The skeleton death awaits all who come in contact with those from the land of fear — and the Man of Bronze is not immune. He and his dauntless allies pursue the mystery from New York to Africa, doing battle with Greens Gordon all the way.
Hidalgo Trading Co – Chuck Welch – Flearun
Another middle-of-the-road Doc. Not bad per se but not all that memorable either. The skeleton death was interesting and Doc finding a way around it displays his brain power to the max and the tale moves from New York to Africa but it gets bogged down on the way. For a short Doc it reads long. Interesting idea, average execution.
I think the pulp cover and the paperback covers of this book are terrific (I made a poster of the Pfeiffer). But the story really didn’t work for me. There’s an improbably house of odd corridors and bizarrely shaped rooms that seems to have been built just to baffle Doc (the pulp cover comes from an encounter with a skeleton in one of the house’s rooms). Since I own my house, I can’t imagine anyone building such a house. Doc then employs later on full-size blow-up dolls (or figures) of Monk and Ham in order to fool the bad guys. It was all too improbably for me. But it was a fast read and a pleasant time killer. Heck. I’ve even read it twice, just to make sure that my original assessment of the book was correct. It was. Dang.