Ace G-Man #1: The Suicide Squad Reports for Death
Klaw, Murdoch, and Kerrigan—AKA the Suicide Squad—are the best the F.B.I. has to offer. Through nearly two dozen adventures, they battled spies, saboteurs, and even super-villains! This collection includes their first three stories:
- “Mr. Zero and the F.B.I. Suicide Squad”: One for all, and all for one—even in death—was the fighting creed of the three wildest, gun-swinging law aces of the F.B.I.!
- “The Suicide Squad Reports for Death”: In all the Service they were the Law’s toughest, shield-bearing crime fighters—and their job was to come through or die!
- “The Suicide Squad’s Last Mile”: The F.B.I.’s ace manhunt trio fight their way to hell and back—to end the rule of a crime-czar who had decreed death for all G-men and paid highest cash prices for second-hand corpses!
The Spider #58: The Emperor from Hell
“Your souls are mine—when I speak, you will obey!” From the bowels of the shaking earth itself rose the satanic ultimatum that threatened to send America’s greatest city up in flames! For the hordes of Hades, ruled by a devilish dictator, had turned New York into an Underground Kingdom of Crime, and helpless thousands died, strangling, when Hell’s emperor loosed his slaying devil-dust! Reeking of sulphur and brimstone, it floated over Manhattan, leaving death in its wake. Only one man—Richard Wentworth, as the Spider—could hope to battle this Mephistopheles of Murder—who had blasted a city and whose satanic laughter was the signal that loosed the kill-maddened Legions of Lucifer!
The Spider #57: Satan’s Shackles
Never again would the Spider wage battle against crime—this Richard Wentworth had sworn to himself as he found sanctuary in a quiet rural retreat to nurse back to health the woman he loved. Yet, into that peaceful spot swept a whirlwind of horrible butchery like none he had ever seen—New York’s sewers pouring out the Underworld’s rabid hordes to engulf the countryside in a tidal wave of racketeer ruin! Whole towns were given their choice of paying blood money to a legion of maddened looters or being wiped out, and it was then that Richard Wentworth knew the Spider must rise again—to rid America of a criminal menace that struck at the very core of its existence, and overthrow an evil empire that men and women and children might still walk free and unafraid!
Operator 5 #32: Patriot’s Death March
Can a beaten, subjugated nation fight back—and win? America was doing it! Starting out with a handful of ragged, desperate men, Operator 5 went doggedly about the hopeless task of transporting his precious store of guns and ammunition—across two thousand miles of enemy territory—to our last crumbling defenses in the Far West. Read here of that amazing running battle with death. March with this swelling, triumphant legion of hungry patriots—in the greatest, most stirring epic of military history!
The Phantom in the Rainbow (The Argosy Library)
When Edmond Fletcher, broker’s clerk, stepped into a waiting limousine, he entered the most bewildering and fascinating drama that was ever staged. Innocently enough he supplants and masquerades as America’s “Money Prince,” Sigmond Van Mortimer.
But stark horror besets his path when Fletcher learns the true maniacal character of the money master whose identity he has taken. Blindly struggling against ghastly terrors and perverted genius the young ex-broker’s clerk is tortured, almost to death, by the relentless vengeance of the “Phantom.”
All the wealth and all the power at his command are helpless in combatting the “Phantom’s” fiendishness. Risking life and sanity, Fletcher makes one last, desperate attempt to vanquish his spectral enemy in an effort to attain happiness. Does he succeed? Though you’re startled by the story itself, you’ll be electrified by its spectacular outcome.
Threads of Evidence: The Complete Cases of Riordan, Volume 1 (The Argosy Library)
Considered one of the most authentic police procedurals from the pulp magazines, author Victor Maxwell relied on his own experience as a crime reporter to chronicle the cases of Sgt. Riordon and Detective Halloran in this long-running series from Detective Fiction Weekly. Never before reprinted, this edition collects the first eight stories in the series. Includes an introduction by Maxwell aficionado Terry Sanford which features several rare Maxwell family photos.
