I’ve read dozens of Carter Brown’s Al Wheeler mysteries featuring a randy but clever police investigator. Carter Brown had several other series including the Rick Holman series. Rick Holman is a Hollywood “fixer.” When movie studios have “problems” they call Rick Holman. Of course Holman’s rates are extremely high…but he gets results!
In The Jade-Eyed Jungle, a sexy redhead from Italy is cheating on her lover. Shots are fired. But, were the shots aimed at the starlet…or her lover. The head of the studio hires Rick Holman to find out.
The normal Carter Brown shenanigans show up: sexy suspects, thugs, a tricky mystery, and Rick Holman’s life threatened. If you enjoyed All Wheeler novels, you’ll also find the Rick Holman series a lot of fun, too! And don’t forget the marvelous Robert McGinnis covers! GRADE: B+
THE RICK HOLMAN SERIES:
| Zelda | (1961) | |
| Murderer Among Us | (1962) | |
| Murder in the Key Club / Harem Club | (1962) | |
| Jade Eyed Jungle | (1963) | |
| The Jade-Eyed Jungle | (1963) | |
| Never Was Girl | (1964) | |
| Who Killed Dr. Sex? | (1964) | |
| Murder Is a Package Deal | (1964) | |
| Girl from Outerspace | (1965) | |
| Nude with a View | (1965) | |
| The Girl from Outer Space | (1965) | |
| Wind-up Doll | (1965) | |
| Blonde on a Broomstick | (1966) | |
| Play Now… Kill Later | (1966) | |
| Long Time No Leola | (1967) | |
| Deadly Kitten | (1967) | |
| Die Anytime after Tuesday | (1969) | |
| The Flagellator | (1969) | |
| Streaked Blond Slave | (1969) | |
| A Good Year for Dwarfs? | (1970) | |
| The Hang-up Kid | (1970) | |
| The Coven | (1971) | |
| The Invisible Flamini | (1971) | |
| Phreak Out | (1973) | |
| Negative in Blue | (1974) | |
| Ride the Roller Coaster | (1975) | |
| See It Again, Sam | (1979) | |
| The Phantom Lady | (1980) | |
| The Swingers | (1980) |
If I could get a cover artist like McGinnis, I could buy a villa in Italy!
Dan, you should send your next novel to STARK HOUSE. Then there’s a chance of a McGinnis cover!
I read a lot of Carter Brown books during my hardboiled days! Al Wheeler, Danny Boyd, Mavis Seidlitz,, and others! Fun and fast-paced entertainment!
Bob, I grew up reading Carter Brown in the 1960s. I loved all the series he wrote! Fun, fun, fun!
I’ve read Al Wheeler and Mavis Seidlitz books, but not Rick Holmans.
Jeff, the Rick Holman mysteries always center around the movie industry. A nice change of pace.
For me, the Rick Holman books were never quite as good as his other series — great reading, a lot of fun, but never quite reaching the high mark of the others.
I sometimes think the only reason I made it through college was because of Carter Brown and lots of beer; there would be times when I would read up to five Carter Browns a day — they were far more interesting than my classes and (strangely) my constantly reading them did not affect my grades. Go figure.
Jerry, when I was working as a consultant in the mid-1970s and found myself stuck at O’Hare Airport for hours, I read two or three Carter Brown books. They just melted the time away!
I might have written about this before:
In 1962 I started at university, taking the train every day from my little “birth town) for an hour. On the way from the tain station to university I passed the America House (ver nice library, wonderful books) and three book stores!
In one I saw a Carter Brown novel with its sexy picture – so I had to buy this! And a few more followed, ok it gor a bit boring …
In the other store I saw SF magazines, Astounding/Analog – that was the end for Carter Brown!
The third store which still exists was for science and maths books.
Wolf, I read a lot of Carter Brown books in the 1960s. Like you I eventual moved on to Science Fiction and later, mysteries.