> I also picked up a couple
> of "Nick Carter" books, on the strength of
information received on this
> list about some of the authors who ghosted for the
series.I have THE
> JUDAS SPY & SPY CASTLE.
> Could Bill Crider or one of the several other
experts in this area tell
> me who the real author/s is/are & anything else
relevant, i.e, are they
> any good, etc?
> Also, I haven't read any of the Quiller books - is
this a good one?
SPY CASTLE is by Manning Lee Stokes, who wrote a bunch of the
early Nick Carters. The authorship of THE JUDAS SPY is more
problematical. At first Lyle Kenyon Engel (the packager of
the Nick Carter series) thought he was dealing with an old
pulp writer named William L. Rohde on this and several other
books in the series. Then there was some indication that it
was really another author, a guy named Al Hine, pretending to
be William L. Rohde (why anybody would do that, I don't
know). What's odd is that about five years later, Al Hine
wrote a couple more Carters, but not pretending to be Rohde
this time. The whole story on this is in an interview with
Lyle Kenyon Engel published in Gary Lovisi's magazine
Paperback Parade many years ago.
As to whether they're any good or not, it's been over thirty
years since I read them. I seem to remember liking THE JUDAS
SPY a little better than SPY CASTLE. All those early Carters
are pretty entertaining if you don't set your expectations
too high. They're nowhere near the level of the Matt Helm
books, or even the Sam Durell series.
I thought all of the Quiller novels were pretty good. I
believe THE 9TH DIRECTIVE was the first one I read and I went
on to read the others, so I must have liked it.
Best, James
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