Masters of Darkness (The Argosy Library)
A beam of darkness had been paid on Fifth Avenue for precisely fifteen minutes, and a forewarned underworld had reaped the harvest. Every source of valuables that could be found had been cleaned put. An amazing and baffling new weapon of the Underworld put New York at Crime’s mercy, and has left the city’s police blindly grasping for answers. Written by noted Science Fiction author Murray Leinster, “The Darkness on Fifth Avenue” and its three sequels are finally collected in book form.
Lies at Any Price: The Complete Cases of Gillian Hazeltine, Volume 1 (The Argosy Library)
Long considered the prototype of Erle Stanley Gardner’s fictional attorney, Perry Mason, Gillian Hazeltine was the most popular criminal attorney/investigator series characters from the golden era of the pulps. Author George F. Worts is known for his adventure characters Peter the Brazen and Singapore Sammy, but Gillian Hazeltine was his longest-running series, clocking in at nearly 30 courtroom adventures. This edition collects Hazeltine’s first three cases: “Lies at Any Price,” “The Love Bandit,” and “Who Did Kill Ezra Klagg?”
He Rules Who Can (The Argosy Library)
Harald Sigurdsson, Norwegian prince, arrives in Constantinople in 1038 with 500 soldiers, whereupon he is offered command of the Varangian Guard, the Norse half of the Emperor’s bodyguard. Harald, entangled in Greek lies and intrigue, hardly knows whom to trust: John, the real ruler of the Eastern Empire; Zoe, the widowed Empress, or the Patriarch of the Eastern Church who had schemes of his own. Written by longtime Adventure magazine contributor, Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, He Rules Who Can is one of the most authentic historical action stories to see print in Argosy magazine.
The House of the Ego: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, Volume 3 (The Argosy Library)
Detectives Glace and Bryce find a blackmail and murder mystery worth taking to the Persian astrologer-sage, Semi Dual. Investigating a city plagued by a blackmail ring by an unknown criminal, Glace and Bryce soon find themselves involved in a murder. When the two detectives are targeted for murder themselves, it’s only Semi Dual—and his mysterious powers of deduction—who can put the solve the case and rescue his friends.
Death to a Tenor (The Argosy Library)
Ronnie Ray became world famous as The Singer in the Dark, but even advertising agent Pete Hunter thought that was nothing but a publicity stunt until he found Ronnie’s corpse seated in a homemade electric chair in a lonely roadside inn, three weeks after the tenor’s strange disappearance. Though he was dead, how could his fiancée hear Ronnie sing a song that was not published until after his death in the voice that no one could imitate?
Murder’s Masquerade: The Complete Cases of Mike & Trixie, Volume 1 (The Argosy Library)
The adventures of detectives Trixie Meehan and Mike Harris of the Blaine Agency are some of the most frequently-anthologized stories from the pulps. Author T.T. Flynn’s stories of the bickering investigators foreshadowed the genre of male/female partner detectives. Included in Volume 1 are the first four stories in the series— “The Deadly Orchid,” “Death Takes Passage,” “Falling Death,” and “Murder’s Masquerade”—along with their original illustrations by Joseph A. Farren.
The Land of Limping Law: The Complete Cases of Calhoun, Volume 1 (The Argosy Library)
Stationed in the Sunken Lands of Arkansas, U.S. Ranger Jack Calhoun’s violent, fast-paced detective stories set in the river counties’ swamps were among the most popular stories of readers of Flynn’s Weekly, running for almost 70 stories from the 1920s–30s. Written by prolific author Edward Parrish Ware, this series has never before been reprinted.
Volume 1 collects the first seven stories, along with an introduction by pulp historian Robert Sampson.
