Desmond Cory

Desmond Cory is a pseudonym used by British mystery and thriller writer Shaun Lloyd McCarthy between 1951 and 1991. Under it he wrote 40+ novels, including the creation of serial characters such as Johnny Fedora, a debonair British secret agent. Cory also wrote screenplays for Graham Greene novels (such as England Made Me) and had a number of his own novels appear on the big-screen and in TV thriller series.

Desmond Cory is arguably one of Britain’s most prolific thriller writers. His writing spans over 40 years, during which time he used up to three different pen names, such was the demand for his work. Academics cover his works in such books as British Mystery and Thriller Writers Since 1940, and Detecting Men: A Reader's Guide and Checklist for Mystery Series Written By Men. (Wikipedia)

The Johnny Fedora series

1. Secret Ministry / The Nazi Assassins (1951)

2. This Traitor, Death / The Gestapo File (1952)

3. Dead Man Falling / The Hitler Diamonds (1953)

4. Intrigue / Trieste (1954)

5. Height of Day / Dead Men Alive (1955)

6. High Requiem (1956)

7. Johnny Goes North / The Swastika Hunt (1956)

8. Johnny Goes East / Mountainhead (1958)

9. Johnny Goes South / Overload (1959)

10. Johnny Goes West (1959)

11. The Head (1960)

12. Undertow (1962)

13. Hammerhead / Shockwave (1963)

14. Feramontov (1966)

15. Timelock (1967)

16. Sunburst (1971)

"Even though Johnny Fedora predates James Bond, comparisons with Ian Fleming's better known hero are inevitable. Agent 007's popularity is often attributed to the admission by President John F. Kennedy that From Russia With Love was one of his favourite novels. After that revelation in 1957, sales of the Fleming spy novel soured. Seven years later when [Cory's] Hammerhead was republished in the United States as Shockwave, the book jacket carried a quote from Anthony Boucher of the New York Times saying that Johnny Fedora "more than deserves to take over James Bond’s avid audience." Reviews of Feramontov and Ian Fleming's Octopussy appeared side by side in the New York Times Book Review of 1966. Of Feramontov a reviewer said, "As one has come to expect from Cory, colorful action, copious carnage, elaborate intrigue, frequent surprises." Octopussy, however, was dismissed as "a thin and even emaciated volume." In reviewing Timelock, Boucher commented, "I must say once more that I find Cory's Johnny Fedora a much more persuasive violent, sexy and lucky agent than James Bond." —Marcia Songer, The Evolution of Desmond Cory (2003)

Readers who like their thrillers to complement their intelligence must on no account miss Mr. Cory" —Edmund Crispin, The Sunday Times (1971)