The Awful Dynasty
When a deadly scarab starts visiting a curse from ancient Egypt on wealthy financiers, Doc and his bold crew face a terrifying death in the mysterious crypts of the most dangerous pyramid on earth.
When a deadly scarab starts visiting a curse from ancient Egypt on wealthy financiers, Doc and his bold crew face a terrifying death in the mysterious crypts of the most dangerous pyramid on earth.
A very sluggish Bogart tale. When left mostly to his own devices, Bogey could be a sleep-inducing writer. He needed Dent’s substantial revision to create standout tales.
A silly, ho-hum story. I still had fun reading it, mainly because the “curse” was supposed to be utterly terrifying and horrible… but here is an example of the curse at work…”There followed a startled cry: ‘Good Lord! There’s something… here…in this room! It…it’s moving…like a big, fat bug!'”
If that doesn’t get you shaking in your shoes, what will?
“Good Lord! There… there’s a mouse…in…in this room! It…it’s coming at me! It…it’s stabbing me with a TOOTHPICK! Quick, call Doc Savage!”
Well, I was going to actually try and seriously review this book, but after reading Scott Kimball’s comments I am laughing too hard.
Sigh.
Here is another story that had potential but never delivers. All the elements are here, an ancient Egyptian curse, a beautiful princess, lost treasure, race to the Sahara and a battle in a pyramid. If Dent had written this it would have been spectacular.
Proof positive that the writer truly matters. It is like a good builder; anyone can have all the right materials like wood and stone handed to them, but an inexperienced builder may just slap together a shoddy lean-to, whereas an architecture could construct a palace.
THE AWFUL DYNASTY (11/1940).
This is a passable William Bogart effort. The double-crossing and backstabbing are a bit confused and confusing instead of surprising, and this is a trait I usually attribute to Bogart’s tales. The personalities of some villains zigzag between seeming honesty and gleeful murderousness in a not-entirely-believable manner. The double-cross villain reveal at the end seems a bit rushed, but that’s not unusual for a post-1930s Doc adventure.
Oh, and it includes Chemistry and Habeas for no discernible reason. Even the bit of humor they are supposed to inject is so fleeting as to be non-existent.
THE AWFUL DYNASTY is a pretty lame title, too. Something tying the tale to Egyptian treasure and real adventure would’ve been a more marketable attempt to grab magazine rack browsers. THE SCARAB MURDERS or THE PHARAOH’S TREASURE would’ve been catchier. (Even THE PYRAMID SCHEME is a better possibility!) The pulp cover didn’t even carry a blurb to make it more exciting: “Book-length novel – Other features.” Blah. A pulp magazine cover had PLENTY of real estate for exciting blurbs. By comparison, a 1970s mass market paperback was MUCH smaller, but a cover could carry a billboard’s worth of wordage. (Maybe S&S didn’t really want a lot of people to read this one.)
It’s not the worst Bogart I’ve read.