Cocked Dice: The Complete Cases of Daffy Dill, Volume 1 (The Argosy Library)
Meet Joe “Daffy” Dill: wisecracking reporter for the New York Chronicle. Never one to take chances, Dill made sure to pack a gun as he investigated the criminal underworld. The Dally Dill stories are hard-boiled with a touch of humor, a skill for which the author was known. Written by prolific pulp author, novelist, screenwriter, and director Richard B. Sale, the stories from this long-running series from the pages of Detective Fiction Weekly have rarely been reprinted. This edition collects the first seven stories.
Rogues in Clover
Home to his father’s farm comes Bill Parmelee, after six years of precarious life at the gaming tables. The high note struck in the initial situation carries over into the pages following, wherein Bill Parmelee’s love of gambling comes to grips with the honest sportsmanship of his father and the influence of wholesome country life. An exciting poker game in which the father is pitted against son, the stakes being the son’s right to stay on in his home at the farm, brings Bill to the turning point in his career. Bill’s further adventures with card sharps, phony roulette operators, and other cheats go to make a colorful and diverting story.
Listed in Queen’s Quorum: A History of the Detective Crime Short Story as one of the ten best Detective novels of the 1920s, this edition includes two additional stories of Bill Parmelee not in the original hardcover. This new edition features an all new introduction by Evan Lewis.
The Masked Rider Archives, Volume 3
Collected for the first time: the original Masked Rider series! Originally published by Ranger Publications, Altus Press has committed to collecting all the rare and illusive Masked Rider yarns from these early years prior to its acquisition by Standard Publications. Each volume will include articles and information about the series and its publisher, Ranger Publications, one of the earliest companies run by Timely and Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman.
Volume 3 contains the next three stories, uncut, in order, and accompanied by the original illustrations: “Outlaws of the Moccasins” and “Brand of the Quanahy Clan” by George A. Starbird, and “The Devil’s Henchmen” by William H. Stueber & Lincoln Hoffman. Includes an all-new introduction by James Reasoner.
Damnation on Halfaday Creek
Black John Smith, Old Cush, and the rest of the outlaws of Halfaday Creek return in seven more adventures, taken from their original magazine texts, and including all of the original interior illustrations. These original versions have never before been reprinted.
Continuing the complete reprinting of one of the longest-running series in all of pulp fiction.
John Solomon, Argonaut and The Shawl of Solomon: The Adventures of John Solomon, Volume 7 (The H. Bedford-Jones Library)
John Solomon, the mysterious ship’s chandler and secret agent, returns in two more rare adventures from early in prolific pulp author H. Bedford-Jones’ career: “John Solomon, Argonaut” and “The Shawl of Solomon.” Continue the story of John Solomon with this next book in the series, complete & uncut from the pages of People’s Magazine. Includes the original illustrations.
Ki-Gor: The Complete Series, Volume 4
For the first time, the Ki-Gor series from the pages of Jungle Stories is collected, complete, uncut and in order! Volume 4 includes the next four stories: “The Devil’s Death Trap,” “Voodoo Slaves for the Devil’s Daughter,” “Eyrie of the Golden Goddess,” and “Caravan of Terror.” Includes an all-new introduction by Howard Andrew Jones.
The Complete Cases of Bookie Barnes (The Dime Detective Library)
A truck driver employed by Murdock Motor Freight, Bookie Barnes is a tough working class hero. Though not a detective per se, he is a rough customer described as “tall, heavy-chested, with a build you see only in physical culture ads, and, though barely twenty-six, he’d been on the trucks for three years.” He is emblematic of the type of crime fighters found in pulp fiction in that he represents the typical readership of pulp fiction: an average working-class audience.
Written by one of the greats of the detective pulps, Robert Reeves—who was tragically killed in World War II—this book collects all of his Bookie Barnes stories: “Murder in High Gear,” “Over a Barrel,” and “Murder Without Death,” as well as his lone, non-series character story, “Dance Macabre.”
