Thrill by Patricia Wallace

Thrill
by Patricia Wallace
1990 Zebra

A billionaire opens a theme park, imaginatively called "The Park". At the end, several rides malfunction, causing several fatalities. In the middle, several hundred pages of nothing. Part of the problem is that the story is a disaster novel, like Towering Inferno or Earthquake, but it's written, and branded, as a horror novel. A story can be both, Jaws comes to mind, but this effectively is a mild drama until the last few pages, though with a foreboding sense that something bad is going to happen from constant foreshadowing that goes nowhere.

The Park itself is vague. There's a high ticket price, with the implication that this is an immersive interactive setup like Westworld, but it isn't  There are three levels. The first two are standard amusement park rides, though the ride cars are usually pods. A roller coaster, a whitewater ride, a dark ride, the usual. If you score enough points, somehow, you go to level 3, which is a paintball game in the woods with robots. The book is set in the future year 1992, and there are a couple of touches, like the guests' ID card doubling as a credit card, which I don't think Disney had by that time.

The story, such that it is, follows the billionaire, his young engineer genius, a nurse, some underprivileged children there for the grand opening, and a couple of guests. There are some minor injuries in the rides, mostly the guests fault. One of the guests gets himself killed (offpage) in an accident while attempting industrial espionage, which is the only horrific element in the fist 90% of the book. At the end the kids fight the robots, who malfunction and shoot lightning out of their hands instead of paintballs, and some guests are killed in malfunctioning rides, all but a couple off page.

Along the way we're teased sabotage, insect swarms, and the ghost of a murderous hermit as the face of the eventual horror. This don't come across as red herrings as much as foreshadowing scenes that never happen. In the end it's magnetic anomalies. Maybe, whatever. The book even runs down the lost threads, not to wrap them up, more to say "I didn't forget, I just don't care".

Unscary, nonsensical, unfocused, dull, and overlong.

Kindle ebook and paperback from Amazon

Only Child by Patricia Wallace

Only Child 
by Patricia Wallace
Zebra 1985

A private plane crash lands near a small town, the only survivor being a young girl Hannah who escapes unscathed. After she arrives the playground burns down, the schoolteacher has a violent miscarriage, and children begin disappearing into thin air.

Hannah and the plane are traced to a California commune where kids also went missing, which is good enough reason to believe she is supernaturally evil and inject her with preacher blood, causing her innards to explode out.

Nothing is explained, but does it need to be? She's a devil girl who killed children, what more do you need?

Kindle ebook from Amazon

The Quagmire by James Kisner

The Quagmire 
by James Kisner
1991 Zebra

A witch uses the dark arts to sacrifice her enemies to the powers of darkness. She turns her attention to a group of kids, one of whom is the son of a fortune teller. Does a good job with the lives of the children and the miserable dead end neighborhood of drunks, cheaters, and creepers. Less so with the horror elements, most of which is taken up by the witch's brain damaged brother who keeps asking to nurse off her deformed 3rd teat.

The setup is great, but it gets a bit cute in the ending, with a couple of teen ghosts causing violent mischief and the introduction of a couple of bumbling cops.

Zebra Scorpio

In 1977, Zebra created the imprint Scorpio specifically for the subgenre of Iceberg Slim cash-in prison memoirs. Unlike the Holloway House titles they're emulating, not all the titles involve African Americans - Max Rabinowitz I'm assuming is Jewish, and Johnny North is a white biker. These titles are rough to find, and there's very little information online. The Black Prince seems to have been picked up by some incel and MRA losers as a pimping how-to - good luck with that, fellas!

1976 

Dig the N----- Up - Let's Kill Him Again by Robert E. Chinn

1977

The Black Prince by Anonymous

The Day They Scrambled My Brains at the Funny Factory by Max Rabinowitz (available free from the author here)

God's Renegade by Johnny North

Prison Diary by Edward Conway

A Right to Anger by Karamoko Baye

Underground by James S. Dutton

The Virginia Ratt by Ratton Hall and Sandy Sidar

The Children's Ward by Patricia Wallace

The Children's Ward
by Patricia Wallace
1985 Zebra

A series of mysterious accidents around a children's hospital caused by one or more kids who have psychic powers, something to do with a mass murdering patient from decades past.  The ending, if there was one, left my head the second after I finished. Actually glad she didn't explain much, better than some rushed exposition in the end. Well written enough, but not much here, and what there is isn't very coherent.

