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PHIL SCOTT

scott_phil2 scott_phil3 scott_phil4 scott_phil1
 
Full Name: Phil Scott
Codename: Secret Agent xx96
Nationality: American
Organization: Unnamed Agency
Occupation Agent

Creator: Dean Hudson
Time Span: 1966 - 1967

ABOUT THE SERIES

Phil Scott is an agent of the U.S. government.

The agency for which he works is unknown (to me) but his designation in that organization is Secret Agent xx96. What that stands for, especially the x's is also known.

What little I have gleaned is that Scott was a professor whose specialty had to be sex or sexuality or psychology because as the series begins, accord to Erin E. MacDonald's Ed McBain/Evan Hunter: A Literary Companion, he is "professor recruited to become a spy and sent to convince a beatiful Russian agent to defect."

No other information is available as I have not found the books cheap enough to buy.

In the heyday of sex novels hitting main stream, Greenleaf Publishing was a giant in the industry and besides producing an incredible number of books, it was able to grab many up-and-coming authors and give them a chance to either perfect their craft or at least earn a few bucks.

In the case of the Phil Scott books, written by noted author Evan Hunter, known even better by one of his many other pennames of Ed McBain (87th Precinct), this had to have been a coup. Mr. Hunter was already an established writer. He certainly did not need to learn to sharpen his prose in 1966 when he started producing for Greenleaf under the penname of Dean Hudson. But produce he did, dozens of books of all sorts having sex as the one common demoninator.

In 1966, "Dean Hudson" came up with his own spy to join the many, many spies in fiction out at that time. Since the publisher was worried about getting nabbed by the government, he changed imprints a lot, which is probably one reason the series is so little known - that and the books would not have been found in drug stores and supermarkets like regular books could be then.

BOOKS

Number of Books:4
First Appearance:1966
Last Appearance:1967

1 Love Defector Love Defector
Written by Dean Hudson
Copyright: 1966

Released under the Nightstand imprint. "He had to convince this Russian she was really a - Love Defector."

2 The Sexpert The Sexpert
Written by Dean Hudson
Copyright: 1966

Released under the Leisure imprint. "Foreign affairs were his specialty."

3 The Virgins Of Cadabra The Virgins Of Cadabra
Written by Dean Hudson
Copyright: 1967

Released under the Ember imprint. "Lust was king at their carnal carnival!"

4 The N.U.D.E. Caper The N.U.D.E. Caper
Written by Dean Hudson
Copyright: 1967

Released under the Candid Reader imprint. "She was just a spy who couldn't say 'nyet'"

MY COMMENTS

When I first saw the covers for the four books in this series, I was suddenly as wide-eyed and 'oh wow!' as I would have been had I seen them back when they first came out. Back then I would have been around 14 and had an excuse for admiring them. Nowadays ... well, as I've heard, you are only young once but you can be immature your whole life.

The author, Evan Hunter, was a well published author at the time, not a young scribe trying to get a start. Apparently he did let some young-'uns have a go with his pen name but these, according to the expert Lynn Munroe, these four were Hunter's work. I would love to know his reasoning (probably monetary but who know?) to take time from his novels under his own name (The Blackboard Jungle) and the many under his Ed McBain, and others, monikers.

More importantly, I would love the chance to read the books. The author was terrifically skilled (I am a big 87th Precinct fan) so I am curious how the books are, especially this many years later.

GRADE

My Grade: D+

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