan Track had buried his sister a decade before after she died in a car wreck with her scientist husband. Now an agent for the KGB claims that she is still alive and living in captivity in the Soviet Union. An offer to help find and free her sounds too good and Track has to wonder if it isn't a plot to capture him.

Printing History
Written by Jerry Ahern (1946-2012)

Harlequin Books
Gold Eagle Books
ISBN 373 62005
January 1985

Monday, July 27, 2015

On The Secret Service Of His Majesty, The Queen by Sol Weinstein

OY-OY-7 Strikes Again


It’s dire times for Israeli intelligence agency M 33 and 1/3. Auntie Sem-Heidt and her sinister agents of TUSH have been killing off Hebrew agents, as part of a devious plan to eradicate Jewish culture at its base. And in the midst of this, turmoil, super agent Israel Bond finds himself stuck with the job of protecting Baldroi LeFagel, the half-arab and all-fabulous new King of Sahd Sakistan. Will the Star of David-lovin’ Agent Oy-Oy-7 be willing to handle all of the crosses needed for this assignment crossing physical boundaries, moral boundaries, and even cross-dressing, or will all this mishugas leave him cross-eyed and just plain cross?

Printing History
Written by Sol Weinstein

Playboy Magazine
July and August 1966

Pocket Books
September 1966

Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell

Before she is given the chance to avenge her family's murder, Stephanie Patrick must become a trained assassin named Petra.



Stephanie Patrick is an agent with Magenta House.She was a willful teenager just entering college, full of rebellion and wanting little to do with her family. She knew there was still a lot of love but she could not bring herself to admit it. When they planned a trip to Europe and she was expected to go, she fought and used any excuse to avoid it. This made the trauma of learning the plane had exploded in flight, killing her entire family, leaving her alone and with tremendous guilt. She suffered a complete breakdown. To cope, Stephanie turned to booze and when the money ran out and she needed some way to buy the liquor to drown the memories, she turned to turning tricks to survive. It was not long before she no longer really cared if she lived or died. That was when a man named Proctor showed up and told her plainly and bluntly that he had proof the explosion, and thus the deaths, was no accident. Proctor, a freelance writer who wrote travelogues and reviews and the occasional news article, was kind to her and took her in. He treated her well, helped her sober up, and did not expect anything in return. When he was murdered, she suddenly had something to live for......revenge. That is when she was approached by Magenta House, an ultra-secret government agency that does not exist. There is no official record of it nor is there any listing of the agents. The name its people call their organization is not official, either, as the name refers to the first building they used when they were established, a run-down forty-year old leading building that was an anonymous as the people inside. The purpose of this group is to take the intelligence other departments come up with. Given a chance to find the truth and exact revenge, she agrees to work for Magenta House though their methods seem hardly better than the people she wants to find.

Printing History
Written by Mark Burnell (1964- ) 

Harper-Collins
January 2000

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Licence Renewed by John Gardner

James Bond is Back


Anton Murik is a nuclear physicist with a major chip on his shoulder. Having had his design for a safe nuclear power plant ignored by the industry and his ideas ridiculed by the academic community, he is out to prove he is right. This will need the meltdown of six different reactors across Europe. With the 00 service mothballed due to budget restraints, MI6 has only one agent still around to send, so James Bond, who now has his license to kill renewed.

 Printing History
Written by John Gardner (1926-2007)

Jonathan Cape (UK)
ISBN 0 224 01941
May 1981

GP Putnam's Sons
April 1981

Coronet Books
1982

Berkley Books
May 1982

Bonus Covers


Germany




Tuesday, July 14, 2015

No Biz Like Showbiz by Julie Moffett

A Lexi Carmichael Mystery 





 Geek extraordinaire Lexi Carmichael is back for a fun and engaging story. As Director of Information Security for X-Corp, a cyber intelligence firm, Lexi uses her vast skills and knowledge to solve whatever problems are sent her way. Lexi’s latest case has her traveling to Hollywood to join the crew of the newest and hottest reality show “Geeks Get Some”. A hacker with malicious intent has infiltrated the show’s computer system and is manipulating the audience vote as to who gets sent home each week. Since Lexi is appalled by the show’s premise, she has some sympathy for the hacker but has a job to do. She must find out who is doing this and stop him or her. Things go from bad to worse when the hacker causes Lexi a great deal of stress and personal embarrassment. Lexi makes it her mission to find the hacker no matter the cost.

