Since several people seem interested, here's another Flicker set of action series pb covers. Some of you who read the comments might have doubted Jeff Meyerson's memory of Pepperoni Hero. Doubt no more. Actually, this is an interesting and well-done series, a Travis McGee pastiche. There were at least three of them, all well worth looking for.
Warren Murphy's "Digger" series is a heck of a lot of fun, and Trace is just Digger with a different name. Murphy was, of course, half of the team that created the Destroyer series. The first book wasn't much, but the series subsequently went on to become one of the best of the bunch. My favorite, however, is Murphy's Razoni & Jackson series. The makers of Lethal Weapon liked it even more than I did.
I included three books that Steve Mertz and I had a hand in. Couldn't resist.
I also couldn't resist including some John Whitlatch covers, just because I like them. You can see, however, that they sadly degenerated before Whitlatch's career ended.
The Executioner is sort of the granddaddy of them all. The cover art wasn't so hot to begin with, but it improved. I threw in one of the "Jim Peterson" covers just for fun. That was the name used on the books during a contract dispute when Pendleton wasn't doing them.
Finally, I'm pretty sure "Robert Novak" is Nelson DeMille, but I'm too lazy to check.
10 comments:
Nice buncha covers, Bill. I seem to remember Ralph Hayes as being not bad at all--kind of a poor man's Aarons. Whitlach has always interested me, just not enough to read him. Any info available on him?
I asked James Reasoner about him, and (my memory not being what it once was) I think he said that Whitlatch died almost as soon as he started publishing. I read a couple of the books 30 years ago, and they're crude but effective. Great covers, too.
Whitlatch died before all of his books were published, that's for sure. But that's really all I know about him. I have some of the books but have never read any of them.
Didn't we write a proposal, maybe even chapters-and-outline, for a Dagger book?
Did you guys write as Jack Buchanan?
Never heard of Whitlatch, but sure seems interesting.
You don't probably know this, but a Finnish hack called Kari Nenonen wrote some new Marlowe Taggarts books as by Ralph Hayes for the Finnish publisher when the originals ran out (or the publisher ran out of money to be able to buy rights for the real thing). There were two, I think. Never read them, though. Will post scans on my blog at some point, but don't expect any immediate action.
Bill, I'm with you on Razoni & Jackson. Wild and crazy stuff. I need to go look for one to read.
James, I think we did write a DAGGER proposal. I wonder whatever happened to that? They should have bought it!
I've got all but about two Whitlatch books, (bought at a library book sale), and they're OK. The books were too similar for me to read more than two in a row, but they seemed to be getting better, and then...
I thought Murphy changed publishers because his Digger and Trace series were not Men's Adventure series...
Juri,
Bill was Jack Buchanan, but I never was. The only house-name books we collaborated on, as far as I can remember, were published under the name Matthew S. Hart. We were both William Grant, too, but at different times.
Bill,
Our DAGGER proposal was set in Katmandu, wasn't it? I'm sure I have a copy of it around here somewhere, but it might take a month to find it. That series was cancelled after the second book. They should have bought ours, though, so I could add it to the list of series I've killed off.
Digger was obviously publicized that way, but not Trace. I'm not sure why he changed houses with the series.
Katmandu! Has to be. I remember it, but I don't think I have a copy. I'll bet it was genius.
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