Walter Wager Books In Order

Publication Order of Alison Gordon Books

Publication Order of I Spy Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Die Hard Books

Publication Order of Mission: Impossible Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Walter Wager
Walter Wager was born in The Bronx on September 4, 1924. He was an espionage and crime thriller novelist and was an editor-in-chief of Playbill magazine.

Three of his novels have been made into movies. “Telefon”, “Die Hard 2” (which is based on “58 Minutes”), and “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” (based on “Viper Three”). Walter’s novels have been translated into more than 15 languages.

He graduated from Columbia College, and was a member of the Philolexian Society, and went on to a Harvard Law School degree just three years later. He passed the bar yet decided not to practice, and went on to get his master’s degree in aviation law from Chicago’s Northwestern University in 1949, as he served as an editor of the Journal of Air Law and Commerce.

Then he spent a year at the Sorbonne, in Paris, as a Fulbright Fellow. He spent another year in Israel as an aviation law consultant for the Israeli Department of Civil Aviation, helping negotiate a treaty on air space, and worked out of Lydda Airport in Tel Aviv. Then he returned to New York City, in 1952, where he worked for the UN, editing documents.

Walter started his writing career by writing and producing TV and radio documentaries for NBC and CBS, and the United States Information Agency, as he also started a side career as a freelance writer for Show and Playbill.

Under the pen name of John Tiger, he wrote the paperback original, called “Death Hits the Jackpot”, for Avon Books, which was the fifth publisher that he contacted, and it paid him $3,000. He had a friend at Avon. He likes mysteries so he thought he could sell this sort of prose. For a number of years he was a freelance writer.

He wrote numerous original novels under the John Tiger name that were based on the TV shows “Mission: Impossible” and “I Spy”.

Two years later, he published “Operation Intrigue”, a second Avon paperback, under the name of Walter Herman. From 1963 until 1996, he was editor-in-chief of Playbill, and from 1966 until 1978 was editor of ACAP Today, and later became their public relations director. He held a similar position at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut during the early 1990s, until he retired in 1993. He also did public relations for organizations including the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Company, the Julliard School, and the Mann Music Center.

He was a member of the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America, and its secretary starting in 2001.

He married Sylvia Leonard, a fellow American student that he met at the Sorbonne in 1951. they had a daughter, named Lisa, before they divorced. In 1975, he married his second wife, named Winifred McIvor Wager.

He died at the age of 79 on July 11, 2004 of complications of brain cancer in 2004, as a resident of the assisted living facility Amsterdam House, located in Manhattan.

“Sledgehammer” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1970. This novel is about this elite unit of soldiers, hand picked for this mission behind enemy lines, on this quest for vengeance.

Sledgehammer is the code name for the operation of this elite OSS unit bheind German lines during World War II. Five experts in guerrilla warfare are concealed under identities as a Hollywood stuntman, a money man for this major casino, a crusading journalist, a psychology professor, and this billionaire bachelor.

Their training has prepared them for anything. Their mission is clear. However once the journalist gets murdered, his four friends alter the plan to a single purpose. To get revenge.

“Twilight’s Last Gleaming” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1972. A horrifying novel about political conspiracy.

This retired general takes a missile silo over in the Badlands. His threat is to provoke a world war, launching some deadly ordnance, unless the president is willing to reveal everything about this secret meeting that he had during the Vietnam War.

The situation is quite explosive, as is the truth. Before the day’s done, one man has got his single shot at redemption, and countless lives are hanging in the balance.

“My Side, By King Kong” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1976. Here is a dishy tell all memoir from the Great Ape, himself.

There is a funny thing that happened on the way to the Empire State Building, and now, for the very first time since his 1933 debut, King Kong, that legendary ape of the big screen, tells his whole fascinating story.

In this book, he answers questions like: What was Fay Wray (his romantic lead) covering up? Not too much, according to the frank and wonderful creature that snuck several good peeks.

For what great power was Bruce Cabot, on-screen nemesis, a secret agent? Read, don’t ask.

How did Kong, a trained and serious actor, refuse to parrot any of his lines, unlike some of his costars and get into character?

Kong also offers up some memories of anecdotes of Bill Cosby, David O. Selznick, Frank Sinatra, Stalin, and so many more luminaries from his long and storied career. Powerful and gritty, this 132 foot tall simian’s tale is going to take you from the darkest jungles to atop the tallest skyscraper of the day, however it’ll always keep you laughing with his hilarious side of the story.

“Time of Reckoning” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1977. Some wars never do end, while some never should.

Ernest Beller stands right at the end of this giant pit, watching while the Americans that liberated Dachau are attempting to bury the countless bodies that they have found. Nine years later, and Ernest is still seeing these bodies, as well as the guilty men that got away.

This is an intricate psychological thriller that explores the nature of vengeance, and the corrosive trauma of the Holocaust on generations of men. Walter, with a breakneck pace, hits a boiling point while a government agent starts investigating the murders of ex-Nazis, and sees the horror and the justice in the worst acts possible.