Available in used paperback and ebook from Amazon

The Doll by Josh Webster

The Doll
by Josh Webster
1986 Zebra

For all the Zebra horror I've collected, this is the first I've read.  My main reference for evil dolls is the Twilight Zone Talking Tina episode, which this cribs a bit from, though mainly it draws from The Corsican Brothers.

A single mom working for a large corporation comes to a small logging town after a takeover, bringing us most of the way to a Hallmark romance.  She has twin daughters, Gretchen and Mary.  Gretchen gets a doll from her estranged father, a doll patterned after Cabbage Patch, though imbued with spiritual forces by an Aztec priestess who works for the doll company for reasons not quite explained.

Gretchen and Mary have a psychic connection causing each to suffer the other's injury.  Gretchen finds she can link her doll, also named Mary, into the triad, so that her sister suffers when the doll does, voodoo style.

Before we go to far this direction, Gretchen runs away from home and ends up drowning in a well and eaten by rats.  The doll is found with her corpse, it does a little bit of the Talking Tina routine by showing up in strange places, but very quickly we find that Gretchen's soul entered the doll, and she manages to swap with her sister, taking over her body.

The priestess tracks down the doll, feeling the psychic pain, kidnaps Gretchen/Mary, tortures her by peeling her skin off until Gretchen agrees to abandon the body, and is shot by the police.  The priestess is 100% the villain of the piece, selling dolls with psychic powers and being utterly baffled that a child would do anything to hurt their sibling.  Gretchen was just a little moody, and gets eaten by rats and tortured for it.

But mostly it's the mom dealing with chauvinism at work and starting to date again. This is a dull, dull, dull book.  We're halfway through before there's any hint this was supposed to be a horror novel, and every time an horrific or supernatural element is introduced, Webster pulls back and changes gears. I swear these Zebra authors had a bet with each other how little horror they could include and still get cool cover.

Paperback from AbeBooks

Undertaker's Moon by Ronald Kelly

Undertaker's Moon
by Ronald Kelly
Originally Moon of the Werewolf
1991 Zebra

An ancient Irish werewolf family moves to Tennessee, where they intend to live in peace, only feasting on buried corpses when the moon is full.  The teenage son wants more, and recruits two drug dealing brothers to gather victims.  The werewolves are opposed by a coalition of the town horror nerd, a football player, gun store owner, and bagpipe playing hobo.

Fun stuff, appropriately gory, has a bit of a Salem's Lot/Fright Night/Lost Boys vibe, but for werewolves.  I listened to the Audible version - slow talkers usually annoy me, but the reader's gentle drawl was appropriate for the story.  No padding in the story, and if anything I'd have like to have seen more of the werewolf hillbilly drug dealers, but 15 hours is a bit of an investment for me.

Available in ebook for Kindle from Amazon

Audiobook from Audible

Original paperback from AbeBooks

Sleep Tight by Matthew J. Costello

Sleep Tight
by Matthew J. Costello
1987, Zebra Books

Someone's snatching up small town residents and keeping them captive in their basement.  The bookstore owning mayor and a big city detective don't accomplish much until a Holocaust survivor anthropologist clues them in.

Costello does well with his characters and creating a sense of dread, but it was clear at one point that he was making it up as he went and had no idea himself what the menace was and had to rush things at the end.  And when in doubt, Cthulu.

This may be the most 80s horror novel I've read - it reads like a modern period piece that was trying way too hard to establish the setting, mentioning pop music, MTV, Mr. T, etc.

Good writing, though the horror parts were sparse and rushed.

Night Touch by Stephen Gresham

Night Touch
by Stephen Gresham
1988 Zebra

A blind kid in Kansas gets touched by a stranger and gains dangerous psychic powers.  After accidentally killing a grad student, and purposefully killing his abusive father, he goes on a road trip with two friends on a quest to have his power removed.  There's a crossover character from Rockabye Baby who's hunting the blind kid to provide an ounce of tension, but like Dew Claws this is more rural fantasy than horror.  There's something comfortable about Gresham's style that I've been enjoying, as long as you don't go in expecting a Zebra bloodfest.

