Killmaster Books In Order

Publication Order of Nick Carter: Killmaster Books

Killmaster is a series of novels written by several authors who write under the pseudonym Nick Carter. Between 1964 and 1990, the series of novels were published like baseball cards with at least 261 titles in print by 1991. The first novel in the series was “Run, Spy, Run” that was first published in February 1964 and featured the lead protagonist Nick Carter. The Nick Carter character was not a new character as he was an update of a pulp fiction character that first appeared in a comic in 1886. With the first novel in the series flying off the shelves, the authors of the series turned prolific, publishing hundreds of novels in the ever more popular series. Even as no actual author is credited with the writing of the series, the novels are believed to have been written by Martin Cruz Smith, David Hagberg, Robert J. Randisi, Gayle Lynds, Dennis Lynds, Mnning Lee, Valerie Moolman, and Michael Avallone among several others. The Nick Carter series of novels were created to cash in on the James Bond phenomenon that was taking over the movies hence the creation of Nick Carter as a man’s man. With 261 titles in print, the Killmaster series of novels sold over 30 million copies by the time it wrapped up in 1991. The series has a fair amount of variation in quality and style though the quality is fairly similar, even as they are written by different authors. Even so the novels have some differences including some novels in which Carter is portrayed as a shoot first hero as opposed to the contemplative agent, and first person narration versus third person.

Nick Carter is described as a lean, tall, and handsome man with wide-set steel-gray eyes that speak to danger and a magnificent muscled body. He has dark thick hair, a firm cleft chin, laugh lines around the eyes, a firm straight mouth and a hard face. On the inside of his right lower arm is the perfect AXE agent ID – a small tattoo of an axe. He also has several battle scars including a shrapnel scar on the shoulder and a knife scar on the thigh. Nick is an avid yoga practitioner doing his meditations for at least 15 minutes a day. He also has a prodigious talent for learning the languages and is fluent in over ten languages and basic skills in half a dozen others. Carter’s knowledge of the languages comes in handy, particularly in the early titles when he adopts several disguises executing his missions around the world. Nick Carter prefers to use a triad of weapons during his missions, all of which have their unique histories and names. A stripped down German Luger he calls Wilhelmina is his main weapon and is a throwback from his World War II combat days. The Benvenuto Cellini made 4-century-old knife he calls Hugo is the second member of the triad that he wears on his wrist. The last weapon in his repertoire is an egg-shaped device that is a poison bomb named Pierre, which he would activate with a simple twist. Nick works for the agency AXE a more secretive and smaller agency than the CIA, in being a trouble shooting and assassination arm of the US secret services.

The Killmaster series of novels opens to the lead protagonist waking up from an injury or libidinal stupor to respond to a call from his boss at AXE – nicknamed Hawk. His personal assistants are Chinese or Korean children he adopted in his previous missions to those countries. After getting a debrief from his boss, he goes deep undercover in a different country with an assumed identity. He will then make an ally from the most unexpected demographic such as women in uniform, expatriate Japanese, or Cold War Russians. His missions are always full of adverb-laden sex and torture from a communist mastermind that typically culminates in a clever escape that he orchestrates using his beloved Luger pistol, Wilhelmina. He will then perform a lot of yoga, which he describes as one excruciating experience that helps him develop endurance. He will typically stretch and hold his breath for five minutes or more, which is quite some record for an outdoorsy undercover man. His ambiguous ally will then die during one of his successful escapes, and he will have more sex as a kind of mourning for her. The novel will then end with Carter having sex or thinking about having sex with his most recent conquest. His typical sexual escapades are some racy savage and ravage fantasies that see him for the most part bed the local women, from wherever his mission will take him.

“Run, Spy, Run”, the first novel of the Killmaster series of novels is arguably the most James Bond inspired novel series. Set in 1963, it introduces Nick Carter who gets an anonymous letter while relaxing after coming back from a successful mission. On board the plane, he meets a minor diplomat who upon getting off the plane is blow to bits by a plane that had been hidden in his artificial hand. He is just one of a series of diplomats killed in similar explosions to be replaced by communist sympathizers. Meanwhile, Carter is paired up with Julia Byron and the two are assigned to protect Lyle Harcourt, the American ambassador to the UN. Investigating a foiled assassination attempt on the ambassador, they find that the American ambassador has been unusually interested in the case heightening their suspicions. But before they can bust the man, they are knocked out and sent to meet Mr. Judas, who intends to torture and murder them. Will they get out of this alive and will they thwart Mr. Judas’s plans.

“The China Doll”, the second novel in the series is a series about the ultimate elements of the spy that for Carter include savagery and sex. After the events of the first novel in the series, Nick has just come back to New York from where he hopes he can relax and unwind from a taxing assignment. He is now assigned to one of the most critical assignments in the country – he is to be the personal bodyguard of the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushev, when the Russian leader visits the United States for the United Nations opening ceremony. As expected, it is not an easy assignment and Nick Carter foils two assassination attempts on the Russian premier. For the Soviet intelligence and their American counterparts, the most likely suspects in the assassinations are the Chinese. The Chinese have for some time been suspected of trying to destabilize relations between the United States and the USSR. Partnered up with a Russian agent, Nick Carter now has to deal with one of the most secretive and vicious terrorist gangs in the world.