The Complete Cases of Cash Wale, Volume 1 (The Dime Detective Library)
Written by Peter Paige, one of Black Mask editor Fanny Ellsworth’s finds after succeeding Joseph Shaw’s tenure in that same role, Paige introduced the tough-as-nails detective Cash Wale and partner Sailor Duffy: a series worthy of the esteemed lineage of Black Mask magazine. Quickly plucked by Black Mask’s rival, Dime Detective, the cases of Cash Wale were a mainstay of that magazine for the next decade. Never before in book form, this edition collects his first five cases: “Voodoo Frame,” “The Corpse Promoter,” “Lotta Had a Husband,” “Wanted: Dead and Alive!,” and “The Bullet From Nowhere.” And it includes an all-new introduction by popular fiction authority John Wooley.
The Complete Cases of Inspector Allhoff, Volume 3 (The Dime Detective Library)
Brilliant, decisive, and hard-charging, Deputy Inspector Allhoff was the NYPD’s ace detective until bullets from a mobster’s machine gun robbed him of his legs, his career, and—in the opinion of an associate—his sanity. Yet Allhoff was too good a man to be put out to pasture, so New York’s police commissioner found a way to keep him employed and refer to him such cases as the department couldn’t or wouldn’t handle. Confined to a wheelchair and operating from a seedy tenement flat, Allhoff is assisted by two cops: Battersly, the rookie patrolman whose brief moment of cowardice cost the inspector his legs, and Simmons, the bitter career cop who detests Allhoff but sticks with the embittered cripple to protect his own pension. Created by D.L. Champion, Inspector Allhoff denied most conventions of detective-pulp fiction. He could never be confused for one of Raymond Chandler’s knights errant, trudging down those mean streets. Allhoff was no Rover Boy in trench coat and fedora. He was, in fact, a sadist and a psychopath.
With 30 entries published between 1938 and 1946, the Allhoff series was among the most popular and long-lived to appear in Dime Detective, the prestigious crime pulp second only to the legendary Black Mask in its impact on the genre. Volume 3 collects the next seven stories: “You’re the Crime in My Coffee,” “Thanks for the Ration Card!,” “The Profitable Corpse,” “The Diplomatic Corpse,” “Aaron Had a Rod,” “The Day Nobody Died,” and “Go Home and Die!”
The Complete Cases of Corpus Delicti Mort, Volume 1 (The Dime Detective Library)
Defense attorney Clarence Darrow Mort, an unkempt habitué of seedy bars, was known familiarly, if not affectionately, as “Corpus Delicti” Mort. A mainstay of the page of mid-1940s issues of Dime Detective magazine, Mort was yet another of the quirky characters which editor Ken White avidly placed in his hard-boiled pulp magazine. This collection contains the first half of the C.D. Mort stores, all by Julius Long: “C.D. for Corpus Delicti,” “No Minimum for Murder,” “Loaded for Murder,” “Corpus Delicti de Luxe,” “Mostly for Murder,” and “Murder Under Foot.”
The Complete Cases of the Jones Brothers (The Dime Detective Library)
They were meek and mild looking little men, those brothers Jones. The last two in the world you’d expect to find mixed up with murder. But tracking down killers was their specialty—and a simple job like doubling for a corpse on a coffin-ride was just another night’s work for Horatio & Leander Jones.
Written by Maxwell Hawkins, the Jones Brothers series was a transitional one for Dime Detective magazine’s editorial focus, from weird menace & mysteries to the more traditional gumshoe detective story pioneered by rival magazine, Black Mask. This collection contains all six stories in the series: “Alias the Corpse,” “The Devil’s Dozen,” “Death from Down Under,” “Duchess of Death,” “Fool’s Jewels,” and “Fair and Murder.”
