Action Series Books: an incomplete bibliography, pt. 1

First up, help Japan if you can. Goddamn earthquakes, anyway.

Okay, this may bore all 5-6 of our loyal readers who don't care about this stuff, but I'm putting the work in for the rare passerby who might find such a list handy. Anyone who doesn't find this one entertaining is welcome to go read the my-girlfriend-is-a-wanted-felon/I-am-confused-and-eat-things-I-find-in-the-street jokes that fill my glorious-yet-unheralded Twitter page instead. But sometimes ya gotta do things just for the one or two who'll appreciate it, and I know in my own obsessive search for these kinds of things, such a bunch of lists would've been helpful. I did find much useful information on such blogs as Bullets and Broads (post more often, dude!), Johnny LaRue's Crane Shot, and Glorious Trash, and also BareBones and Sick Hipster's especially great post on The Sharpshooter.

Speaking of The Sharpshooter, you'll notice that he's not on this list, nor are some of the other heavy hitters in the genre like The Marksman, The Death Merchant, my man The Butcher, The Doomsday Warrior, Black Samurai, Ninja Master, or a whole lot of others. That's because I've only got so much energy for totin' books back and forth and typin', so consider this a work in progress. If I get really ambitious I'll even try to count up all the freakin' Nick Carter books someday.

I have most of the books listed here 'cuz I'm an obsessive, hoarding weirdo, but some of 'em remain elusive. I'll look around the 'net and fill holes in my collections, but some of these puppies are just price-prohibitive and I'm not payin' more than $4-5 bucks for any of these things, 'cuz they are pretty trashy, after all. And some of the asking prices for these things is crazy... try looking up used copies of Mutants Amok: Christmas Slaughter sometime! Not me, brotha... I'll take my chances on finding it in a Book Rack for a buck-fitty someday.

Anyway, hope this will help some other weirdo in his neo-pulp hunt. I've included a little description of what each series is about. Those are very scant and may get expanded later in revisions of this post. Like I said, work in progress. To my knowledge, these are all the complete lists of the series. Any corrections will be appreciated.

And thanks to Lee Goldberg (author of the .357 Vigilante series) for the helpful reminder (and generous offer) in the comments - much appreciated!

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The Avenger - Chet Cunningham (Warner Books, 1987-1988) A DEA agent whose wife is murdered quits the force to become a vigilante and declares one-man war on the international drug trade. Kinda like if The Lone Wolf wasn't a lunatic.
1. The Avenger
2. Houston Hellground
3. Columbia Crackdown
4. Manhattan Massacre


The Black Berets - Mike McCray (Dell, 1984-1987) A group of highly-trained soldiers form a mercenary team to fight evil all over the world.
1. Deadly Reunion
2. Cold Vengeance
3. Black Palm
4. Contract: White Lady
5. Louisiana Firestorm
6. The Death Machine Contract
7. The Red Man Contract
8. D. C. Death March
9. Night of the Jaguar
10. Contract: Terror Summit
11. The Samurai Contract
12. The Akbar Contract
13. Blue Water Contract


The Bounty Hunter - Tiny Boyles and Hank Nuwer (Playboy, 1981-1982) The supposedly-based-on-real-life (but I doubt it considering the incredibly high body counts) adventures of a 380-pound redneck bounty hunter and his team.
1. The Deadliest Profession
2. A Killing Trade
3. The Wild Ride
4. Blood Mountain


Bronson: Street Vigilante - Philip Rawls (Manor Books, 1975) An especially depraved (and blatant) rip-off of the Death Wish films.
1. Blind Rage
2. Streets of Blood
3. Switchblade


Chopper Cop - Paul Ross (Popular Library, 1972-1975) A somewhat-hippieish cop with a motorcycle fights crime his own way.
1. Valley of Death
2. The Hitchhike Killer
3. Dynamite Monster Boogie Concert