Kindle ebook from Amazon

Zebra Men's Adventure 1982 - 1991

The Zebra Men's Adventure books of the 70s were more eclectic.  By the 80s, it's strictly Vietnam and post-apocalypse.  I haven't checked, but I'm almost positive no new series started in the 90s.

1982
Gonji by T.C. Rypel
Sub Wars by James Good

1983
Gunships by Jack Hamilton Teed
Ashes by William W. Johnstone
Warlord by Jason Frost
McLeane's Rangers by John Darby
Black Eagles by John Langsing
Seventh Carrier by Peter Albano
Saigon Commando by Jonathan Cain

1984
Depth Force by Irving A. Greenfield
Doomsday Warrior by Ryder Stacy
War Dogs by Nik-Uhernik
The Zone by James Rouch

1985
CADS by John Sievert

1987
Wingman by Mack Maloney
Rig Warrior by William W. Johnstone

1989
Body Smasher by Jan Stacy

Zebra horror through 1991

Below is a comprehensive list of the almost 200 horror novels Zebra Books released through 1991.  Horror continued to be released regularly until Zebra shut down their horror line in 1996, but starting in 1991 horror started started splitting off into Silence of the Lambs knock-offs, Interview with a Vampire copies, and young adult style covers.

A full cover gallery with shop links over at Trash Menace Gallery

1974
Dementia by Keith Parnell

1975
Satan's Daughters by Othello Peters

1977
Hell Hound by Ken Greenhall
The Soul by Ron Gorton

1978
Replica by Lionel Saben
The Ashes of Tamar by Elizabeth Wade

1979
Dracula in Love by John Shirley
Benediction by Joseph P. Furek
There is a Serpent in Eden by Robert Bloch
Long Night by P.B. Gallagher
The Rite by Gregory Douglas

1980
Caly by Sharon Combes
Wild Violets by Ruth Baker Field
The Nest by Gregory Douglas
Cherron by Sharon Combes

1981
Moondeath by Rick Hautala
The Devil's Kiss by William W. Johnstone
Act of Love by Joe R. Lansdale
The Witching by Fritzen Ravenswood
Great Liquidator by J.V. Grombach
Unholy Smile by Gregory A. Douglas
Death-Coach by J. N. Williamson
Mysteries of the Worm by Robert Bloch
Unholy Goddess by Baker Stein
Halloween II (Novelization) by Jack Martin
The Spawning by Fritzen Ravenswood
Ghost Mansion by J. N. Williamson
Death-Angel by J. N. Williamson
Sweet Revenge by Dick Beaird

1982
The Uninvited by William W. Johnstone
The Unblessed by Paul Richards
The Evil One by J. N. Williamson
The Initiation by William W. Johnstone
The Witching by Fritzen Ravenswood
Death-School by J. N. Williamson
Moon Lake by Stephen Gresham
Traces by Patricia Wallace
Night Bait by Phillip Straker
The Trident by Joel Hammil
Extraterrestrial by Julian Shock
Horror Mansion by J. N. Williamson
Slice of Life by James Kisner
Wolfsbane by William W. Johnstone
Blood Knot by Bruce Algozin
Moonbog by Rick Hautala
Night Lust by Phillip Straker
Death-Doctor by J. N. Williamson

1983
Devil's Heart by William W. Johnstone
Videodrom by Jack Martin
A Crying Shame by William W. Johnstone
White Noise by R.F. Beaird
The Taint by Patricia Wallace
The Nursery by William W. Johnstone
MaMa by Ruby Jean Jensen
Death Screen by Richard F. Beaird

1984
Rip Tide by Donald D. Cheatham
The Stalker by Claude Teweles
Rockabye Baby by Stephen Gresham
The Devil's Touch by William W. Johnstone

1985
Sweet Dreams by William W. Johnstone
Home Sweet Home by Ruby Jean Jensen
The Children's Ward by Patricia Wallace
Daddy's Little Girl by Daniel Ransom
Half Moon Down by Stephen Gresham
Soul Eater by Dana Brookins
Only Child by Patricia Wallace
Best Friends by Ruby Jean Jensen
Child's Play by Andrew Neiderman

