As a teenager, I was a fan of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. television series. Naturally I bought the tie-in novels as they came out. In the late sixties, when Don Pendleton started his Executioner series, I started buying them as well.
I followed Bolan’s one man war against the Mafia through thirty-six novels(Pendleton didn’t write the sixteenth, but that’s another story). After that, Pendleton sold the rights to Gold Eagle and Bolan moved into a different arena, abandoning the war against crime to one with the terrorists of the world. Gold Eagle hired a number of writers to continue Bolan’s adventures in a monthly series with several giant volumes a year.
One such writer was Peter Leslie, author of five Man and one Girl From U.N.C.L.E. novels. I continued to read and enjoy Bolan until I came upon the reason for this post.
I had started reading ANVIL OF HELL, a Mack Bolan giant when I realized it was strangely familiar. That was in April, 1988. I knew right away it was an U.N.C.L.E. novel and which one. THE RADIOACTIVE CAMEL AFFAIR was published in 1966 with Peter Leslie as author.
Gold Eagle’s Bolan novels all have Don Pendleton’s name on the cover. But the copyright page has the actual author’s name. When I checked, there was Peter Leslie.
I offer up below examples to show my point.
Page 183 of ANVIL OF HELL: Gold Eagle, 1988
Chapter Seventeen
The frontier was a collection of wooden huts straddling the dirt road; the border was defined by a barbed-wire fence interrupted by a striped pole with a counterweight at one 
end. Outside the hut nearest the highway, a squad of soldiers lounged by a trestle table, joking around with a handful of border guards. Soldiers and guards wore British-style khaki uniforms; all of them were African.
Mack Bolan slid the Land Rover to a halt in a cloud of dust and climbed out of the furnace heat.
And:
Page 68 of THE RADIOACTIVE CAMEL AFFAIR: Ace Books, 1966
Chapter 7
The frontier was a collection of wooden huts straddling the dust road; the border was a barbed wire fence interrupted by a striped pole with a counterweight on one end. Inside the hut nearest the highway, a platoon of soldiers lounged, exchanging pleasantries with the frontier guards. Both soldiers and guards wore British-style khaki uniforms-and all the men were Africans.
Illya slid the Landrover to a halt in a cloud of dust and climbed out onto the road.
The events were shuffled around in the books and Napoleon and Illya’s parts all became Mack Bolan.
I found another such rewritten book with DEAD MAN’S TALE and THE SPLINTERED SUNGLASSES AFFAIR, both works of Peter Leslie. I don’t know whether he did such rewriting with any of his other U.N.C.L.E. novels as I stopped reading Bolan at that point.
They were being advertised as never before published and were in fact twenty year old novels. I realize most Bolan readers might not know they were formally U.N.C.L.E. novels, but I had a problem with them.
And that’s how Napoleon and Illya turned into Mack Bolan.
WOW! Great catch. I’ll have to pass this tid-bit along to the fans over on Yahoo’s U.N.C.L.E. listserve.
Hi Randy,
By the way, there were 38 in Don’s original Executioner series and as you mentioned, he did not write #16.
That is interesting that Leslie “apparently forgot” what he had already written…. It would be my guess the Gold Eagle editor had no idea it was a repeat. That’s too bad but I hope you don’t let it keep you from reading other Executioner Mack Bolan novels.
You have a nice blog and I just happened to come across it doing a blog search.
My best, Linda Pendleton
http://www.donpendleton.com
Thanks for the info! I have a copy of THE RADIOACTIVE CAMEL AFFAIR, on my night stand that I am reading now. I just came across the Man and Girl from UNCLE paperbacks and Pulp magazines I have had since I was a kid and started rereading them! I will pick up a copy of DEAD MAN’S TALE and see for myself. Let us know if you come across any more “Lost UNCLE” stories!!
Do you know there were four Girl From U.N.C.L.E. paperbacks published in England and only one of them, THE BIRDS OF A FEATHER AFFAIR by Michael Avallone, was released in the States?
As I remember most, if not all, of Peter Leslie’s Mack Bolan’s were recycled from his UNCLE novels, including “The Splintered Sunglasses Affair” turned in MB: DEAD MAN’S TALE and “The Unfair Fare Affair” became MB: VENDETTA IN VENICE. I was surprised to say the least. Still have the UNCLE novels, and all the Pinnacle Executioners, plus the first 3-4 actually written by Mr. Pendleton himself for Gold Eagle. (I believe THE VIOLENT STREETS may have been the last one he actually wrote, but that could be wrong on my part.)