Confirmed Kill - Mike Morris (Diamond, 1992-1993) A two-man sniper team using a high-tech sniper rifle takes out bad-guy targets.
1. Confirmed Kill
2. Sniper Shot
3. Direct Hit
4. Point Blank



Crockett - Brad Lang (Leisure Books, 1975-1976) An impressive but short-lived series of novels about a hip, long-haired young private detective who takes cases involving hippie-types.
Crockett On The Loose
The Perdition Express
Brand of Fear


Dirty Harry - Dane Harman (Warner Books, 1981-1983) A very good series chronicling the continuing, unfilmed cases of Clint Eastwood's movie cop.
1. Duel for Cannons
2. Death on the Docks
3. The Long Death
4. The Mexico Kill
5. Family Skeletons
6. City of Blood
7. Massacre at Russian River
8. Hatchet Men
9. The Killing Connection
10. The Blood of Strangers
11. Death in the Air
12. The Dealer of Death



Doctor Death - Herb Fisher (Berkley, 1988-1991) A Vietnam vet who's also Native American uses the skills he learned in war to fight bad guys back home.
1. Doctor Death
2. Retribution
3. Slaughter Island
4. Savage Streets

The Executioner - Don Pendleton (Pinnacle, ended 1980) The one-man-war-against-the-Mafia that spawned the whole pulp-revival-in-paperback thing, as well as Marvel's Punisher comics. This is one of the few series that continues to this very day under several titles (Executioner, Mack Bolan, Stony Man), which have reached numbers I'm not even gonna try to count. The ones listed here are the original war-against-the-Mafia run.
1. War Against the Mafia
2. Death Squad
3. Battle Mask
4. Miami Massacre
5. Continental Contract
6. Assault On Soho
7. Nightmare in New York
8. Chicago Wipeout
9. Vegas Vendetta
10. Caribbean Kill
11. California Hit
12. Boston Blitz
13. Washington I.O.U.
14. San Diego Siege
15. Panic in Philly
16. Sicilian Slaughter
17. Jersey Guns
18. Texas Storm
19. Detroit Deathwatch
20. New Orleans Knockout
21. Firebase Seattle
22. Hawaiian Hellground
23. St. Louis Showdown
24. Canadian Crisis
25. Colorado Kill-Zone
26. Acapulco Rampage
27. Dixie Convoy
28. Savage Fire
29. Command Strike
30. Cleveland Pipeline
31. Arizona Ambush
32. Tennessee Smash
33. Monday's Mob
34. Terrible Tuesday
35. Wednesday's Wrath
36. Thermal Thursday
37. Friday's Feast
38. Satan's Sabbath


Gannon - Dean Ballenger (Manor Books, 1973 - 1974) Uniquely-written, double-tough saga of a hardcase blue-collar guy who puts the slam on the abusive rich. A real oddity.
1. Blood For Breakfast
2. Blood Fix
3. Blood Beast


Hardball - William Sanders (Diamond) A special agent using his skills to fight evil.
1. Hardball
2. Aryan Legion
3. Skorpion


Hawker - Carl Ramm (Dell, ended 1987) A frustrated cop gets the backing of a rich guy and becomes a vigilante. Carl Ramm was now-popular author Randy Wayne White under a pseudonym, which is why this series tends to be a bit more expensive when you look for used copies online.
1. Florida Firefight
2. L. A. Wars
3. Chicago Assault
4. Deadly in New York
5. Houston Attack
6. Vegas Vengeance
7. Detroit Combat
8. Terror in D.C.
9. Atlanta Extreme
10. Denver Strike
11. Operation Norfolk


The Headhunters - John Weisman and Brian Boyer (Pinnacle, 1974-1975) An Internal Affairs team takes on crooked cops.
1. Heroin Triple Cross
2. Starlight Motel Incident
3. Three Faces of Death
4. Quadraphonic Homicide


Hellrider - Dan Killerman (Pinnacle Crossfire, 1985) Unfortunately-short-lived series about a guy who declares war on motorcycle gangs after his family's murdered.
1. Hellrider
2. Blood Run
(a third, The Guns of Hell, was announced but never published to my knowledge)

