The Death Merchant

The Death Merchant is the title and lead character of a series of men's action-adventure books written by Joseph Rosenberger. Richard Joseph Camellion, as described in the books is a master of disguise, the martial arts and wet-work. Cynical and lethal in equal measure, his normal employer was the CIA - at a cost of $100,000 tax free bucks a mission.

He is described on the back of the books as "Richard Camellion, master of death, destruction, and disguise. He gets the dirty jobs, the impossible missions, the operations that cannot be handled by the FBI, CIA, or any other legal or extra-legal force. He is a man without a face, without a single identifying characteristic...except that he succeeds by being a Merchant of Death!"


Additional information about the Death Merchant is sprinkled every now and then in the series of books as follows:

Birthplace: #30, The Shamballa Strike reveals that Camellion's birthplace is St. Louis, Missouri. As an adult, Richard Camellion keeps a ranch in Texas where he lives when not on a mission.

Education: Two books, #30 The Shamballa Strike and #53 The Judas Scrolls mention Camellion studying at St. Louis University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. It is also stated in the former book that Camellion holds a degree in engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. Two books (#1 The Death Merchant and #9 Laser Mission) mention that Camellion is an ex-teacher of history, but this may simply be a cover story.

Hobbies: Gardening, Martial Arts, Amateur archaeology (mentioned in #9 Laser Mission and #61 Bulgarian Termination). Camellion is very interested in the occult, and especially the prophecies of Nostradamus.

Alias: James Valdorian, Chester Giffwangle, Leonard Higgdon , Emil Milrich , Cempt Tobtocpam , Thomas Wang-Ji. On two occasions, when asked if Camellion is his real name, he replies that it doesn't matter. #63 The Soul Search Project reveals that Richard Joseph Camellion is not the name on his birth certificate.

Frequently disguises himself (and fellow mercs) during operations

Worked with: ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence), NSA , CIA , MAD (West German counter-intelligence) Known enemies: the KGB , SWAPO , GROB (Indonesian Political Security Service), various terrorist organizations.

The Death Merchant has two pet pigs, known as Damon and Pythias.

The Death Merchant is notable in being rather more nihilistic than many of his 70's and 80's action series counterparts; he normally doesn't think twice about killing innocent people if it is the quickest way to get the mission accomplished. For example, #62, The Soul Search Project sees The Death Merchant's team cold-bloodedly killing over 50 New York Police Department officers who try to stop them during a mission.

Another interesting thing about the Death Merchant is that he seems to have little interest in women or sex; there is no "love interest" for Richard Camellion of any sort in any of the books. In an early book, however, he does mention a former girlfriend, "the one true love of his life" who had been killed by the KGB, however, in the first book "The Death Merchant", He has a relation with a disabled girl and show true feelings for her. He on one occasion states that he will not feel truly satisfied until the Soviet Union is "a sea of radioactive glass."

He has sex a few times in the books, although considerably less than many of his counterparts -- He does have sex aboard a boat in one book (The Billionaire Mission) and with a CIA staff girl in The Iron Swastika Plot.

The Death Merchant's face is not described in great detail, and it is mentioned that he has had plastic surgery to alter his appearance numerous times. He does, however, like his men's action adventure counterparts Remo Williams and Mack Bolan, have blue eyes which are occasionally described as "icy." The Death Merchant is described as being about 6 feet tall and having a slender, wiry frame.