Michael Avallone

Michael Angelo Avallone (October 27, 1924 – February 26, 1999)[1] was an American author of mystery, secret agent fiction, and novelizations of television and films.

[needs update] Avallone was prolific at writing movie and TV tie-ins, numbering more than two dozen, beginning with 1963's The Main Attraction.

[7] Due to his involvement in the tie-ins, the cover of the January 1967 issue of The Saint Magazine, edited by Leslie Charteris, erroneously identified Avallone as the creator of the TV series.

His tie-ins included Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, Friday the 13th Part III, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and The Partridge Family.

As "Troy Conway," he wrote the tongue-in-cheek porn series Rod Damon: The Coxeman, and parodied The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

[8] Among his other pseudonyms (male and female) were Mile Avalione, Mike Avalone, Priscilla Dalton, Mark Dane, Jeanne-Anne dePre, Dora Highland, Stuart Jason, Steve Michaels, Dorothea Nile, Edwina Noone, Vance Stanton, Sidney Stuart, Max Walker, and Lee Davis Willoughby.

The first two, authored by Jim Lawrence were #s 2 and 3 in the four-book Mission: Impossible tie-in series of original novels (1967–1969) from Popular Library.

The Belmont Books release says "Pulitzer Prize-Winner John Patrick" prominently under the red block-letter title; and in easy-to-miss small print along the bottom of the cover says "Adapted as a novel by Steve Michaels" — the latter name.