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Dirty Harry paperback series

posted 10 years ago by looking4ahandout
7 replies | jump to latest

Dane Hartman authored a series of Dirty Harry paperbacks in the early 80s. Has anyone read them? Some of them can be had on Amazon for fairly cheap and I was thinking about having a go a them.

[–] hightp 10 years ago

I read them some time ago and some were pretty good. There are only 12 in the series an even though Dane Hartman's name is on the covers most had different authors.

Some of the authors had no experience with guns as the have quite a few errors.

He who fights and runs away, lives to run away again!

[–] dalldorfw 10 years ago

I read the first two; can't wait to read the rest!

[–] Joxerlives 10 years ago

Read the novelisation of Magnum Force and it was very weak, decided to skip the rest.

[–] dalldorfw 10 years ago

Didn't know there was a novelization of MF or a direct adaptation of any of the movies. We're talking about the Dane Hartman books written between 1981 and 1983; they play more like sequels, telling you of Harry's escapades between 'The Enforcer' and 'Sudden Impact'.

[–] tenmikemike-1 9 years ago

Yeah I had a few of them. I gave up and traded them to a used book store when I started coming across left-wing political crap embedded in them.

[–] looking4ahandout 8 years ago

Much to my surprise I found books #9 & #10 on a spinning "Movie Tie-In" rack at a local used bookstore. Took them home for $2 each. A steal compared to prices I've found online. Not long after my original post I purchased the first book from an Amazon seller only to receive an e-mail two days later saying the book was misplaced and my money had been refunded.

Book #9 (The Killing Connection) is a lot of pulpy and sleazy fun thus far. Some of the action scenes are written in a clunky & confusing style but I enjoy the bare bones style. Some back story, some narrative and chock full of violence.

[–] bozo_500 (12177) 5 years ago

I had novels 1-4 - found then in 2nd had book stores in the 90s along with the 4 movie novels (no DeadPool as don't think they did that one) think I only properly read the first 2. Vaguely remember a duel style shoot out with Harry and another guy with a 44 Magnums at the end of book 1 ...and book 2 I remember it ended with harry and the villain face off and it had the great line ' then Harry blew his balls off'

Anyway for years thought I had the set 1-4 but then one day on the nets found there were many more .. didn't bother to get them though..

edit - heres the back story to the novels:

Following The Enforcer, Eastwood announced that he would not make any further Dirty Harry films (he eventually returned to the role in Sudden Impact in 1983 and The Dead Pool in 1988). To continue making money from the franchise, Warner Bros. decided to publish new novels under Warner Books' "Men of Action" series, starting in 1981. The books were attributed to Dane Hartman, a pen name created for the series and used collectively by several different writers employed by Warner. Authors writing as Hartman included martial arts authority Ric Meyers and Leslie Alan Horvitz, who primarily specialized in science fiction and nonfiction.[5][6][7]

Warner published twelve novels on a roughly bimonthly basis: Duel for Cannons, Death on the Docks, The Long Death, The Mexico Kill, Family Skeletons, City of Blood, Massacre at Russian River, Hatchet Men, The Killing Connection, The Blood of Strangers, Death in the Air, The Dealer of Death. The series ended in 1983, the same year Sudden Impact was released.[6][6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Harry_novels