I have previously reviewed the volumes with P.J. Lozito‘s New Pulp hero The Silver Manticore and looked forward to new stories with him and his associates. Instead, we get a collection of stories with another pulp-inspired hero set in the same “universe,” The Revenant Detective.
Coming from Pro Se Press, The Adventures of the Revenant Detective collects two short stories and a novel with this character. But the Silver Manticore does make a cameo appearance in the novel.
While inspired by The Phantom Detective, the Revenant Detective is different. Set after WWII, Eldon Curtis III is the star of stage and screen, and during WWII had been part of a secret military group. Thus, he will use these skills, including disguise and more, in his war on crime. He will also be semi-approved by the police, working with them, though his identity is hidden. The first story, “Deadly Role,” serves as his origin story. It was released as one of Pro Se’s Single Shot Signature ebooks in 2015.
Someone seems to be killing off the members of his unit using a long bow and a bizarre disguise. And Curtis knows he is next, and his wife is kidnapped. Can he get them out and put an end to things? At the end, he approaches the mayor to work as the Revenant Detective, using the code-name of “Griffin,” which is also used as a way to identify himself, along with another item, similar to The Phantom Detective’s jeweled badge.
The next short story, “Death is a Rare Jewel,” is set a bit after that. At this point, the Detective has solved several cases and has now established a detective agency with five retired cops who aid him as private detectives, along with a parking attendant and his wife. He has access to several cars, gifts from the police, along with other resources, and even works with the FBI semi-officially.
This time he is called in when a man with no identification is found dead, apparently by poison. The only clue is a scrap of paper with a pair of Chinese words on them. Is this tied to the recent crime wave in Chinatown that is being kept under wraps?
Then we get the novel-length Collision Course. After a gangster is killed mysteriously by a .19-caliber bullet, which shouldn’t exist, an industrialist is approached by a gangster who thinks he is involved. Things don’t go well for the gangster. Soon he has commissioned a suit of armor, while the Revenant Detective is also looking into things. Surprisingly, the Detective is there in disguise when the gangster, now outfitted in his suit of armor, attacks. But the gangster doesn’t succeed in his goal, though several are hurt.
Matters are getting out of hand as more are killed, both gangsters and cops. Into this comes a new player: Hunter’s Moon. While inspired by the Moon Man, he’s a little different. He may have been a killer vigilante under the name Nite Owl until he got his argus glass globe helmet, which is apparently indestructible. I don’t recall that being so with Moon Man’s. So he’s not a Robin Hood-like character. He fought gangsters in the 1930s, then disappeared. Perhaps he was involved with WWII? But now he’s back, and he seems also a skilled martial artist as well, though we don’t know who he is. He does have an associate, a former boxer like Moon Man did.
We have folks looking for both the gun and the armor. Things escalate to include assassins and more before all is said and done.
The novel leaves some things uncertain. The mayor has left to take on a role as a diplomat, and the cop who had been working with the Detective leaves for Asia, where a certain Asian mastermind who has been a thorn for the Silver Manticore finds him. What will happen going forward? Will we see more of Hunter’s Moon, or will he be back as something else?
This is a good collection introducing this new character to the universe of the Silver Manticore. My only complaint is the cover artwork, which I didn’t care for. That’s not the Detective on the cover, but the villain from the first story. I really felt the artwork that was used for the original Single Shot was much better and would have prefered it been reused for this volume.
When will we get the next Silver Manticore novel? Will some of the hints here lead to that? Will the Revenant Detective also appear there? Time will tell.