1986
Rockinghorse by William W. Johnstone
Twice Blessed by Patricia Wallace
The Doll by Josh Webster
Dew Claws by Stephen Gresham
Cat's Cradle by William W. Johnstone
Night Stone by Rick Hautala
Wait and See by Ruby Jean Jensen
Toys in the Attic by Daniel Ransom
The Alchemist by Les Whitten
Jack-In-The-Box by William W. Johnstone
Deadly Ernest by Daniel Lynch
Teacher's Pet by Andrew Neiderman
The Shadow Man by Stephen Gresham

1987
Piper by Brett Rutherford and John Robertson
The Dollkeeper by Jack Scaparro
Fertility Rights by Fay N. Zachary
Annabelle by Ruby Jean Jensen
Sight Unseen by Andrew Neiderman
Blood Bath by Linda Stahl Borlik
Midnight Boy by Stephen Gresham
The Devil's Cat by William W. Johnstone
Night Whisper by Patricia Wallace
Cry Wolf by Alan B. Chronister
Shadow Child by Joseph A. Citro
Sleep Tight by Matthew Costello
Baby Grand by William W. Johnstone
The Evil One by J.N. Williamson
Chain Letter by Ruby Jean Jensen
Night Caller by Daniel Ransom
A Killing Frost by Daniel Lynch
Water Baby by Patricia Wallace
Dream House by Christopher Fahy
Toy Cemetary by William W. Johnstone
Witch Child by Elizabeth Lloyd

1988
Smoke by Ruby Jean Jensen
Little Brothers by Rick Hautala
Guardian Angels by Joseph A. Citro
Hocus-Pocus by Jack Scaparro
Blood Sisters by Deborah Sherwood
House of Illusion by Ruby Jean Jensen
Deadly Nature by V. M. Thompson
Grim Reaper by O'Neil de Noux
Abracadabra by Stephen Gresham
Witch Daughter by Elizabeth Lloyd
Sandman by William W. Johnstone
Devil's Moon by William M. Carney
Play Time by Morgan Fields
See No Evil by Patricia Wallace
Ten Little Indians by E. Patrick Murray
The Lost Children by Brett Rutherford
Runaway by Stephen Gresham
Keepers of the Beast by Jack Maclane
Jump Rope by Ruby Jean Jensen
Eternal Bliss by Christopher Fahy
Baby Doll by Marilyn Knight
Night Touch by Stephen Gresham

1989
Goodnight Moom by Jack MacLane
Carnival by William W. Johnstone
Brain Child by Stephen George
Moonwalker by Rick Hautala
Pendulum by Ruby Jean Jensen
Project God by V. M. Thompson
Dark Souls by Barry Porter
Blood Dreams by Jack MacLane
Beasts by Stephen R. George
Demon's Eye by Stephen Gresham
Tree House by Victor Mullen
Deathsong by Jack Scaparro
Spellcaster by J. Edward Ames
Monday's Child by Patricia Wallace
Deadly Harvest by Morgan Fields
Death Stone by Ruby Jean Jensen
Secret Orders by H. Paul Jeffers
Dark Miracle by Stephen R. George
The Manipulator by Dana Brookins
Junkyard by Barry Porter

1990
Vampire Child by Ruby Jean Jensen
Hindsight by Ronald Kelly
Blood Wings by Stephen Gresham
Darksong by Jean Simon
Lullabye by Patricia Wallace
Flesh Stealer by Pauline Dunn
The Lyssa Syndrome by Christopher Fahy
Dark Reunion by Stephen R. George
Children of the Shadows by Don L. Freeman
Lost and Found by Ruby Jean Jensen
Evilway by Ryan O. Moses
Pitfall by Ronald Kelly
Dollies by Pat Graversen
The Devil's Coin by Mark Manley
Poison Pen by James Kisner
Mindscream by R.D. Zimmerman
Shaman Woods by Morgan Fields
Thrill by Patricia Wallace
Demonic Color by Pauline Dunn
Grandma's Little Darling by Stephen R. George
Just Before Dark by Jack MacLane
Victoria by Ruby Jean Jensen
Earthblood by James Kisner

