In the early and mid-1990s, authors Rob MacGregor, Max McCoy and Martin Caidin thrust new stories at Indy fans for the Indiana Jones paperback series. In the last column I presented a guide to Rob MacGregor's list of Indy books. This column presents a guide to McCoy's and Caidin's efforts. All three authors put books out around the same time. My advice is to check the published date and read the books in that order. After a healthy and award-winning career in journalism, McCoy left the field to pursue a fictional writing career in the late 1980s. His first novel, "The Sixth Rider," based on the 1892 Dalton raid on Coffeyville, was published by Doubleday in 1991. It was named Best First Novel by the Western Writers of America. He graduated from Pittsburg State University in 1988 with a BA in Communication, and from Emporia (KS) State University in 1993 with an MA in English.
He was chosen to pen Indiana Jones adventures because his editor at Bantam Books liked how he researched his projects and crafted inventive action sequences.
McCoy couldn't have picked a better franchise. On his Web site, http://www.maxmccoy.com , he is quoted, "When 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' first came out, I remember being absolutely taken with it and thinking to myself, 'somebody gets paid to write this stuff, and maybe someday it will be me.'"
Here are the four Indiana Jones books McCoy has written:
Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone
For centuries the lust for wealth and immortality has driven men mad. Now Indiana Jones is called to London to recover an ancient alchemist's manuscript rumored to contain the formula both for turning lead into gold and granting its owner eternal life. Certain that a missing British alchemist and an insane Renaissance scholar are involved in the theft, Indy--along with the alchemist's beautiful sister--travels to Rome, and straight into the hands of Mussolini's fascists. The mad scholar Sarducci has stolen the Voynich Manuscript, all right. But that's only half the story. The manuscript is really a map, leading into the desert and the most ancient and magnificent crypt in the world, where Indiana Jones will either witness an astounding miracle of alchemy--or become the tomb's next inhabitant. Published by Bantam Books, May 1995. Cover art by Drew Struzan.
