For a version with many more cover images, please see the main M*F website.

[UPDATE] 05-18-07. The link above is now the location of the “official” bibliography. It contains the additions made today and not found below. Any additional corrections will also be made to only the one found on the main M*F website.

      As Charles Runyon:

# The Anatomy of Violence (n.) Ace D-429, pbo, 1960 “One day she would meet her violator face to face.”

Anatomy of Violence

# The Death Cycle (n.) Gold Medal s1268, pbo, January 1963. “Behind them a murdered man. Ahead of them a lot of loving, lying, speeding and spending.

# Color Him Dead (n.) Gold Medal k1320, pbo, July 1963 [Caribbean] “He escaped to a tropical island and met the native girl who could make a man forget anything – anything but the years he lost in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.”

Color Him Dead

= Reprinted as The Incarnate, Manor Books 15235, pb, 1977. “There was nothing she would not do to make him forget.”

# The Prettiest Girl I Ever Killed (n.) Gold Medal k1507, pbo, 1965. “A strange novel of suspense.”

# -Bloody Jungle (n.) Ace G-594, pbo, 1966 [Viet Nam], as by Charles W. Runyon. “A powerful novel of the Green Berets in Vietnam.”

# The Black Moth (n.) Fawcett Gold Medal d1873; 1967 [Illinois] “They were spoiled, over-ripe little girls too wise for their years and some of them had to die, those who wore … The Black Moth.”

# No Place to Hide (n.) Gold Medal R2218, pbo, 1970. “Violent death made them lovers and outcasts with – No Place to Hide.” [Robert McGinnis cover]

No Place to Hide

# Power Kill (n.) Gold Medal T2560, pbo, May 1972. “First-rate suspense … compellingly readable.” — Mario Puzo.

# Something Wicked (n.) Lancer 1973.

   — UPDATE from Charles: Something Wicked was apparently the title put on Dorian-7 by the inheritors (if that is the right word) of the Lancer properties. [This makes this the book that Lancer paid for but never published before they went out of business. For more on the “curse” on this book, Charles has much more to say here.]

# To Kill a Dead Man (n.) Major 3061, pbo, 1976 [Caribbean] “He was an assassin for hire – no assignment was too large!”

    — UPDATE from Charles: A Killer is a Lonely Man was my title for this novel. [The latter title appears in some bibliographies as an unpublished book that Charles wrote.]

# Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (n.) Pyramid 03963, pbo, 1977, as by Charles W. Runyon. [Hospital] “In the sterile white corridors of a mental ward – and the unexplored passages of the mind – unfolds a novel of heart-clutching terror, with a cast of characters caught inextricably in its lurking mystery.”

      As Ellery Queen

# The Last Score (n.) Pocket Books 50486, pbo, November 1964. Signet Q6102; pb, Oct 1974 [Mexico] (Rich couple’s daughter is kidnapped under the nose of her travel agent chaperone Reid Rance while on vacation in Mexico, and he’s got to get her back.)

The Last Score

# The Killer Touch (n.) Pocket Books 50494, pbo, October 1965. Signet Q6514, pb, 1975. [Caribbean] “There are many ways to die, sometimes nature holds the most special ones.”

# Kiss and Kill (n.) Dell 4567, pbo, April 1969. [Mexico] “The lady was luscious, and death followed everywhere she went.”

      As Charles Runyon, Jr.

Gypsy King (n.) Jove 04041, pbo, 1979. Historical Romance. “His million dollar empire stretched to the White House and beyond, but he didn’t even know his name.”

Gypsy King

      As Charles W. Runyon

Pig World (n.) Doubleday, hc, 1971. SF.

= Lancer 75446, pb, n.d. “Charles W. Runyon’s harrowing new novel of the near future – when millions of captive minds will have but one master!”

Pig World

Ames Holbrook, Deity (n.) Curtis 07202, pbo, 1972. SF.

Soulmate (n.) Avon 18028, pbo, March 1974. Horror. Expanded from the story “Soulmate” Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1970. “A contemporary horror tale & a strong one, not recommended for the squeamish.”

I, Weapon (n.) Doubleday, hc, July 1974. SF.

= Popular Library 04127, pb, December 1977. “He was the ultimate man – and humankind’s last hope for survival.”

      As Mark West

Office Affair (n.) Beacon B-421Y, pbo, 1961. “She learned her tricks at the bottom of the heap – and he was her ticket to the top!”

Office Affair

His Boss’ Wife (n.) Beacon B-466F, pbo, 1962. “He was a man on the make and this time he wanted – his boss’ wife.”