1991
Stones by Pat Graversen
Wild Card by Jean Simon
Hide and Seek by William M. Carney
Grandfather by Anne Joseph
Something Out There by Ronald Kelly
Perfection by Marc Berrenson
The Vampire Memoirs by Traci Briery & Mara McCuniff
Watchers in the Woods by William W. Johnstone
Blood Sabbath by Leigh Clark
The Living Dark by Stephen Gresham
Waltz With Evil by P.D. Rozzi
Little Brother by Bill Eidson
The Forgotten by Stephen R. George
The Crawling Dark by Pauline Dunn
The Burying Point by Ann Brahms
Celia by Ruby Jean Jensen
Faith Killer by Josh Webster
Wind Chimes by R. R. Walter
Cold Whisper by Rick Hautala
The Attic by Jack Scaparro
Dr. O by Glenn Hale
The Quagmire by James Kisner
Vampire Blood by Kathryn Meyer Grifftth
Sweet Revenge by Jean Simon
The Gifted by Jack Caravela
The Night Seasons by J.N. Williamson
Deadly Breed by T.J.Kirby
Baby Dolly by Ruby Jean Jensen
Listen to the Shadows by Joan Hall Hovey
Moon of the Werewolf by Ronald Kelly

More Zebra Horror at Too Much Horror Fiction, Fright.com, and Vault of Evil.

This is the result of looking up over 3500 titles by ISBN number.  Horror made up just over five percent of Zebra's output.  Mostly historical romance, then westerns, with several adult western series.  Men's Adventure will be covered separately.  Compared with the 70s, Zebra stuck to only a few specific subgenres.  The only historical oddities were trivia books and gross humor collections.

Zebra Books Misc - 1974-1982

There were a lot of titles in genres that were particular to the 70s.

Exploitation / Sexy Tell-Alls / Porn or Hooker Biography

1974
The Joys of Hooking by Virginia Graham (Zebra #1!)
Where have all the Little Girls Gone by M. K. Callie
Lily: The Diary of a French Girl in New York by Sandrine Forge
Society Hooker by Betsy Winston
Martnis, Manhattans, or Me? by Barbara O'Brien
The Wild White Witch by Peter Stafford


The Love Girl by Suzy Green
Diary of a Modern American Girl by Emily Goodman
China Nights by Ralph Shaw

1975
10 1/2 by Marc Stevens


The Whole Bedroom Catalog by Stephen Lewis
Amanda in Spain by Geoffrey Bocca
The Greek Goddess by R.T. Larkin

1976
Amanda in Germany by Geoffrey Bocca


Amanda in France by Geoffrey Bocca aka Commander Amanda
Washington Call Girl - The Original Washington Expose by Rachel Alceim

1977
Making It Big by Diana Clapton and Marc Stevens
Anytime, Anywhere! by Susie Swanson

Unexplained

1974
Intercept UFO by Renato Vesco
Your Practical Guide to Fortune-telling by Rod Davies

1975
The Witches Workbook: The Magick Grimoire of Lady Sheba
Universal Cosmic Mind Power by Samuel Dodson
The Great Pyramid by Warren Smith
The Strange World of Brad Steiger by Brad Steiger
Triangle of the Lost by Warren Smith
Eckankar: The Key to Secret Worlds by Paul Twitchell
Myth and Mystery of Atlantis by Warren Smith
The Opening of an Eye by Alice Lane

1976
Lost Cities of the Ancients Unearthed by Warren Smith
Pyramid Energy and How it Works for You by James Wyckoff
Strange Secrets of Loch Ness by Warren Smith
UFO Trek by Warren Smith
Discover the Riches of Universal Cosmic Mind Power by Samuel Dodson
The Hidden Secrets of the Hollow Earth by Warren Smith

1977
The Secret Origins of Bigfoot by Warren Smith


The Law of Psychic Phenomena by Thomas Hudson
The Law of Psychic Phenomena Volume 2 by Thomas Hudson

