The cloying scent of gardenias and a very strange auto leads Doc Savage on a desperate quest to find a kidnap victim deep in the heart of the underworld.
The cloying scent of gardenias and a very strange auto leads Doc Savage on a desperate quest to find a kidnap victim deep in the heart of the underworld.
At a mere 86 pages (in the Bantam edition) this is one of those short, taut postwar Docs. It
This is a straightforward mystery story, involving murder, greed, blackmail and vengeance. It is a pretty good story but if you are looking for a more “typical” Doc adventure with strange machines, enigmatic events and odd people in exotic locations you should read the pre-war stories. I happen to like the more mature writing style (in this case Chuck Welch) of the later Doc stories. Not everyone does, however. Even so, this is a decent example of the less superhuman, more accessible Doc. If you haven’t read any of this type, “The Disappearing Lady” would be a pretty good place to start.