I know absolutely nothing about Harold Davis and what else he might have written. But as a Doc ghost he stands up fairly well. He may even be the best of the Doc Savage ghostwriters (at least when you think of authors like He Could Stop the Entire Series Donovan). Tales like The Green Death are solid Doc adventures with all the creepy, exotic ambiance we came to expect.

When you look at his contributions, we have some substantial ones. Though not the best books, he did write the "sequel" to the Man of Bronze (The Golden Peril) and introduce Haebus Corpus (Dust of Death), for example. He also played with all the characters fairly well, stayed true to the nature of Doc Savage and the series by not getting too outlandish and wild with the mysteries, thus always keeping the solutions grounded in science and reality. He also wrote one of the best, longest, and most memorable Docs, in the value of the test it provided to the character of Doc Savage, in The King Maker. This is a classic book and a substantial statement on the nature of Doc Savage and what his goals were in life. Furthermore, he did something I always loved to see in Doc Savage tales, he connected them. He often mentions other exploits in the middle of adventures (especially those he wrote) and creates a real-life flow and chronology in the series that is often absent. His seem to reflect people having real experiences in a real world, rather than a bunch of random stand-alone tales that never connect in any way. I like that.

Is Harold Davis better than Lester Dent? No even close. But compared to the other ghostwriters, he wrote a lot of books that stand up very well on their own, honor the characters, and actually contribute something to the series. What more could we wish from a ghostwriter?

Thomas Fortenberry