Created by Alan Joseph
Pseudonym of Jon Messman
Other pseudonyms include Jon Sharpe, Claude Nicole, Nick Carter & Paul Richards
(1920-2004)
In the early 1970s, Belmont-Tower contracted an author named Jon Messman to write a pair of novels under the pen name Alan Joseph, about a character named LOGAN. Logan and his boat, The Sea Urchin, were clearly supposed to remind us of Travis McGee.
Or maybe Tony Rome.
Both came out in 1970, but obviously didn’t sell well. I’ve not read the books, but I have seen the cover for the first volume, which makes it quite clear that it’s intended as a first in a series.
Alan Joseph was a pen name for Jon Messman, a prolific author best known for his seemingly endless Trailsman adult western series, which he cranked out under the pen name Jon Sharpe.
EDITORIAL GROUSING
- I couldn’t even find a scan of Logan, but apparently someone else did: Papillon Books, a cut-rate seventies publishing house, recycled the it for their own Wake Up Dead, a 1974 private eye novel. You almost got to admire the audacity of it, particularly since the cover art has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the book. They didn’t even bother to airbrush out the name of the boat (The Sea Urchin) off the stern. Sheesh.
— the editor
NOVELS
- Logan (1970)Â |Â Buy this book
- Killers at Sea (1970)Â |Â Buy this book