Desmond Cory Books In Order

Publication Order of Johnny Fedora Books

Publication Order of John Dobie Books

Publication Order of Lindy Grey Books

Publication Order of Mr. Dee Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Desmond Cory is a pen name that was employed by British author Shaun Lloyd McCarthy. He was born in Sussex on February 16, 1928, and passed away on January 31, 2001.

He attended Steyner Grammar School, moving on to St. Peter’s College at Oxford after completing National Service in the Royal Marines. There he read a lot of literature. The author was just nineteen years old when he began writing his Johnny Fedora series, and saw the first one published in 1951 just as he was in the process of graduating university.

His books have been released in over ten languages. In the course of his lifetime, his books also won several awards, extending to the Best Crime Novel of the Year from the Sunday Times to Choice of the Year from Crime Critic.

Cory began writing as a career, working as a technical translator in Cordoba, Spain. He then put together his academic career with writing his own fiction using the pen name Desmond Cory, initially at the University of Cardiff and then at several others. He retired to Malaga in 1996 with his wife.

Throughout the course of his career, Cory was able to pen over 45 novels. He also came up with serial characters that include the popular Johnny Fedora, a British secret agent with a debonair way about him. He also was the writer of screenplays for Graham Greene novels, and many of his own works appeared as movies and television thriller series.

Cory was a writer for the 1958 movie Mark of the Phoenix and was a writer for the adaptation of his 1965 novel Deadfall into a popular 1968 20th Century Fox movie by the same name directed by Bryan Forbes and starring Michael Caine. Cory also was a writer for the 1973 movie England Made Me and the 1980 television series Armchair Thriller, which consisted of six episodes. Many of his novels were also serialized and broadcast on BBC Radio.

The thriller writer has been one of the more prolific authors to come out of England. Cory wrote over the course of forty years, using multiple pen names along the way, since his work was that much in demand. His works have since been covered by academics in various books about mystery and thriller literature.

Cory is also credited with coming up with the original secret agent with a license to kill. Readers and movie viewers these days may associate this style of character with James Bond, but before there was ever 007 there was the James Bond for the thinking man, none other than Johnny Fedora.

Secret Ministry is the first fictional novel in the Johnny Fedora Espionage Assignment series by Desmond Cory. It was first released in 1951. The New York Times Book Review praised this novel, saying it was penned with ‘finesse, economy, and humor’ and enjoyed its ‘inventive plotting’. Newcastle Journal also enjoyed Desmond Cory’s debut in the series, praising his pace that ‘few thriller writers’ can compete with and his ‘ingenuity of setting’. Manchester Evening News called it ‘gripping’.

This is the first novel where main character Johnny Fedora makes his entrance. Germany may have been defeated as a country, but some of Hitler’s men are still out there and the group is still maiming and killing. Only now they’ve got a new place to hide out, and that’s London.

Johnny Fedora has a simple mission, to destroy this group by going into their world and tearing them apart. If anyone out there can do it, he can. But as usual, he’s got his work cut out for him, and getting the mission done won’t be easy. Johnny Fedora’s used to taking on tough scenarios and coming out on top. Can he complete his assignment and get the job done? Read this detective thriller to find out!

This Traitor Death is the second novel in the Johnny Fedora series by Desmond Cory. This thriller novel was first published in 1952. The Times 1966 called it as ‘fast’ and ‘furious’ as anything in ‘this Bond Age’. Buffalo Evening News in 1966 said that the only complaint that could be had about Cory’s story was that the excitement was ‘over too soon’.

The woman was known as The Nightingale, otherwise going by the moniker ‘Le Rossignol’. She was a spy for Hitler, and one of the most effective and beautiful one that he had. She is also the only one who could actually lead a group to return to Nazi power since she’s got access to German gold that has not been recovered– and is in the millions.

This is precisely what British Intelligence thinks that The Nightingale is doing. Then there’s Johnny Fedora, a man who has his own reputation about him. Known as a legend for fighting the Nazis all through the war, he is one of the men out there that is intimately familiar with their treacherous ways.

It’s for this reason that the British Intelligence decided that he would be equipped with a new name and face and given one order for his mission. His goal, should he choose to accept it, is to take down the Nightingale for good. While he may not be the first person to try and do this, it is essential that he be the first one to actually make it happen.

Taking place two years before the first James Bond story by Ian Fleming, Johnny Fedora was the original asset for British Intelligence, the intelligent assassin with a license to kill. If you love James Bond but have never discovered Johnny Fedora, you owe it to yourself to give this original legend a try!

Desmond Cory brings the thinking person’s Bond to life and the readers follow along as he sets out to accomplish the only thing that he knows how to do, which is take care of business– British intelligence style. Check out this detective thriller series and see for yourself how Johnny Fedora gets things done when the stakes are high and everything’s stacked against him.