Thu 27 Jul 2023
An Archived Spy Thriller Review: NICK CARTER – The Doomsday Formula.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
NICK CARTER (*) – The Doomsday Formula. Award A420X, paperback original; 1st printing, 1969.
You can chalk this one up to curiosity – mine. After reading the last two more recently published books (**), I was wondering if they were really as bad as I thought they were, compared to the same sort of thing being written twenty years ago, or if I was just in a bad mood, or what. Answer: they are.
Nick Carter goes to Hawaii in this one, trying to prevent the destruction of the 50th state in a huge volcanic explosion. The resulting adventure is fast-moving, with lots of holes in the plot, which is absolutely unbelievable. The difference, believe it or not, is that Nick is likable. (***)
(*) Or in this case, Jon Messmann.
(**) Mission Bay Murder, by Philip Carlton Williams, and The Last Private Eye, by John Birkett. (See Comment #1.)
(***) Or competent. Not too much to ask.
July 27th, 2023 at 6:49 pm
I’ve been having problems inserting links into posts themselves lately. Here are ones to take you to thw reviews of the books referred to in this one:
Philip Carlton Williams – Mission Bay Murder:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=84392
John Birkett – The Last Private Eye
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=84580
July 27th, 2023 at 6:56 pm
I read five of the first seven Nick Carter books when I was 15, and two more a couple of years later. 15 was probably a good age to read them.
July 27th, 2023 at 7:14 pm
The chairman of the math department I was a member of for over 30 years was a big fan too, and he was in his 50s then 60s. The Nick Carter books appealed to all ages!
July 28th, 2023 at 9:27 pm
Lost me at Jon Messman. Though to be fair many good writers did much better entries in this series, I mean major novelist Craig Nova wrote a couple not to mention some very well known names in the genre.
July 30th, 2023 at 9:43 am
Fred is right, 15 is a very good age to discover the Nick Carter books. I read a lot of them in high school, quite a few in college, and some after that, although the frequency tapered off to now and then. And I still read and enjoy one now and then. Unlike David, I have a fondness for Jon Messman’s work and liked all of his Nick Carters that I read. For me the series breaks down into three eras: the early ones where he’s “Nick” and is both likable and competent; the first-person books which are more hit and miss but are pretty good for the most part, especially the ones by the two Bobs, Randisi and Vardeman; and the later, third-person “Carter” books which are mostly grim and humorless and never appealed much to me.
July 30th, 2023 at 1:30 pm
It sounds as though there’s a dissertation topic ready and waiting here for some would-be academic scholar to come along and jump on.
Or am I just dreaming?
July 31st, 2023 at 11:10 pm
Always thought “Killmaster” to be one of the strangest-sounding tough-guy monickers.