Between 1954 and 1984 Alan Geoffrey Yates published 215 “Carter Brown” novels. Although the 52 Al Wheeler books were the most popular series, I’m fond of the 28 books in the Danny Boyd series, too. Summer is a great time to play Catch-Up on long-running series so I decided to read a couple Carter Brown mysteries from the Sixties starting with The Ice-Cold Nude.
Billed as “New York City’s toughest private eye,” Danny Boyd is both tough and smart. Boyd also shares the same smugness that saturates Al Wheeler and is inordinately proud of his profile. In The Ice-Cold Nude Boyd is hired to investigate a theft of a diamond tiara during a Beauty Contest in California. As usual in a Carter Brown novel, the bodies mount up as Boyd gleans clues from the suspects in the heist. After a Near-Death Experience, Danny Boyd solves the case with panache. GRADE: B
I’m also fan of the 35 Rick Holman mysteries Yates wrote. Rick Holman specializes in solving “problems” of Hollywood stars and celebrities. Rick considers himself as an “industrial consultant.” Most of the time Holman’s clients are Hollywood bigshots: producers, actors, and directors. Sex and drugs are often involved, with blackmail, extortion and large sums of money added to the mix.
In The Blonde on the Rocks, starlet Della August hires Rick Holman to discover why she’s been blacklisted in Hollywood. She hasn’t worked in six months and frequently receives whispered threats on her phone. Show business detective Rick Holman follows a trail of murder and extortion to discover who is behind the plot to ruin Della August. Are you a Carter Brown fan? GRADE; B+
Publication Order of Danny Boyd Books:
| The Ever-Loving Blues / Death of a Doll | (1956) | |
| Eve, It’s Extortion / The Victim / Walk Softly, Witch | (1956) | |
| Tempt a Tigress | (1958) | |
| Suddenly By Violence | (1959) | |
| Terror Comes Creeping | (1959) | |
| The Dream Is Deadly | (1960) | |
| Graves, I Dig! / Cutie Wins a Corpse | (1960) | |
| The Wayward Wahine / The Wayward | (1960) | |
| The Myopic Mermaid / A Siren Sounds Off | (1960) | |
| The Sad-Eyed Seductress / The Seductress | (1961) | |
| The Savage Salome | (1961) | Revised edition of Murder is My Mistress |
| Angel! | (1962) | |
| The Ice-Cold Nude | (1962) | |
| Lover Don’t Come Back! | (1962) | |
| Nymph to the Slaughter | (1963) | |
| The Passionate Pagan | (1963) | |
| Silken Nightmare | (1963) | |
| Catch Me a Phoenix | (1965) | |
| The Sometime Wife | (1965) | |
| The Black Lace Hangover | (1966) | |
| House of Sorcery | (1967) | |
| The Mini-Murders | (1968) | |
| Murder Is the Message | (1969) | |
| Only the Very Rich | (1969) | |
| The Coffin Bird | (1970) | |
| The Sex Clinic | (1971) | |
| Manhattan Cowboy | (1973) | |
| So Move the Body | (1973) | |
| The Early Boyd | (1975) | |
| The Pipes Are Calling | (1976) | |
| Savage Sisters | (1976) | |
| The Strawberry Blonde Jungle | (1979) | |
| Rip-Off | (1979) | |
| Kiss Michelle Goodbye | (1981) | |
| The Real Boyd | (1984) |
Publication Order of Rick Holman Books:
| The Ever-Loving Blues / Death of a Doll | (1956) | |
| The Swingers | (1961) | |
| Zelda | (1961) | |
| A Murderer Among Us | (1962) | |
| Murder in the Key Club / Murder in the Harem Club | (1962) | |
| Blonde on the Rocks | (1963) | |
| The Jade-Eyed Jungle / The Jade-Eyed Jinx | (1963) | |
| The White Bikini / The Ballad of Loving Jenny | (1963) | |
| Wind-Up Doll | (1964) | |
| The Never-Was Girl | (1964) | |
| Murder Is a Package Deal | (1964) | |
| Who Killed Dr. Sex? | (1964) | |
| The Girl from Outer Space | (1965) | |
| Nude with a View | (1965) | |
| Blonde on a Broomstick | (1966) | |
| No Tears from the Widow | (1966) | |
| Play Now… Kill Later | (1966) | |
| Deadly Kitten | (1967) | |
| Long Time No Leola | (1967) | |
| Die Anytime, After Tuesday | (1969) | |
| The Flagellator | (1969) | |
| Streaked-Blond Slave | (1969) | |
| The Hang-Up Kid | (1970) | |
| A Good Year for Dwarfs? | (1970) | |
| Where Did Charity Go? | (1970) | |
| The Coven | (1971) | |
| The Invisible Flamini | (1971) | |
| Pornbroker | (1972) | |
| The Master | (1973) | |
| Phreak Out | (1973) | |
| Negative in Blue | (1974) | |
| The Star-Crossed Lover | (1974) | |
| Ride the Roller Coaster | (1975) | |
| Remember Maybelle? | (1976) | |
| See It Again, Sam | (1979) | |
| The Phantom Lady | (1980) | |
| Wicked Widow | (1981) |
I think I have mentioned before that Carter Brown helped get me through college. (Well, that and three convenient barrooms near my dormitory.) There were days when I would read two, three, or even four Carter Browns rather than study.
