Nick Carter Killmaster Series

[scott1964]

When I started reading way back when I came across the Nick carter Killmaster series in high school. I have since read the entire series of 260 books and the only short novel and short story combo. It was interesting to read about the tension of the 60's and 70's as well as the vernacular of that time. The whole lot of spies and such was entertaining. The series was produced by Lyle Engel up until 1973. Varous authors had their hand in writing. Ultimately the series ran from Feburary 1964 until May 1990, with the three book companies it endured.

[The D-Molisher]

Yes, this is definitely an exciting series. I have read a few of them, a couple from the sixties and one from the eighties. There have the perfect blend of violence and pornography for my taste. The three books that I read were somewhat hokey, especially the earlier ones, yet they had bitter, jaded overtones.

[PMP Webmaster]

Over the weekend I read #220, Operation Petrograd. It was written in, I believe, 1987. There were only a couple of sex scenes and they were relatively timid - only one of them was really gratuitous.

As for the violence, that was also pretty tame compared to, say, your average Death Merchant or Executioner novel. Carter took out a few guys in hand-to-hand, then shot/gas bombed the rest. The character's choice of weapons alone makes it hard for him to rack up a huge body count unless he's grabbing guns off of dead guys. In this book he manages to swipe a machine pistol off one guy and takes out a few more KGB grunts with it. Later on he packs a suppressed MAC-10 and hoses a few more baddies with it, but in both cases, it's relatively quick and to the point, not a pages-long examination of where each bullet ends up.

All in all, better than I feared. I'll have to read a couple more to get a more informed opinion.

[doug]

This is a favorite series of mine -- though the books were written by so many different people that it's hard to make general judgements about quality. It would be really useful if some genius would post actual authors of the installments.

I somewhere have OPERATION MOON ROCKET, which I don't remember much about except it has something to do with early moon shots and was okay in an early-Sixties kind of way, and BERLIN, a large part of which took place in a decadent European castle right out of a cheapo Eurocult picture of the era. That one rocked, if I remember right.

doug

[scott1964]

I have authors for the majority of the series. Will post if anyone wants them.

[Doug Bassett]

scott1964 said:

I have authors for the majority of the series. Will post if anyone wants them.

I'm certainly interested! Please! ;D ;D ;D

[scott1964]

1964
Run Spy Run...Micheal Avallone/Valerie Moolman
China Doll.......Micheal Avallone/Valerie Moolman
Checkmate In Rio....Valerie Moolman
Safari For Spies.......Valerie Moolman
Fraulein Spy............Valerie Moolman
Saigon.............Micheal Avallone/Valerie Moolman

1965
A Bullet For Fidel.....Valerie Moolman
The 13th Spy..........Valerie Moolman
Eyes Of The Tiger....Manning Lee Stokes
Istanbul..................Manning Lee Stokes

1966
Web Of Spies........Manning Lee Stokes
Spy Castle.............Manning Lee Stokes
Terrible Ones.........Valerie Moolman
Dragon Flame........Manning Lee Stokes
Hanoi.....................Valerie Moolman
Danger Key............Lew Louderback
Operation Starvation....Nicholas Brown
Mind Poisoners........Lionel White/Valerie Moolman

[scott1964]

1967
The Weapon Of Night..........Valerie Moolman
The Golden Serpent.............Manning Lee Stokes
Mission To Venice.................Manning Lee Stokes
Double Indentity..................Manning Lee Stokes
The Devil's Cockpit...............Manning Lee Stokes
The Chinese Paymaster.......Nicholas Brown
Seven Against Greece..........Nicholas Brown
A Korean Tiger.....................Manning Lee Stokes
Assignment: Israel...............Manning Lee Stokes
The Red Guard.....................Manning Lee Stokes
The Filthy Five......................Manning Lee Stokes

1968
The Bright Blue Death..........Nicholas Brown
Macao..................................Manning Lee Stokes
Operation: Moon Rocket......Lew Louderback
The Judas Spy.....................William L Rohdes
Hood of Death.....................William L Rohdes
Amsterdam...........................William L Rohdes
Temple Of Fear....................Manning Lee Stokes
14 Seconds To Hell..............Jon Messmann

1969
The Defector.......................George Synder (3rd)
Carnival For Killing..............Jon Messmann (3rd)
Rhodesia............................William L Rohdes (3rd)
The Red Rays.....................Manning Lee Stokes (1st)
Peking/The Tulip Affair........Arnold Marmor (3rd)
The Amazon.......................Jon Messmann (3rd)
The Sea Trap......................Jon Messmann (3rd)
Berlin.................................Jon Messmann (1st)
The Human Time Bomb......William L Rohdes (3rd)
The Cobra Kill.....................Manning Lee Stokes (1st Standard)
The Living Death................Jon Messmann
Operation Che Guevara.....Jon Messmann
The Doomsday Formula......Jon Messmann
Operation Snake................Jon Messmann
The Casbah Killers.............Jon Messmann

[mk]

Hey man , can't u rite a good sypnosis of the books ?? I will really appreciate it if u do.

[Django The Bastard]

A good synopsis of every Killmaster adventure?!? Great guns! An undertaking of staggering proportions! If there is anyone out there who could say they read 'em all they would surely belong in the PMP hall of fame!

[PMP Webmaster]

Yup. There are more "Bolan" books if you count all the Executioners, Stony Mans, Able Teams, and Phoenix Force books, but there ARE something close to 370-400 Killmaster books out there. Better load up the beer fridge...

[Guest]

I've never read any Nick Carter, Killmaster, but enjoyed the goofy old time radio show. The novel BERLIN sounds like a good one, owing to my love for trashy euro-movies. Is that with Nazis, ghosts, cults or what? Can you recommend any other Killmaster novels with plot summaries? My local used bookstore has about as many Killmasters as they do Executioners!

[scott1964]

There are 261 and a half Killmaster books or titles. The best ones I found were the ones written in 1975 to 1976. Snake Flag Conspiracy, The List, Jersalem File, The Gallagher Plot, The Green Wolf Connection, etc.

[baronvoncool]

Thanks, Scott!

[scott1964]

I have started a new Nick Carter yahoo group in anyone is interested.