Fri 18 Aug 2023
Diary Spy Adventure Review: NICK CARTER – The Golden Serpent.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews[8] Comments
NICK CARTER – The Golden Serpent. Nick Carter #20. Award A216F, paperback original; 1st printing, January 1967.
A golden serpent is the symbol of a Mexican political party seeking the return of the southwestern US. Chinese Communists are actually in control of the organization, as well as behind a plot to flood the US with counterfeit money.
The CIA calls in the help of Nick Carter, the Killmaster, and he uncovers a mess of Chinese, neo-Nazis, Mexican bandits, and a Russian spy – all centered about the castle of a cosmetics heiress who has the strangest sex habits.
Sex and sadism at its worst – or best. Maybe one likable character, some unpalatable action, mostly hack writing in spite of the abundance of promising plot lines. A few clumsy mistakes that might be overlooked in the pace, including information pieced out only when necessary. Reflections of the [real] CIA? Not really.
Rating: **
Bibliographic Update: The man behind the “Nick Carter” alias this time was Manning Lee Stokes.
August 18th, 2023 at 9:42 pm
Kinky sex, sadism, and outrageous plots were pretty much the stuff the early Killmaster books were made of, and Stokes seemed to be the best at that formula.
Later better writers with better chops would take over the series, but never as consistently true to the formula as Stokes.
I doubt they hold-up at all today, but at the time these filled a niche and while you can argue quality and literary value it’s hard to argue with success.
August 19th, 2023 at 12:12 am
Even before you left your comment, David, I was asking myself what I might think of this book today. Even wondering whether or not I’d actually be able finish it, once started.
I have no idea.
August 19th, 2023 at 12:18 am
Here’s a link to a review I did a while back of a book by Stokes in a more traditional PI vein:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=59306&action=edit
and another that not only goes into some depth on a hardcover books he wrote, but into his overall career as well:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=687
This one I wrote and posted here over 15 years ago.
August 19th, 2023 at 7:42 am
I got semi-interested in the NICK CARTER series when Bill Crider wrote one. At one time, the paperbacks in the NICK CARTER series seemed to be everywhere…and very cheap. I remember buying a couple dozen NICK CARTERs at a Thrift store for a couple bucks! Did I read them? NO. But most of them reside at the GEORGE KELLEY PAPERBACK AND PULP FICTION COLLECTION at the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Special Collections if you want to do some research.
August 19th, 2023 at 9:53 am
I wonder how many other libraries might have as complete a run?
August 19th, 2023 at 2:01 pm
I can tell you that I read this one sitting on the front porch of my parents’ house sometime in the late Sixties, and I vaguely remember the plot you describe. I’m sure I loved it at the time because I read and loved all the Nick Carters back then. I had no idea who wrote them, of course, but I had already sort of picked up on the fact that sometimes the style was a little different and some books were better than others.
August 19th, 2023 at 2:03 pm
And looking back on it, one of my career regrets is that I never got to write a Nick Carter.
August 19th, 2023 at 2:13 pm
Alas from here, too, James!