Recent purchase

Last week I spotted a 3rd printing of The China Doll on ebay. Received it today. Nice clean copy from July 1966.

Shroud For My Sugar: Carter Brown #7

Shroud For My Sugar is the seventh novel in the Carter Brown numbered series. This title was published in 1955. The main character is Mike Powers and he is a private eye. He meets a lady in by the name of Flame Tilson in a bar and walks into a murder case, the name was Siggy Houston.

Nick Carter #14 Dragon Flame

The situation was grave. The Chinese had the border sealed up so tight that a fly could not slip through. On the Hong Kong side the vicious group, Tiger Tong, waited and ready to kill anyone who attempted the Generals rescue. The General was badly wounded and was holed up in a temple not a mile from a thousand Chinese troops. Only a fool would try to cross the border and rescue the General. But the fool was none other than Nick Carter of AXE.

1st Award Printing                                       2nd Printing

3rd Printing                                        Tandem Printing

Printing History

Written by Lew Louderback

First Award Printing (A173F) May 1966

Second Award Printing (A311X) January 1968

Third Award Printing (A311X)1969

First Tandem Printing 1968

Tandem Reprint (4260 7026 7) 1973

Notes: A fourth Award Printing is out there and I do not have yet. Introduction of secondary character Fan Su, she will return in The Red Guard in 1967.

Nick Carter in the Caribbean

Nick Carter was sent to Dominica to investigate "Operation Blast". The Terrible Ones is the name of the title and they were beautiful full bodied long legged women to wage revenge on their dead terrorist husbands. The Chinese Communists planned to ring the United States with the biggest funeral wreath. That and the hundred million dollars left over by Dictator Trujillo, buried somewhere on the island. Nick Carter had his hands full. The Terrible Ones is the 13th Killmaster novel and the only one (that I know of) to be published by two different publishing houses in the UK.

Award Books

May 1966 1st Printing                       January 1968 2nd Printing

1970 4th Printing

Mayflower Books

1968 1st Printing                                         1970 2nd Printing

Mayflower and Star Books

1974 4th Printing                                       1979 1st Printing

Printing History

Written by Valerie Moolman

1st Award (A172F) May 1966

2nd Award (A310X) January 1968

1st Mayflower (8619-8) 1968

4th Award (A310X) 1970

2nd Mayflower (583 11175-0-2) 1970

3rd Mayflower 1970

4th Mayflower (583 11175-0-3) 1974

1st Star (352 30421-9) 1979

The Terrible Ones Notes: There is either a phantom 3rd printing from 1969 or an error on the 4th printing fly sleeve.

Chorine Makes A Killing

Chorine Makes a Killing was published by Horwitz Publications in 1957. This title was the 48th in the Numbered  Series. The main character was police lieutenant Al Wheeler. The story goes, Al is fired from the Pine City police force and gets employed by Hammon, Irvine & Snooks, attorneys at law. His job is a special investigator and his first case involves a blonde. The police were holding a big shot financier for a murder of a chorus girl.

Al Wheeler does return throughout the series. In the United States he appears some 44 times. And he appears slightly more times in Australia.

Web Of Spies: Nick Carter #11

Published with Spy Castle, Web Of Spies was also published in January 1966. As with Spy Castle, Manning Lee Stokes was credited as writing Web Of Spies. Those are the only similarities between both titles. In the UK Web Of Spies was published by Mayflower Books in 1967.

Somewhere in Spain's Costa Brava a beautiful Englishwomen was being seduced. Alicia Todd was one of the world's scientific brains. She was being persuaded to defect to the East. Nick Carter was somewhere in the area. His orders were the same as the Soviets, win Alicia Todd over or kill her. But there was a third group in the Costa Brava. Die Spinne..The Spinners. They were notorious for smuggling ex-Nazis out of Germany. Alicia Todd  was the bait.

Publishing History

First Award Printing (A163F) January 1966

Second Award Printing (A288X) September 1967

First Mayflower Printing (9441-8)  1967

Second Mayflower Printing 1968

Third Mayflower Printing (583 11393 1 2)1969

Fourth Mayflower Printing (583 11393 1 2) 1970

Fifth Mayflower Printing (583 11393 1 2) 1974

Second Award Printing                     First Mayflower Printing

1969 Edition                                                1970 Edition

1974 Edition

Spy Castle: Nick Carter #12

Spy Castle was the first title published by Award Books in January 1966 and was written by Manning Lee Stokes. This title was concurrently published with Web Of Spies.

Publishing History
First Award Printing (A166F) January 1966
Second Award Printing (A289X) September 1967
First Tandem Printing  1966
Second Tandem Printing (T174) September 1967
Third Tandem Printing 1973
Fourth Tandem Printing 1975


Britain's top secret group has been infiltrated and subverted. When the bomb goes off, heads of state from around the world receive Pendragon's ultimatum. Nick assumes his cover and meets with Gwen Leith in the Scottish Moors. He meets notorious Lady Brett Hardesty as he breaks in and out of a fortress. Nick wages a one man war against Pendragon.

Second printings from Award and Tandem

  






Notes: There are probably more Award printings with the same book number A289X. Notably from 1969 and 1970. Award had a habit of reprinting titles with the same book number through out the series.

Long Story Magazine

In July 1959 Horwitz Publications started Carter Brown Long Story Magazine. Each month a full length novel was published. Long Story Magazine ran for 21 issues until April 1961.These titles were also published on their own under the Numbered Series. In my collection I possess 12 volumes of the 21.

July 1959                                              August 1959

November 1959                                         December 1959

March 1960                                                May 1960

June 1960                                                July 1960

August 1960                                          September1960

October 1960                                           November 1960

All cover art was used on the original novels.

First Collectors Series

The First Collectors Series was published by Horowitz from December1954 until July 1955. There were  14 volumes, each consisting of three novelettes. The only volume I have is number 10.

First Collectors Series Volume 10

Notes: Chill on Chili and Butterfly Nett were published in 1953 as separate stories. Honky Tonk Homicide in 1954.

Carter Brown Second Collectors Series Volume 1

Horwitz began reissuing Carter Brown titles in December 1954 with 14 volumes, each with 3 novelettes. This first collectors series ran until July 1955. In 1957, Horwitz followed with a second collectors series with two volumes each with two regular sized novels. The second collectors series ran until 1960 and featured both novels and novelettes. The first editions correspond the original printing and the second editions are the Collectors Series printing.

Second Collectors Series Volume 1

                                     
Volume 1 No. 3  First Edition 1955 Second Edition 1957
Volume 1 No. 4  First Edition 1955 Second Edition 1957

  

Volume 1 No. 5  First Edition 1955 Second Edition 1957

Volume 1 No. 8  First Edition 1955 Second Edition 1957

Volume 1 No. 17  First Edition 1956 Second Edition 1958

Volume 1 No. 18  First Edition 1956 Second Edition 1958

 Volume 1 No. 21  First Edition 1956 Second Edition 1959

Notes:

Cyanide Sweeties was published under the title Cyanide Sweetheart in 1953.

Murder By Miss Take was published under the title Murder By Miss-Demeanour in 1956

Lady Is A Killer was published under the title The Lady Is Murder in 1951 (First Carter Brown Lovely Novelette).