JFK Conspiracy

1975
Appointment In Dallas: The Final Solution to the Assassination of JFK by Hugh C. McDonald and Geoffrey Bocca

1977
Coincidence or Conspiracy by Bernard Fensterwald and Michael Ewing

Occult Investigator

1976
Father Hayes by Peter Leslie
The Steeds Of Satan by Peter Leslie

Martial Arts

1976
Bruce Lee's Basic Kung-Fu Training Manual by Claude St. Denise
Bruce Lee's My Martial Arts Training Manual by Claude St. Denise
Bruce Lee's Guide to Savage Street Fighting by Claude St. Denise

True Crime/Prison/Pimp

1976
Dig the Nigger Up - Let's Kill Him Again by Robert Chinn - ghetto/prison memoir
Blood Family by William Zamora - Manson trial juror

1977
The Virginia Ratt by Ratton Hall and Sandy Sidar - pimp/prison memoir



The Black Prince by Anonymous

Disaster

1978
Collision by Spencer Dunmore

1979

Eruption by Paul Patchick

1980

Epidemic! by Larry R. Leichter, M.D.

Avalanche by M Steele & Steve Cohen

The Omni Strain by Cliff Patton, M.D.

1981

Collision Over Toronto Airport by Spencer Dunmore

Drought! by Ralph Hayes

Ghost Rig by Cliff Patton

Shuttle by David C. Onley

Beasts by Stephen R. George

Beasts
by Stephen R. George
1989, Zebra Books

A couple contract a mutant form of rabies which gives them super-powers and a thirst for blood.  The man controls his urges with medication, while the woman takes off on a killing spree across the country.

Michael Smith returns to his home town for a vacation and falls in love with a single mother bookstore clerk.  His ex comes to haunt them, leaving a trail of bodies as she goes.

The body count and level of gore were probably sufficient, but the blandness of everything else just brought the whole level down.  This is like a muzak cover of a horror novel, only without the charm.

Even the characters seem sleepy and unmotivated.  People are having their throats ripped out as soon as I come into town - could it be my bloodthirsty, serial killing ex?  Eh, maybe, I'll futz around for a hundred pages or so before I make the connection.  Hey, your serial killer ex gave my kid a vial of blood, but yeah, we'll just stay here alone at home, I'm sure things will be fine.

Shadow Child by Joseph A. Citro

Shadow Child
by Joseph A. Citro
1987, Zebra Books

Mysterious deaths in rural Vermont, possibly connected to mysterious ancient stone structures.  Slow moving, but with a surprisingly good payoff.  The tone kind of depressed me, as it accurately captured a certain small town sadness.  Not in a David Lynch kind of way, just old folks drinking hard liquor, pretending to work on cars, and avoiding their wives while they slowly wait to die.

Citro does a great balancing job with a lot of his elements.  Just enough violence without getting silly, just enough explaining without spoiling the mystery.  Given that Citro is primarily a "non-fiction" writer on Unexplained Vermont, he didn't go overboard on the exposition.

No clowns, but props on having evil fairies.  Not enough evil fairies in horror literature.  Guardian Angels is a sequel.

Teacher's Pet by Andrew Neiderman

Teacher's Pet
by Andrew Neiderman
1985, Zebra

A sinister tutor comes to a small town and works with some of the local children.  Their grades improve, but they are also groomed into a team of sociopaths.  They frame a teacher for pedophilia and hammer a student to death for bad-mouthing their tutor.  The end.

Low stakes stuff here.  You've got horror, then terror, then thriller, then suspense, and four more levels down you've got Teacher's Pet.  It might have not been so bad without the horror novel packaging, but then I wouldn't have read it in the first place.

I expected the tutor to be some full blown Svengali or Charles Manson or Lucifer, and instead he's Mystery from the Pick Up Artist.  His machinations get him a quickie with a bored housewife and that's about it.

Neiderman is capable of suspense, but there's none here.  After the one act of violence I expected some tension with the kids worrying about getting caught, turning on each other, etc., but no.  The tutor turns them in himself and moves to the next town.

Zebra Books 1974-1982 - Men's Adventure

Zebra didn't do a lot of Men's Adventure in the 70s, but the ones they did were among the genre's most unusual.  The 80s brought us more standard (and longer lived) titles.  I've left out western series and war memoirs.

