BART GOULD

Full Name:	Bart Gould
Nationality:	American
Organization:	Presidential Agent
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	Joseph Hilton
Time Span:	1963 - 1966

ABOUT THE SERIES

       Bart Gould is an agent working for the President.
       Gould is a rich playboy who has done, mastered, and then grown bored with many of the excitements that interest people of daring. He has raced at LeMans, climbed the tallest mountains, hunted big game, and so on, and has the scars to prove it. His action reveal a recklessness to match his talents making him open to just about any challenge.
       He had not always been so. Born into a rich and powerful family of businessmen and politicians, Gould had proven himself to be both intelligent and brave as he followed in his heritage of service to the country by becoming an officer in the U.S. Marines. It was in this job that he earned numerous medals, culminating in the Congressional Medal of Honor.
       When the woman he was to marry died in a plane crash when Gould was 26, his life and his attitude towards it changed. Far more abandon came into his actions as he drove himself harder and harder to find a purpose to fill the void her passing left. In doing so, he soon learned that once you've done just about everything most anything seems a bit boring. Which is why he responds when he gets a summons to the White House.
       Through a very close friend to the President he learns that the Chief Executive, who has known Gould since he was young, needs a highly trained operative to go places no agent of the government could openly go to do things that cannot be officially done. Considering Gould's experience and talents, plus the jet set reputation he also enjoys, he is the first and only choice.
       Now, at age 36, he is the President's Agent, a man with total deniability working with highly secret backing to do the impossible.

Note that the first book in the series was published as being by Joseph Hilton, not Joseph Milton as the remainder were. According to Hubin's Crime Fiction IV, Hilton was a pseudonym of Joseph Hilton Smyth while Milton was a house pseudonym for several authors, only two of which have been identified.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	8
First Appearance:	1963
Last Appearance:	1966


1			President's Agent Written by Joseph Hilton Copyright: 1963 Trouble in brewing quickly in Central America where Red saboteurs are working with corrupt politicians to extort the U.S. with the threat of destruction of the Panama Canal.

2			Assignment: Assassination aka The Running Spy Written by Hal Jason Calin Copyright: 1964 A decorated American war hero from WWII who died in 1945 has resurfaced in the Balkans twenty years later as a spy for the Iron Curtain. Bart Gould is dispatched to find and kill the man, for good this time.

3			Worldbreaker Written by Hal Jason Calin, Anne Calin Copyright: 1964 Bart Gould is asked to meet with a Russian defector and learn whatever it was the man had to pass along. What he learned was news about a deadly new weapon that could kill quickly, making the cause appear to be heart attack.

4			Big Blue Death Written by Don Rico Copyright: 1965 When the man who was close to taking over the Mafia is killed in a plane crash, it seemed the end of that plot. But then someone has resumed operations and Bart Gould is sent to find out who is the new would-be boss of bosses.

5			Baron Sinister Written by Joseph Hilton Copyright: 1965 Five members of the U.S. government suddenly disappear in Europe. Though their last known locations were different, all seemed to have left through Vienna. Bart Gould is sent there to find the truth.

6			The Man Who Bombed The World Written by Hal Jason Calin Copyright: 1966 A mad-man with an intense hatred for communism has an incredible plan to force their eridication. He has acquired a B-52 and is planning to drop bombs on Peking to make the Chinese retaliate and give the U.S. reason to launch an all-out war.

7			Operation: World War III Written by Copyright: 1966 Bart Gould was ordered to head to Turkey to smuggle out a former Freedom Fighter named Kracodilu. When the man disappeared, Gould found out about a plot to blow up much of Washington, launching a new world war.

8			The Death Makers Written by Copyright: 1966 A former OSS legend, killed in action years before, is alive and cauing troulbe in SouthEast Asia. Bart Gould must track him down and bring him home or make him dead again.

MY COMMENTS

       What can I say. I am a totaly nut for B-grade movies and books. They are there just to entertain. No pretenses. No delusions. Just good old fashioned action and adventure.
       With that in mind, if that is your pleasure, do NOT pass up Bart Gould. It is just too much fun watching him save the world. Over and over. What a guy!
       All of which makes him sound too good to be true and that is ungenerous. The stories are good. The plots, though out there sometimes, are solid and basically plausible. The bad guys are believable. What makes the series have the B-grade movie feel is that you never once get the idea that the character might fail. He might get surprised and temporarily stymied on occasion but he will always make it through.
       I like that in a hero.

GRADE

My Grade: B+

Your Average Grade: A+

YOUR OPINIONS

Henry Gamage	A+	7/18/2015 3:26:39 PM	The four by Hal Calin - Worldbreaker, Man Who Bombed the World, PLUS (I believe) Operation WWIII and the Death Makers are among the best ever of Bond-type spy thrillers. Calin was someone familiar with the locales His plots are tight. His villains are not just believeable, they believe what they are doing is right. The action is credible. Calin understands how cars move on dangerous roads and is a master of describing chases. He understands how firearms really work and the allure of some as objects of art. Calin was a novelist and his books incorporate interior dialogue and observations of humans in situations of intense conflct. Charaters don't make stupid mistakes in order to advance the plots. These books are worth hunting down. I've re-read them many times over the decades. The four Bart Gould novels written by the other author(s) are of considerably less quality -more like run-of-the-mill Nick Carter.

Tell us what you think of the series. Give your grade and comments.

Your Grade:
Your Comments:

To give your opinion, you must be logged in.