Albert’s Foray Into MacLean Territory

Over in my Killer Covers blog, I have just posted a longish and abundantly illustrated piece about a quartet of Alistair MacLeanesque paperback thrillers published in the 1970s and penned by American crime novelist Marvin H. Albert. Perhaps most widely remembered for having created the character of Miami private eye Tony Rome (portrayed by Frank Sinatra in a couple of films), Albert was a versatile and prolific author who, over a 40-year career, turned out myriad series and standalones behind a surfeit of aliases.

Among those pseudonyms was “Ian MacAlister,” under which he produced four international action-adventure novels, including 1973’s Driscoll’s Diamonds and 1975’s Valley of the Assassins. “Like MacLean’s best-sellers,” I explain in the article, “Albert’s skinnier MacAlister novels were action-packed one-offs, each boasting a different but ever-resourceful protagonist, ‘exotic and inhospitable settings,’ do-or-die missions, stunning young women, and bad guys of the plainly reprehensible and minacious sort.” Far from being ignominious additions to the author’s portfolio, those books were—to quote one modern reviewer—“popcorn fiction done right,” with hand-painted covers that “did much to promote them as compelling nail-biters worth their retail price of 75 cents to $1.50.”

To learn more, clickety-clack right here.