1974
The Killers by Klaus Nettson (Netzen in the UK), 7 books 1974-6
Simon Rack by Laurence James, 5 books 1974-5

1975
The Big Brain by Gary Brandner, 3 books,  1975-6
Pepperoni Hero by Bill Kelly, 3 books, 1975
Su-Lin Kelly / Girl Factory by Robert Franklin Murphy, 3 books,  1975-6

1979
Chameleon by Jerry Laplante, 3 books 1979

1980
Dog Team, 4 books (last 3 under different publisher)
The Sergeant by Len Levinson, 9 books 1980-2
Soldier for Hire by Robert Skimin and Mark K. Roberts, 8 books 1980-3
Survivalist by Jerry Ahern, 27 in original run 1981-93
They Call Me Mercenary by Jerry Ahern as Axel Kilgore, 18 books, 1980-4

One offs and thrillers (some based solely on the title):

1973
The Beaufort Dossier by David Mariner
The Yaroslav Incidnet by David Mariner

1974
71 Hours by Michael Mason

1976
The Zinger by Lou Marco, Len Davidov, and Bob Mooney



1978
The Cathedral Option by Ron Montana
Monopoly on Terror by Bruce Buck

1979
The Big Needle by Ken Follett
Cop Killers: Hunter Group 1 (One) by Max Rabinowitz
Dead Survivor by Neal Pizinger
Goering Treasure by Len Levinson
Hostage Game by Mark McShane
The Hostages of Hell by Ralph Hayes

1980
Ghost Sub by Roger E. Herst

Zebra Horror 1974-1982

Despite it's second title being horror, Zebra didn't really get into gear until 1979.  The below are paperback originals, with maybe some first reprints of hardback.  There were also several Weird
Tales reprints from H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard that I'm not including, along with plenty of gothic romances.

1974
Dementia by Keith Parnell, 0-8468-0002-0

1975
Satan's Daughters by Othello Peters, 0-89083-104-1



1977
Hell Hound by Ken Greenhall, 0-89083-303-6
The Soul by Ron Gorton, 0-89083-321-4

1978
Replica by Lionel Saben, 0-89083-370-2
The Ashes of Tamar by Elizabeth Wade, 0-89083-412-1

1979
Dracula in Love by John Shirley, 0-89083-443-1
Benediction by Joseph P. Furek, 0-89083-505-5
There is a Serpent in Eden by Robert Bloch, 0-89083-514-4
Long Night by P.B. Gallagher, 0-89083-515-2 (might be more thriller, or even romance)


The Rite by Gregory Douglas, 0-89083-529-2

1980
Caly by Sharon Combes, 0-89083-624-8
Wild Violets by Ruth Baker Field, 0-89083-635-3
The Nest by Gregory Douglas, 0-89083-662-0


Cherron by Sharon Combes, 0-89083-700-7

1981
Moondeath by Rick Hautala, 0-89083-702-3
The Devil's Kiss by William W. Johnstone, 0-89083-717-1



Act of Love by Joe R. Lansdale, 0-89083-735-X
The Witching by Fritzen Ravenswood, 0-89083-746-5
Great Liquidator by J.V. Grombach, 0-89083-749-X - Don't know if this is non-fiction or "based on a true story"
Unholy Smile by Gregory A. Douglas, 0-89083-796-1



Death-Coach by J. N. Williamson, 0-89083-805-4
Mysteries of the Worm by Robert Bloch, 0-89083-815-1 (Short story collection)
Unholy Goddess by Baker Stein, 0-89083-846-1
Halloween II (Novelization) by Jack Martin, 0-89083-864-X
The Spawning by Fritzen Ravenswood, 0-89083-866-6
Ghost Mansion by J. N. Williamson, 0-89083-884-4
Death-Angel by J. N. Williamson, 0-89083-909-3
Sweet Revenge by Dick Beaird, 0-89083-911-5

1982
The Uninvited by William W. Johnstone, 0-89083-933-6
The Unblessed by Paul Richards, 0-89083-949-2
The Evil One by J. N. Williamson, 0-89083-966-2
The Initiation by William W. Johnstone, 0-89083-967-0
The Witching by Fritzen Ravenswood, 0-89083-975-1
Death-School by J. N. Williamson, 0-89083-981-6

See also Vault of Evil's list.