The Complete Cases of Steve Midnight, Volume 2 (The Dime Detective Library)
Down and out former playboy Steven Middleton Knight’s fortune was destroyed by the Depression. Now a cabbie for the Red Owl Cab Company, he never fails to take on another mystery with each new fare. Created by John K. Butler, this fast-paced, Los Angeles-based hard-boiled series was published between 1940 and 1942 in the pages of Dime Detective, the prestigious crime pulp second only to the legendary Black Mask in its impact on the genre.
Volume 2 collects the final five stories: “The Killer was a Gentleman,” “Dead Man’s Alibi,” “The Hearse from Red Owl,” “Death and Taxis,” and “The Corpse That Couldn’t Keep Cool.”
Tarantula Tower: The Adventures of Scarlet and Bradshaw, Volume 4 (The Argosy Library)
Best remembered as the author of Thibaut Corday and his French Foreign Legion yarns, author Theodore Roscoe wrote another, little-known, long-running series: the adventures of curio hunter Peter Scarlet and Bradshaw, the naturalist. While each appeared in solo stories, they also teamed up in several yarns. These tales of treasure in the Orient are action-filled adventure by one of pulpdom’s best. Volume 4 collects the final five adventures, taken from the pages of Action Stories and Argosy magazines: “Tarantula Tower,” “Octopus,” “Blood of the Beast,” “The Evil Eye,” and “Port of Missing Heads.”
The Argosy Library #91
Henry Plays a Hunch: The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, Volume 5 (The Argosy Library)
Once voted Adventure magazine’s most popular author, W.C. Tuttle introduced the world to one of his longest-running—and most popular—series characters, Henry Harrison Conroy, in the pages of Argosy. Collected here are the next two novels: “Henry Plays a Hunch” and “Henry Hits the Warpath.”
King of the Dead: The Saga of Monella, Volume 3 (The Argosy Library)
The sequel to The Devil-Tree of El Dorado and A Queen of Atlantis, King of the Dead is another early science fiction classic by the British author Frank Aubrey. Don Lorenzo and Arnold Neville lead separate expeditions to the South American interior whereupon they encounter the exiled king of the underground world. But can Neville help him reclaim his throne when the arch-priestess, Alloyah, raises an army of the dead? And then there are the ogres of that lost city who kill and eat people during the night…
Cave of the Blue Scorpion: The Adventures of Peter the Brazen, Volume 5 (The Argosy Library)
In 1930, Argosy Magazine brought back several of their most popular series characters, and that list was headlined by Peter the Brazen. The three stories collected in Volume 5 showcases an even more action-oriented series compared to the earlier stories, and are considered by pulp readers as among the best stories to ever appear in Argosy. Written by George F. Worts under his primary pen-name, Peter the Brazen made a marked impression on Argosy reader Lester Dent when he co-created Doc Savage. The saga of Peter the Brazen is amongst the best adventure series in the history of pulp fiction. Included in Volume 5 are the next three stories in the series: “Vampire,” “Chinese for Racket,” and “Cave of the Blue Scorpion.”
The Monster of the Lagoon: The Complete Adventures of Singapore Sammy, Volume 3 (The Argosy Library)
Sailor Singapore Sammy Shay roamed the South Seas, desperate to find the father he neither knew nor loved. For reckless old Bill Shay had absconded with the only copy of a will that left all of his own father’s worldly riches to Sammy alone. Singapore Sammy didn’t know why, and he didn’t care particularly. He just wanted to get his hands on that precious document. He had only two clues to go on: his old man loved pearls and elephants—in that order. When Sammy came into possession of the fabulous Malobar pearl, he realized that he had something to bargain with. If only he could track down the elusive Bill Shay…. In his youth, George Frank Worts had been a telegraph operator on ships making the China run when he turned his experiences in Asia into some of the most memorable escape fiction ever to appear in the pages of Argosy magazine.
The volume collects the next two stories in the saga of Singapore Sammy Shay and Lucky Jones of the schooner, Blue Goose: “The Monster of the Lagoon” and “Shark Bait.”