Fictional CIA agent Sam Durell is the protagonist for all of the stories in this series and so while the publisher listed this as the “Assignment series” it is well known as the “Sam Durell series.” In later editions the publisher also used “Sam Durell” in the blurb immediately after the front cover - For example
Assignment Ceylon has “This is number thirty-six of the famed Sam Durell novels—one of the bestselling suspense series in the history of publishing.” One consistent element is that all of the story titles started with the word “Assignment.”
The stories were written over a span of 28 years from 1955 to 1983 with each more or less being set in present time at the time it was written.
When initially issued the stories were not numbered and the publisher showed the list of available stories in the “Assignment” series in alphabetical order though often the alphabetical list did not include all of the previous stories. Later re-prints numbered the stories based the order in which they were first published though the list of stories just before the title page was still in alphabetical order. The list is shown in numbered/published order here. Each story is a standalone work and while they can be read in any order reading them in the order given here will provide some continuity as there are occasional references to people or incidents from previous assignments.
The publications were inconsistent in their formatting of the title with many editions using five dots as in
Assignment . . . . . Angelina on the title page though some used a dash, others used a colon, and a few break the title on two lines with no punctuation. The formatting on the front covers was also mixed with most editions breaking the title onto two lines though a few had two lines with the
Assignment followed by a dash or colon. The spines tended to use a dash though a few use a colon and
Assignment Ceylon had no punctuation. For consistency, all of the titles are listed here with a dash.
- Assignment to Disaster (1955)
- Assignment—Treason (1956)
- Assignment—Suicide (1956)
- Assignment—Stella Marni (1957)
- Assignment—Budapest (1957)
- Assignment—Angelina (1958)
- Assignment—Madeleine (1958)
- Assignment—Carlotta Cortez (1959)
- Assignment—Helene (1959)
- Assignment—Lili Lamaris (1959)
- Assignment—Zoraya (1960)
- Assignment—Mara Tirana (1960)
- Assignment—Lowlands (1961)
- Assignment—Burma Girl (1961)
- Assignment—Ankara (1961)
- Assignment—Karachi (1962)
- Assignment—Sorrento Siren (1962)
- Assignment—Manchurian Doll (1963)
- Assignment—The Girl in the Gondola (1964)
- Assignment—Sulu Sea (1964)
- Assignment—The Cairo Dancers (1965)
- Assignment—School for Spies (1966)
- Assignment—Cong Hai Kill (1966)
- Assignment—Palermo (1966)
- Assignment—Black Viking (1967)
- Assignment—Moon Girl (1967)
- Assignment—Nuclear Nude (1968)
- Assignment—Peking (1969)
- Assignment—White Rajah (1970)
- Assignment—Star Stealers (1970)
- Assignment—Tokyo (1971)
- Assignment—Golden Girl (1971)
- Assignment—Bangkok (1972)
- Assignment—Maltese Maiden (1972)
- Assignment—Silver Scorpion (1973)
- Assignment—Ceylon (1973)
- Assignment—Amazon Queen (1974)
- Assignment—Sumatra (1974)
- Assignment—Quayle Question (1975)
- Assignment—Black Gold (1975)
- Assignment—Unicorn (1976)
- Assignment—Afghan Dragon (1976)After Edward S. Aarons' death in 1975 his brother, William B. Aarons (1914-2002), continued to publish the series as executor of the Edward S. Aarons' estate. Volumes 43 to 48 state Will B. Aarons as the author but were ghost written by Lawrence Hall.
- Assignment—Sheba (1976)
- Assignment—Tiger Devil (1977)
- Assignment—13th Princess (1977)
- Assignment—Mermaid (1979)
- Assignment—Tyrant's Bride (1980)
- Assignment—Death Ship (1983)
Among his early works are
The Art Studio Murders (1950) and
The Decoy (1951).