The Phantom Detective: Phantoms in Bronze
by Laurence Donovan
introduction by Will Murray
Four fantastic adventures by Doc Savage author Laurence Donovan! Known best for his work on Doc Savage, The Skipper, and other series, Laurence Donovan also was the regular writer on the long-running Phantom Detective series. During his stint on the title, Donovan took the Phantom to places outside New York City and involved him in adventures and in battle with villains which could be seen as pseudo adventures of The Man of Bronze. This 650 page edition includes four of his best, most Doc Savage-esque stories:
The Thousand Islands Murders: An Island of men named Smith, and the weird "Devil's Flare"... The World's Greatest Sleuth lands in the middle of mystery and intrigue at Smith Island—and follows a grim trail of blackmail and peril that challenges his keen crime-fighting power!
Death Over Puget Sound: Death and destruction by a creature known as Black Wolf, and a timber trail of doom follows in the wake of the grim "Echo Voice" murders! The Phantom Detective battles against desperate odds as he strives to halt a startling tragedy of crime played on nature's stage!
Murder Moon Over Miami: Who is The Iron Judge? And what is his connection to a literal viper pit of killers? When greed turns a playground city into the grim scene of a vast murder game, The Phantom Detective battles a menace of death and destruction that stalks Corpse Cay!
Streamlined Murder: A murderous army of killer apes! The Phantom Detective races to pursue the greedy perpetrators of shocking crimes when mystery stalks in the wake of the death of an aging silk tycoon!
650 pages, approx. 6"x9"
14 Comments
MB
April 11, 2011sounds interesting. I may get this. I see a #1 on the cover, so are further, similar volumes planned?
Matt
April 11, 2011Maybe… if this sells well enough, it’s possible another book could be assembled.
MB
April 11, 2011Interesting. In looking over my data, 3 of these were unknown authors. So I guess its been figured out that Donovan wrote them all?
Matt
April 11, 2011It’s a very good guess on all of them… similar style, locations, etc.
Robert Craig
April 12, 2011Matt…
What a surprise…I didn’t know this collection was in the pipeline! Love the concept and cover design; order has been placed and can’t wait for Thursday for the book to arrive!
Matt
April 12, 2011Thanks! I believe this was a suggestion from either Will Murray or Tom Johnson… and a good one it was. Actually, it’s been done for over a year now; It just needed a few things polished off prior to releasing it. And thanks for buying it already. Buy two: you’ll enjoy it twice as much!
Tom Johnson
April 13, 2011I’m glad to see this book finally out. Yep, I’m the villain who suggested this one to Matt a long time back. Love the cover too!
MB
April 15, 2011FUNNY!!!
Black Dog Book’s “Raider of the Seas” used the exact same piece of artwork for their cover.
Matt
April 15, 2011That’s what happens when we strip-mine the Heritage Auction site.
john h. venne
January 11, 2012The Phantom Detective, unfortunately, is so generic. The Spider is the weird-looking,, apocalyptic scourge of a hero. Doc Savage, for all its formula, contains some great screwball dialogue and action sequences. By far, Clark Jr. is the most fun. The Shadow is a continent onto himself with networks of operatives and the city and rural areas are, often, in a state of disrepair. Interestingly enough, the writing style seems cribbed from the Varney the Vampire era of the penny dreadful. Shadow novels can be dense and, sometimes, tough going , but the competency of his crew and the truly spectral nature of his presence give him his uniqueness, The Crimson pharmacist, the first Socialist pulp hero, the Black Bat etc. well, they’re known by the accessories they keep.