Jerry, in the mid-1970s I was working for a consulting company that sent me all over the U.S. I spend tons of hours in airports where I would read Carter Brown books while I waited for my delayed flights. Sometimes I read two or three before my flight finally started to board…
Like John D. MacDonald, once a staple on drugstore and newsstand spinner racks. All gone now, alas. The two shown must be later (re)printings. Seventy-five cents for a paperback–what nerve!
Fred, you’re right! I have some early Carter Browns that only cost a quarter!
I became aware of him and his work in the 75c era, when I was young enough that 6 bits was a major expenditure, so my quarters tended to go toward Dell “Hitchcock” paperbacks and even a few comics, still (MAD I stuck with till I was about 13). Even at this late date, I’ve yet to read a “Brown” novel…(even my father, who would buy suspense novels along with his sf in the periods where he was away on temporary or transitional assignment, usually would plump for the likes of Robert Serling or Frederick Forsyth instead, or at least didn’t bother to ever bring any Carter Browns home with him, so my backup plan was quashed, and I don’t remember seeing too many if any in the library;s adult spinner racks…).
Todd, I have NEVER seen a Carter Brown in a Library. I haven’t even seen them at Library Book Sales (and I’ve been to hundreds).
Fond memories!
In the early 60s I still lived with my parents (no money for a room in the university town Tübingen) and took the train each morning (one hour ride, much time to read …) after which there was a walk of maybe 20 mintes where I pased either the “America House” (The library still exists, visited it a few days ago) or a row of bookstores.
One of them often had Carter Brown titles with those beautiful women an I couldn’t resist …
So Carter Brown helped with my English knowledge (learned French and Latin at high school) – thanks a lot!
Wolf, Carter Brown books were everywhere in the 1960s. The spinner racks were full of them! Even in the 1970s, Carter Brown books were common in used bookstores and thrift stores. But now, Carter Brown books are scarce.
I found a few more uswd ones (and other authors too) in the last years of the last century in Lodon.
The Fanasy Centre had some and then there was “Murder One” – in the center of the city.
Both have been closed of course for several years – a real pity …
Sorry for all those mistakes – because I switch so often between German and English texts I don’t use a spellchecker.
Too complicated for a senior citizen like me …
No spinner racks in my area and the library didn’t carry this sort of book so I have never read one.
Patti, spinner racks were ubiquitous in the 1960s in drug stores, department stores, and bookstores. And, many of them were loaded with Carter Browns!
As mentioned previously, I always looked for the early Horwitz editions from Australia that- at the time, at least – hadn’t been published in the U.S. I found a number of those digest-size editions while trawling through British bookstores and charity shops.
Jeff, STARK HOUSE has reprinted some of those early Al Wheeler Australian novels that never made it to the U.S.
A whole lot of paperback spinner racks in ’50s-”80s drug stores and supermarkets and such were maintained by the same (local) distributors’ “rack jobbers” who brought them their daily papers and newsstand magazine (including comic books, usually on their own spinners).
Wolf, no shame in typos, or at least less so do you than we native speakers…our elder cat is asking for, and getting, my attention over the last hour, but even so…9and not as sustained attention she would like, but she keeps wandering away, after a round of petting and scritching, to her supper. And then back.
Fond memories re cats and dogs – we always had one of each.
But when we had to send our white tomcat over the rainbow bridge because he was so much in pain (probably because of some rat poison distributed by an idit in the neighbourhood) we decided not to have another animal.When you’re over 80 there’s obviously a risk of not being able anymore to care for your animals – so now we have fun with our neighbouss: animals. Some of them even ente our house – maybe to look in the kitchen for food?