Peter the Brazen is an interesting character: a two-fisted adventurer wandering the exotic Orient between the world wars, going up against several menacing villains. His adventures were written by George F. Worts under his Loring Brent pseudonym.
Some say he might be an inspiration for Doc Savage.
While the stories appeared from 1918 to 1935, only a few have been reprinted. Steeger Books had reprinted the first three stories in volume 1 of its “Adventures of Peter the Brazen” series, which started his adventures against the Gray Dragon. Now, finally with The Gray Dragon, we get the fourth through sixth story in volume 2, which completes this first series.
We met Peter Moore in the first story. He’s a shipboard radio operator who has exceptional hearing, making him very valuable for his skills. Over the past five years, he has been traveling throughout the Pacific. And he is no scrawny weakling.
In that first story, he gets embroiled in a bizarre series of events. In a Chinatown, he gets pulled into a plot to kidnap someone, who is secreted onto the same ship he is assigned to. It turns out this is due to the mysterious ruler of an inland city of China, Len Yang, the Gray Dragon!
He frees the girl, Aileen Lorimer, who is sent back to the U.S. at the end of the first story. But Peter is now threatened by the Gray Shadow and his minions. Each story that makes up this series is self-contained. With the fourth story, Peter is heading home to California, thinking of retiring to his “ranch” and finding Aileen. But a minion of the Gray Dragon meets him and offers him a position in the Gray Dragon’s organization! Peter turns it down.
While hoping to reconnect with Aileen, he see her in the arms of another, and instead leaves, this time heading to Honduras and getting involved with another girl.
In the next story, Peter is heading back to China. Along the way, he gets involved with a group of tourists: a father with two young daughters. But instead of getting with either, he sets them up with others. He still holds a torch of Aileen.
In the final story, Aileen has returned to China. While in the U.S., she was training to be a medical missionary, and had finished her schooling. Things come to a head between Peter and the Gray Shadow, with a final conflict and conclusion. At the end its seems that Peter will settle down with Aileen. Right!
The next episode appeared a year later and Steeger Books has reprinted it already as volume 3: The Golden Cat. I look forward to reading it and see what is next for Peter the Brazen. Strangely, George Worts after that story didn’t write anything more with the character for 10 years! Then he returned for several stories, again in The Argosy. So hope we’ll get see the fourth volume soon.