Justin Perry: The Assassin - John D. Revere (Pinnacle, 1984-) The sex-heavy adventures of a professional assassin.
1. Justin Perry: The Assassin
2. Vatican Kill
3. Born To Kill
4. Death's Running Mate
5. Stud Service


The Last Ranger - Craig Sargent (Popular Library, 1986-1989) Post-apocalyptic adventures of a Kamandi-like guy who rides his motorcycle around the ruins of America with a pitbull at his side, trying to rescue his sister from depraved gangs of survivors. One of the few series that came to a definite ending.
1. The Last Ranger
2. The Savage Stronghold
3. The Madman's Mansion
4. The Rabid Brigadier
5. The War Weapons
6. The Warlord's Revenge
7. The Vile Village
8. The Cutthroat Cannibals
9. The Damned Disciples
10. Is This The End?


The Last Rangers - Jake Davis (Berkley, 1992-1993) Trilogy about futuristic Texas Rangers trying to enforce the law after the apocalypse.
1. The Last Rangers
2. Crime Zone
3. Destination: Showdown


The Liquidator - R. L. Brent (Award/Charter, 1974-1978) Tough guy takes on organized crime all by his lonesome.
1. The Liquidator
2. Contract for a Killing
3. The Cocaine Connection
4. Invitation to a Strangling
5. The Exchange

Little Saigon - Nicholas Cain (Lynx Books, 1989) A former Vietnam MP uses the skills he learned overseas to police a violent Vietnamese section of the city.
1. Abel's War
2. Death For Sale
3. Street Tricks
4. Off Limits
(two more books, Rough Cut and White Death, were apparently written but never published)


The Lone Wolf - Mike Barry (Berkley, 1973-1975) One of the most bizarre action series ever, written by sci-fi writer Barry N. Malzberg, who apparently didn't like vigilante fiction and wanted to mock it. A narcotics agent becomes unhinged when his fiance OD's, becomes a vigilante, goes to war with the international drug trade, and eventually becomes a raving lunatic who guns down random citizens. Another series with a definite ending.
1. Night Raider
2. Bay Prowler
3. Boston Avenger
4. Desert Stalker
5. Havana Hit
6. Chicago Slaughter
7. Peruvian Nightmare
8. Los Angeles Holocaust
9. Miami Marauder
10. Harlem Showdown
11. Detroit Massacre
12. Phoenix Inferno
13. The Killing Run
14. Philadelphia Blowup

MacMorgan - Randy Striker (Signet, 1981-1982) Adventurer Dusky MacMorgan keeps finding trouble. This is another pseudonym of Randy Wayne White, so Doc Ford fans may want to check it out.
1. Key West Connection
2. The Deep Six
3. Cuban Death-Lift
4. The Deadlier Sex
5. Assassin's Shadow
6. Everglades Assault
7. Grand Cayman Slam

Mafia: Operation - Don Romano (Pyramid, 1974) Not sure this is really a "series" so much as separate sagas about the Mafia.
Mafia: Operation Hijack
Mafia: Operation Hit Man
Mafia: Operation Porno
Mafia: Operation Cocaine
Mafia: Operation Loan Shark

Mondo - Anthony DeStefano (Manor, 1975-1977) Ultra-hard-boiled, badass adventures of an alienated thief who's highly trained in the martial arts and doesn't particularly like anyone. Nihilism at its finest.
1. Mondo
2. Cocaine Kill
3. A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die

Mutants Amok - Mark Grant (Avon, 1991) Mutant animal-people created as super-soldiers decide they should be running the planet and go to war against humans.
1. Mutants Amok
2. Mutant Hell
3. Rebel Attack
4. Holocaust Horror
5. Christmas Slaughter