The Phantom Detective and Secret Agent X, with the marginal heroine often lost in the folded pages and the authority figure who, if asked , could do much more, present similarities that blend the two protagonists into a kind of pulp hero wall paper.One is never known. One might be known by father and daughter. War buddies and men of the East are often helpful but don’t jump off the page. Finally, John Gunnison is working on Phantom Detective reprints. I’m getting the Secret Agent X books despite some doubling because they’re beautifully produced and manageable, but Phantom Detective is a long haul. john v
Dennis
July 13, 2012Have to agree re: the generic nature of The Phantom Detective. Not only did he not have a strong visual presence due to Standard’s insistence on the “looming face in the background” on the covers (also common to Black Book Detective’s Black Bat, with a few exceptions), but absolutely nothing about him stands out. Creation by committee and a revolving-door policy of writers operating under the house name were probably mostly responsible. Most of the great pulp heroes bear the stamp of a single author, even if they were occasionally written by someone else. With PD there is no feeling that any one author had a substantial investment in the character — they were just work-for-hire, a way to pay the bills. Sorry to be so negative; I’m sure Laurence Donovan’s PD stories were still a cut above being run-of-the-mill. Street & Smith, on average, had the best hero pulp writers, and John Nanovic tended to keep the characters on-track.
Tom Johnson
July 13, 2012True, I don’t believe anyone thinks of these as great literature; for sure, most were aimed at adolescent boys (in some cases, the young girls). But they were quick escape literature from oftentimes hard struggles. The Twenties had just ended, and I think readers were likely tired of gangster popularity, and wanted something like The Shadow and Doc Savage to fill a few hours to escape otherwise boring lives. The Spider’s over-the-top action and destruction of New York City in every story must have been a hoot back then. And why not a Phantom Detective or Black Bat to add to the mill? Popular culture was different back then than it is today, just like our current stand on politics or political correctness. Times may change, but the readers in the 1930s & ’40s found the stories in the pulps great escape literature. I am probably one of the few fans of the Thrilling line of pulps, but even with the multitude of authors churning out the tales, I enjoyed them all. Many have called Norman Daniels a hack, but think about this: when the pulp magazines died, Daniels moved easily into the paperbacks while Lester Dent did not. Dent was one of the giants in the pulp magazine industry, but he proved unable to make it as a paperback author.
Dennis
July 14, 2012The Black Book Detective was probably Standard’s most unique hero pulp, with a hero who had memorable characteristics that made him stand out from the crowd. Like The Shadow and Doc Savage, The Black Bat benefited from having one main writer to impose his stamp on the character. I think Daniels may have been a more invested in the character than he was in The Phantom Detective.
I think Thrilling Wonder Stories, Startling Stories and Captain Future can be said to have been quite memorable (again with Ed Hamilton putting his stamp on Captain Future as the major writer), and were probably Standard’s best — at least the postwar Thrilling Wonder and Startling under editor Sam Merwin. Maybe not so much under earlier editors Mort Weisinger and Oscar Friend, although there were still a number of good writers in there. Fans of Campbell’s Astounding SF, and later digests like Galaxy and F&SF might disagree.
Of course none of this is “great literature” but even going by standards of popular entertainment, there were various levels of quality writing within the field.
Tom Johnson
July 14, 2012Leo Margulies said that every story went to rewrite editors, which shouldn’t be surprising. The authors were writing full length novels every month, plus dozens of short stories and novelettes. Yes, they were trying to make a living back then. They had to write fast, and they didn’t have access to the Internet or word check, etc. Editors were very important. But it wasn’t just the Thrilling line of Ned Pines. Popular (and I’m sure) Street & Smith and Ace) also used rewrite editors. Matt Moring just examined a bunch of Red Finger stories that were rejected for rewrite. So Popular sent stories back to authors for rewrites. Authors also rewrote one character into another character, so The Black Bat might become the Phantom Detective, or the Phantom Detective become the Black Bat. We should not try to look too deep into any of their backgrounds, and that includes The Shadow and Doc Savage. Remember, these stories were written for entertainment, and each story was aimed at that month, that issue, and nothing else. The editors tried to make sure there was some kind of continuity to each series, but with deadlines and the number of magazines hitting the stands every month, well, good luck. I came across one Dan Fowler that even missed the editing table. It had to be hectic at times.