A murderous madman is holding a South Sea atoll in terror. His aim? Nothing less than pirating the secret of turning sea water into gold. His obsession? Set a deadly trap — then obliterate the Man of Bronze and his bold crew!
The Bantam cover of this novel reuses a part of the artwork from the Bantam edition of “The Men Who Smiled No More.”
The pulp edition of this novel includes a letter to the editor from novelist Michael Avallone.
“Pirate Isle” rates a C+ or maybe even a B- grade in my way of thinking. It has a stong
mystery with the identity of the real bad guy (Lord London) being passed around among the
external characters until the very end. It features plenty of action and a load of duplicity which kept me reading. The story features Johnny, Long Tom and Renny in action with Doc while Monk and Ham are off in South America, setting up the next the next story (“The Speaking Stone”). This is fine with me because I get tired of Monk and Ham’s incessant squabbling (which is supposed to provide comic relief but is instead mostly just boring). The comic relief here is supplied by a talking parrot who also innocently aids the ultimate plot resolution. The book has a few drawbacks, however. It contains one of the most brutal scenes in any Doc story when an innocent passenger is randomly selected and shot between the eyes, with little remorse displayed by the unlikely perpetrator of this travesty. This is too bad because the story already had me well enough hooked. Also when this line is uttered on the next to last page, there is some meaning to it:
I’m looking for Doc Savage novels. How do I find them? Can I still purchase them, from Random House or one of the other publishers? Thankyou Ed
How can I purchase Doc Savage novels? Who has them in current publication and how would I buy them?
Ed