Narc - Robert Hawkes (Lancer/Signet, 1973-1975) Great series by Marc Olden (who wrote the Black Samurai series) about a narcotics agent trying to stop drug dealers.
1. Narc
2. Death of a Courier
3. The Death List
4. The Delgado Murders
5. Kill the Dragon
6. The Beauty Kill
7. Corsican Death
8. Death Song
9. Kill For It

Nazi Hunter - Mark Mandell (Pinnacle, 1981-1983) The son of a notorious Nazi war criminal tries to hunt down and kill his father, taking out as many neo-Nazis as he can along the way.
1. Nazi Hunter
2. Slaughter Summit
3. Killer Instinct
4. Butcher Block
5. Hell Nest

The Outrider - Richard Hardin (Pinnacle, 1984-1985) A rip-off of the Mad Max movie series.
1. The Outrider
2. Fire and Ice
3. Blood Highway
4. Bay City Burnout
5. Built To Kill
(a fifth, Black Death, was announced but never published)


Overload - Bob Ham (Bantam Falcon, ended 1991) A couple of war buddies go into the trucking business, using a weapon-equipped 18-wheeler and ATV's to spread justice. Yee-haw!
1. Personal War
2. The Wrath
3. Highway Warriors
4. Tennessee Terror
5. Atlanta Burn
6. Nebraska Nightmare
7. Rolling Vengeance
8. Ozark Payback
9. Huntsville Horror
10. Michigan Madness
11. Alabama Bloodbath
12. Vegas Gamble
(a 13th - Urban Justice - was announced but never published to my knowledge)


The Penetrator - Lionel Derrick (Pinnacle, ended 1984) One of the better series, dealing with a highly-trained warrior who uses his skills to fight all kinds of threats to civilization.
1. The Target is H
2.Blood on the Strip
3. Capitol Hell
4. Hijacking Manhattan
5. Mardi Gras Massacre
6. Tokyo Purple
7. Baja Bandidos
8. The Northwest Contact
9. Dodge City Bombers
10. The Hellbomb Flight
11. Terror in Taos
12. Bloody Boston
13. Dixie Death Squad
14. Mankill Sport
15. The Quebeck Connection
16. Deepsea Shootout
17. Demented Empire
18. Countdown To Terror
19. Panama Power Play
20. Radiation Hit
21. The Supergun Mission
22. High Disaster
23. Divine Death
24. Cryogenic Nightmare
25. Floating Death
26. Mexican Brown
27. The Animal Game
28. The Skyhigh Betrayers
29. Aryan Onslaught
30. Computer Kill
31. Oklahoma Firefight
32. Showbiz Wipeout
33. Satellite Slaughter
34. Death Ray Terror
35. Black Massacre
36. Deadly Science
37. Candidate's Blood
38. Hawaiian Trackdown
39. Cruise into Chaos
40. Assassination Factor
41. Hell's Hostages
42. Inca Gold Hijack
43. Rampage in Rio
44. Deep Cover Blast-Off
45. Quaking Terror
46. Terrorist Torment
47. Orphan Army
48. Jungle Blitz
49. Satan's Swarm
50. Neutron Nightmare
51. Plundered Paradise
52. Brotherhood in Blood
53. City of the Dead

Phoenix - David Alexander (Leisure, 1987-1988) Post-apocalyptic hero fights bad guys for the scraps of civilization. I'm not an e-book fan, but this whole series is available as a Kindle download on Amazon.
1. Dark Messiah
2. Ground Zero
3. Death Quest
4. Metalstorm
5. Whirlwind

Rat Bastards - John Mackie (Jove1983-1986) A Dirty Dozen style squad of misfits fight the Japanese in the Pacific during WWII. The series followed them through the whole course of the war. You can't tell one book from another, but they're all entertaining as hell.
1. Hit The Beach!
2. Death Squad
3. River of Blood
4. Meat Grinder Hill
5. Down and Dirty
6. Green Hell
7. Too Mean To Die
8. Hot Lead and Cold Steel
9. Do or Die
10. Kill Crazy
11. Nightmare Alley
12. Go For Broke
13. Tough Guys Die Hard
14. Suicide River
15. Satan's Cage
16. Go Down Fighting

