Murder on an international scale was being committed by a sinister mastermind. His method — an unusual, inescapable form of death. His trademark — a small statuette next to the corpse. The Man of Bronze and his fearless friends do battle with the thieving, murderous spawn from Hell — and become marked men themselves!
Another novel I suspect had some ghostwriting going on, but still rather eerie and enjoyable. Aren’t many bald-headed women running around in Doc novels, so some unique aspects to the tale. The ending was a bit clunky; namely, the murder device, but all in all still lots of fun.
This is one dead turkey. It really reads like a warmed-over story from Dime Detective Magazine: Doc investigating the murders of soveral wealthy men in a mansion. He doesn’t do anything spectacular; his aides are wooden and less than useless; and the Bantam cover really tanked. Easily one of the very worst Docs. Blah.
Again, I have to disagree with the consensus on this one. “The Seven Agate Devils” is a very cool departure from the “Doc in foreign country seeking treasure” rut that Dent sometimes got himself into. It’s basically a mystery about a very ingenious murder device that kept my attention for all 16 chapters. In fact, I think it’s one of Dent’s best bad-guy gadgets
This was difficult to slog through. Definitely a ghosted novel, with some Dent rewrite to smooth out the worst parts.
Doc is turned into a “science detective” and Monk and Ham seem to have had their brains kidnapped by aliens!
Finally, the explanation of the mystery deaths is a real letdown.
Add the atrocious Pfeiffer cover and it’s a wonder this one sold any copies. I’ll be it didn’t go into a 2nd printing!
This one wasn’t too bad…kept my interest, but I admit the explantion at the end for the killings was completely ridiculous. Gruesome and ridiculous at the same time.
I found it extremely difficult struggling through to the end of this one….