Nick Carter #6: “Saigon” by Michael Avallone/Valerie
Moolman. Madame Claire La Forge, the
widow of French intelligence agent La
Petite Fleur, still cares for their plantation in North Vietnam, with her
trusted bodyguard, Saito, a Japanese servant. When a French agent stumbles into
her plantation, dying, he claims to have a hidden message for Intelligence, and
she sends Saito to Saigon to contact the French Intelligence Service. Hawk is
also notified, and with Nick Carter already in Vietnam disguised as a doctor
with the World Health Organization, he is alerted to respond to the case. This
was a topnotch Killmaster story. It appears there is some question about the
authorship, however. Michael Avallone submitted “Saigon”, as the third story in
the new series, but it was delayed until the sixth issue, with Valerie Moolman
taking over the writing of the series from Avallone. “Run Spy, Run” was the first
book in the series, and a good entry by Avallone, but his second story, “China
Doll” was awful. I’m guessing that he was fired after “China Doll”, and
“Saigon” was turned over to Valerie Moolman for rewrite. “Saigon” seems all
hers, though she may have used Avallone’s original concept, but heavily rewrote
the manuscript. Very little, if anything, seems to remain of Avallone’s writing
in this one.
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