Re: RARA-AVIS: Old Nick

From: James Reasoner ( james53@flash.net)
Date: 20 Dec 2000


----- Original Message ----- From: "Juri Nummelin" < jurnum@utu.fi> To: < rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2000 2:09 PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Old Nick

> James Reasoner wrote:
>
> > Avallone wrote the first two books in
> > the series, _Run Spy Run_ and _The China Doll_, but Lyle Kenyon Engel
fired
> > him in the middle of the third book, _Saigon_, supposedly at the urging
of
> > the editor at Award Books. _Saigon_ was finished by Valerie Moolman,
who
> > went on to write several more Carters on her own.
>
> I thought that the Avallones were pretty dull. Not even up to his crazy
stuff
> standards.
>
> Juri

Avallone always claimed he invented everything about the series except the Nick Carter name (AXE, the N3 Killmaster designation, the dedication to the men and women of the Secret Services, the weapons, etc.). Engel always claimed that *he* invented all that stuff and handed it to Avallone. With both of them gone, I guess we'll never know for sure. I've always felt the truth was probably somewhere in the middle.

The early books by Valerie Moolman and Manning Lee Stokes are pretty good. The first Nick Carter I ever read was Moolman's _Hanoi_, and then I gobbled up every one I could get my hands on for several years. Of course, I was about 14 at the time and the frequent sex scenes probably contributed heavily to my liking for the series.

James

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