Object of Lust (n.) Beacon B-468F, pbo, 1962. “She was beautiful, lonely and an … object of lust.”

●● Asked about the criminous content of the Mark West books, here’s what Charles had to say:

   “Crime in the Beacon books? In Object of Lust, Lewis stalked the woman and then kidnapped her and held her prisoner in a cave. (The setting is Branson, Mo, famous for caves and country music.)

   “His Boss’ Wife involves a traveling maggie crew run by a dominant male who intimidates his females into doing his will, and controls the young males by parceling out the favors of his harem. Crimes abound, since these maggies are always on the line between fraud, larceny, breaking and entering, flirting daily with accusations of rape and assault.

   “I still have these kids coming to my door and delivering the same sales pitch I used to hand out back in ’50 when I did my tour as a maggie. Sex predominates, because the editor had a feeling that readers wouldn’t stick past page 38 unless they read at least one explicitly graphic sex act. For me the important element was the tribal conflict between The Old Man and the brash upstart who joined the crew one morning in Minneapolis.

   “In Office Affair, the crime was Insider Trading, which landed Milliken and several others in the slammer. Involves the aggressive young CEO of Wolverine Pipeline Co and his lovely Chief Stockholder, who fight off a hostile takeover while enjoying a sex-romp around the executive suite.”


      Mystery and Suspense Stories

“Hangover Manhunt” Manhunt, December 1960

“The Last Kill” Manhunt, April 1961.

    — UPDATE from Charles: “Rum and Chaser” was the title put on this story by Scott Meredith (or somebody working there at the time; perhaps Terry Carr) but that didn’t go down with the editor of Manhunt, who replaced it with my original title, “The Last Kill.”

“The Possessive Female” Manhunt, June 1961

“Sales Pitch” (by Mark Starr) Manhunt, June 1961

“The Death Gimmick” Mike Shayne Mystery, March 1962

Death Gimmick

“The Waiting Room” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery, October 1969

“Cycle Death Run.” Men, April 1970 (**)

“The Dead Survive” Mike Shane Mystery, September 1974

“A Good Head for Murder” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery, November 1974

“The Company of Brave, Rich Men” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery, April 1975

“An Act of Simple Kindness” Mike Shane Mystery, November 1975

“Death Is My Passenger” Mike Shayne Mystery, June 1976

(**) Since this magazine is probably the most difficult of Charles’ appearances in print to come by, here courtesy of the Internet, is a summary of the story line:

    “Cycle Death Run” concerns two bikers on the lam who trade wives in an effort to preserve the peace. Jeanne slowly falls in love with Carl for unexplained reasons. It may be because he does not beat her, or it may be because he awakens her as a women. More likely the motivation is not important to the story. Carl is a man, self–confident and self–reliant. He does not have to beat his women, though Jeanne wishes he would: “She almost hoped he would knock her down and beat her, for it would help assuage her own guilt. ‘I won’t be this foolish again,’ she said.” That she would love him is natural. “Cycle Death Run” ends with the unlikely image of Carl and Jeanne in paradise.

      Science Fiction and Fantasy

“First Man in a Satellite” Super Science Fiction, December 1958

“Solution Tomorrow” Fantastic, September 1959

“Remember Me, Peter Shepley” Fantastic, December 1960

“Happiness Squad” Fantastic, March 1967

“The Youth Addicts” Worlds of IF, May 1967

“Sweet Helen” Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction [F&SF], September 1969

“Dream Patrol” F&SF, February 1970

“Soulmate” F&SF, April 1970. Expanded into the novel Soulmate (Avon, pbo, 1974)

“Once There Were Cows” F&SF, July 1974

“Noomyenoh” F&SF, January 1975

“Terminal” F&SF, August 1975

“In Case of Danger, Prsp the Ntxivbw” F&SF, December 1975

“Brain Diver” F&SF, March 1976

“The Sitter” F&SF, July 1976

“Daughter of the Vine” F&SF, April 1977

“Metafusion” Stellar 3: Science Fiction Stories, Judy-Lynn Del Rey, ed. (Ballantine/Del Rey, pbo, October 1977)

“The Liberation of Josephine” F&SF, September 1978

      – The basis for this bibliography was Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, and the records of Charles Runyon. Thanks also to Bill Crider and Charles Runyon for providing many of the cover images seen on this page.

      —

Ed Gorman interviews Charles Runyon

The Curse of Dorian-7