The Revenger - Jon Messmann (Signet, 1973-1975) Another guy who's been done wrong by the Mafia declares one-man-war on 'em and "teaches them to sweat with fear."
1. The Revenger
2. Fire In The Streets
3. The Vendetta Contract
4. The Stiletto Signature
5. City For Sale
6. A Promise For Death

Roadblaster - Paul Hofrichter (Leisure, 1987-1988) Post-apocalyptic adventures of a guy trying to cross the devastated U.S. to find his family, using his mechanical skills.
1. Hell Ride
2. Death Ride
3. Blood Ride

Soldato - Al Conroy (Magnum/Lancer, 1972-1973) One of the Mafia's torpedoes gets fed up and quits, but the Mafia doesn't allow you to quit... so, he has to bring the whole thing down to find any peace.
1. Soldato!
2. Death Grip!
3. Strangle Hold!
4. Murder Mission!
5. Blood Run!

The Specialist - John Cutter (Signet, 1984-1985) A mercenary-type super-tough-guy's always gotta get revenge against somebody or other. Secretly written by horror novelist John Shirley.
1. A Talent for Revenge
2. Manhattan Revenge
3. Sullivan's Revenge
4. The Psycho Soldiers
5. The Maltese Vengeance
6. The Big One
7. The Vendetta
8. One-Man Army
9. Vengeance Mountain
10. Beirut Retaliation
11. American Vengeance

Stormrider - Robert Baron (Jove, 1992-1993) After the apocalypse, biker gangs band together to live free and fight off the oppressive ruins of the government.
1. Stormrider
2. River of Fire
3. Lord of the Plains

Stryker - William Crawford (Pinnacle, 1973-1975) A tough cop fights crime.
1. Styker
2. Cop-Kill
3. Drug Run
4. Deadly Alliance

The Terminator - John Quinn (Pinnacle, 1982-1984) An ex-CIA assassin does work for hire, or for revenge.
1. Mercenary Kill
2. Silicon Valley Slaughter
3. The Kill Squad
4. Crystal Kill
5. Chameleon Kill
(a sixth, The Checkmate Kill, was announced but never published to my knowledge)

.357 Vigilante - Ian Ludlow (Pinnacle Crossfire, 1985) A Death Wish style saga of a vigilante, written by more-well-known-now author Lee Goldberg when he was in college.
1. .357 Vigilante
2. Make Them Pay
3. White Wash
(Later published as an e-book, with the first three novels re-titled and a fourth added, under the titles Judgement, Adjourned, Payback, Guilty. I don't count e-books, but I include the info just in case. I don't blame authors for trying to make some extra cash off of out-of-print titles, but I consider e-books a plague on the reading public. Your mileage may vary, though, so if you've got one of those Kindle devices and can't be talked into smashing and burning it, go download these - they're good.)


Traveler - D. B. Drumm (Dell, ended 1987) Another Mad Max rip-off that gets a little wacky as people show up riding giant mutant housecats and such. The weird end to the series is pretty unique.
1. First, You Fight
2. Kingdom Come
3. The Stalkers
4. To Kill A Shadow
5. Road War
6. Border War
7. The Road Ghost
8. Terminal Road
9. The Stalking Time
10. Hell on Earth
11. The Children's Crusade
12. The Prey
13. Ghost Dancers

Tunnel Rats - Cliff Banks (Popular Library, 1989-1990) Tough short fellas fight the Vietnam war underground by invading VC tunnels.
1. Tunnel Rats
2. Mud and Blood

The Vigilante - V. J. Santiago (Pinnacle, 1975-1978) Another Death Wish inspired series.
1. An Eye For An Eye
2. Detour to a Funeral
3. Kill Or Be Killed
4. Knock, Knock, You're Dead
5. Dead End Delivery
6. This Gun For Justice



...more to come one of these days...