05 the Czar of Fear and the Phantom City [Print on Demand (Paperback)]

Prosper City, New Jersey is anything but prosperous. A mysterious villain has overtaken the town, effectively shutting down factories and other places of business, and putting the town's residents out of work. This czar of fear is known as the Green Bell, and his followers do his dirty bidding wearing dark robes with a green bell design on the front. They communicate via strange signals over the radio that frighten the town's residents, as the sounds of the Green Bell mean impending insanity or death for someone!

Siblings Alice and Jim Cash, along with a matronly woman called Aunt Nora, head to New York to seek help from Doc Savage, but Jim disappears, later to be found dead-his murder pinned on Doc! Doc leaves Ham in New York to straighten out his legal troubles, then ventures to Prosper City with his other four aids to ferret out the Green Bell. They stay with Aunt Nora, but Doc has to keep hidden, as the Green Bell pins more murders on him.

This story was more intrigue than action, though there were still plenty of fistfights and gun battles. Doc's entire focus was on finding the identity of the Green Bell, so he spent most of his time investigating rather than fighting scores of villains in an exotic locale. While lighter on action than some of the others, it was still a very good book.

In The Phantom City, Doc is sought out by a group of Arab thugs who want to rent his submarine, the Helldiver. Naturally, they try to steal it first, and in the ensuing fight, Doc comes upon an entrancing beauty with white hair who seems to be a captive of the thugs. He also hears of a mysterious Phantom City. He and his crew follow the fiend Mohallet and his crew to the coast of Arabia where they find themselves trapped in an underground river which leads near the Phantom City. Doc and his pals battle not only Arabs but strange, apish men as they strive to save the last few residents of the desert city and find a way back to civilization.

This was a solid sample of the series, full of trademark humor. It's funny to think that the violence prevalent in the first few books was quickly curbed to the point where Doc introduces "mercy bullets." And these were written 70 years ago...for men. There is still plenty of action, though, and Doc causes plenty of pain with his bare, bronze hands.

The stories in this volume are a good indication of what to find in Doc Savage adventures: danger in New York, travel to a sometimes exotic locale, a beautiful damsel in distress who makes a failed play for Doc, the ongoing feud between Monk and Ham, and a ruthless band of vicious thugs to provide danger and action. The best part is, they're not only great adventure yarns, they're a part of American literary history. Pretty much every adventure hero out there owes a piece of himself to Doc Savage.

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