The Golden Serpent

Killmaster #20

by Nick Carter

The US Treasury is concerned about the enormous extent of counterfeit $5 bills in circulation.

A minor operative in the counterfeiting group based in Mexico steals $500,000 worth of counterfeit money and flies to a pre-arranged meeting with gang members on the US side of the border with Mexico. He is killed as his plane crashes before he makes contact and the wreckage is discovered by US police.

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Nick Carter is a house pseudonym used by Award, Ace, and later Jove, publishing for the series Nick Carter who later graduated to a special agent for the Killmaster novels, a series of 261+ spy adventures published from 1964 until late 1990s.

A great number of writers have written under the pen-name over the years, beginning in September 1886 when Nick Carter first appeared in the 'New York Weekly' in a 13-week serial, entitled 'The Old Detective's Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of Madison Square'.

The Nick Carter character was originally conceived by Ormond G. Smith, the son of one of the founders of Street & Smith, and realized by John R. Coryell.

Reviews

[Eric]

I must confess - I had not read a Nick Carter "Killmaster" thriller for a long time. A very long time. But a close acquaintance more or less forced me to read this work. "You read many Nick Carter novels in the past and enjoyed them! Relive the past and read this old one I found in our attic," he said rather smugly. Even before I read it, I thought: "Ah, Nick Carter; always the same formula in every adventure...our hero somehow avoids being killed by scores of people, and in fact annihilates them all; and of course he gets to sleep with at least three lovely ladies in every book, with his prowess being lauded by the salient ladies!" In this work the pattern is more or less the same, though this adventure is not written in the first person. The plot - such as it is - centres around a rather sinister political party, Chinese encroachment in a particular area – plus startling currency forgery - and an imperious, bizarre Countess who orchestrates a private kingdom from her castle...and the CIA and AXE who are very much interested in the goings on. Initially, the Countess seems of peripheral interest, but takes on centre stage as the action progresses! Known locally as The Bitch, real (?) name Gerda von Rothe, very attractive and irresistible - though stated to be 70 years old! Nick Carter of course takes on all the daunting odds and foes and trumps them all. In the end he is even up "for a Medal and Citation". Well done! And two other things to note in this work: unusually and thankfully (?) there is a paucity of explicit sexual description and details. And Carter does not use his familiar private weapons - Hugo, Wilhemina, and Pierre - in this work. Pity.

[Rob Smith, Jr.]

There's a great story here. Too bad it's so lightly written and and embroiled in so much sexual action.

The writing is fine in telling this story in 150 pages. But there was so much that goes unexplained. The whole Golden Serpent angle is something worthy of treatment by an author to write an epic, than this quick treatment. The characters are good, also. The writer does a great job defining the few characters involved but does little with them, I guess, due to page number restrictions.

I realize sex is such a staple of this version of the Nick Carter stories, but it's been a few years since i read one, i'd forgotten how much it detracts from the book. I happened to pick up two of these last week and thought I'd wrap up the last ten books of the year with these. Curious about the other one anyway. It was published in UK and curious how it's layout might change the reading of the book.

Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 5 out of ten points.

[Benn Allen]

Basically, the Nick Carter, Killmaster series was clone/rip off of Ian Fleming's James Bond series. The Nick Carter books were ghost-written by various authors, in the case of "The Golden Serpent", by Manning Lee Stokes. As I said, Nick Carter is essentially a James Bond clone with slightly more graphic violence and sex. The story in "The Golden Serpent" is any great shakes, serviceable and entertaining, just not that great. As was common for that era (the late Sixties) TGS is filled with the usual overt sexism and racism that might make readers of a more modern sensibility cringe. Basically, this is a mindless action story that has nothing much to really offer. Ian Fleming's Bond was better.

[Little Timmy]

A nice rewrite of an old Pulp character. Recast more in the James Bond spy mode. Good quick men's adventure read. If you are looking for some fast paced action and adventure then this is a recommended read.

[Bruce Kirby]

Stylish and well-written pulp fiction, the Nick Carter series rivals bond in steamy sex and captivating plots. I can picture myself in 1966 when I read this book.