 
Printing History
Written by 

Harlequin Digital Sales Corp
Carina Press
July 2014

Monday, July 13, 2015

No Way Out (1987)

No Way Out 

At an inaugural ball, US Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell meets a woman, Susan Atwell, and they begin an affair, although she is involved with another man. Later, Farrell begins to work at the Pentagon for the US Secretary of Defense, David Brice. Soon, Farrell learns that the other man in Susan's life is Brice, who in turn learns of Susan's infidelity. While demanding the name of her lover, Brice accidentally kills her in a jealous rage. Ready to turn himself in, Brice is persuaded by his General Counsel, Scott Pritchard, to cover it up and blame it on someone else. They concoct a story that Susan's other lover was a suspected but unconfirmed KGB sleeper agent code-named "Yuri."



Cast

Kevin Costner as Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell, US Navy
Gene Hackman as Secretary of Defense David Brice
Will Patton as Scott Pritchard
Sean Young as Susan Atwell
George Dzundza as Sam Hesselman
Howard Duff as Senator Duvall
Jason Bernard as Major Donovan, CID
Fred Dalton Thompson as CIA Director Marshall
Iman as Nina Beka


Based on this film from 1948


Cast

Ray Milland as George Stroud
Charles Laughton as Earl Janoth
Maureen O'Sullivan as Georgette Stroud
George Macready as Steve Hagen
Rita Johnson as Pauline York
Elsa Lanchester as Louise Patterson
Harry Morgan as Bill Womack
 
Both films were based on the book published in 1946

Printing History
Written by Kenneth Fearing (1902-1961)

as The Judas Picture
The American Magazine
October 1946
 
Harcourt, Brace and Company 
1946

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Force 10 From Navarone by Alistair MacLean

Sequel to The Guns of Navarone



The store starts Immediately after the events portrayed in The Guns of Navarone, with Captain Keith Mallory and Corporal Dusty Miller assigned on a new mission code-named "Force 10". Mallory and Miller return to Navarone to recruit their comrade Andrea Stavros. They are joined by three young British Royal Marine Commandos, and are parachuted into Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. There they attempt to aid the Yugoslav Partisans in their battle against the Nazi German occupiers and their Chetnik collaborators.


Printing History
Written by Alistair Stuart MacLean (1922-1987)

HarperCollins (UK)
Doubleday (USA)
1968

The Film

1978
Directed by Guy Hamilton


Cast

Robert Shaw as Maj. Keith Mallory
Harrison Ford as Col. Barnsby
Edward Fox as Sgt. Miller
Barbara Bach as Maritza Petrović
Franco Nero as Capt. Lescovar/Col. von Ingorslebon
Carl Weathers as Sgt. Weaver
Richard Kiel as Capt. Dražak
Alan Badel as Maj. Petrović
Michael Byrne as Maj. Schroeder
Philip Latham as Commander Jensen
Angus MacInnes as Lt. Doug Reynolds
Michael Sheard as Sgt. Bauer

Monday, July 6, 2015

For Men Only Magazine January 1967

 Featuring

Spykill Nude
by James Leasor

Carnival Nympho
by Anthony Cooper



Printing History

For Men Only
Newsstand Publications, Inc.
Volume 14 No.1 
January 1967
                   

Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Notebooks by Sam Picard

Mort Beach took the photograph.......
Now he is dead.
Two men found the photograph........
Now they are dead.
John Scott has the photograph..........
Now he is running for his life.


A friend took a photograph as part of an assignment. When he developed the film and saw what he had captured, he contacted John Scott but was dead soon after. Now someone wants John Scott dead as well.


Printing History
Written by DeWitt S Copp (1919-1999)

Universal Publishing & Distributing Corp
Award Books
A473X 
1969

A767S
1970

Bonus Cover



Friday, July 3, 2015

The XYY Man by Kenneth Royce

A one-time cat-burglar leaves prison aiming to go straight but finds his talents still to be very much in demand by both the criminal underworld and the British secret service.


Spider Scott is pressured into pulling job for MI-5. All he had to do was steal one small box from one easy safe. But it was inside the Chinese Legation and Spider was being set up by his own government. 


TV Series
1976-1977


 Starring Stephen Yardley

Printing History
Written by Kenneth Royce (1920-1997)

Hodder and Stoughton
June 1970
 
Chivers North America
1970