Argosy Library, Series XII

On Black Friday weekend 2022, Steeger Books put out their next sets of Argosy Library volumes, Series XII and XIII.

As always, in each series, we get 10 books of great, and sometimes overlooked, fiction that appeared in the early pulps. We get some stand-alone works, as well as volumes of various sub-series. This selection seems very heavy on crime and detective stories and series.

Most are taken from the pulps started by Frank A. Munsey, who converted his fiction magazines to pulp paper and reduced their price, making them more profitable. He published the well-known Argosy magazine, which got its start in the late 1800s, and several other popular magazines, such as The All-Story and Flynn’s Detective Fiction Weekly.

Series XII consists of:

• Satan’s Lash: The Complete Cases of Satan Hall, Vol. 1, by Carroll John Daly
• The Rose Bath Riddle: The Complete Cases of Jigger Masters, Vol. 2, by Anthony Rud
• East of Suez, by Theodore Roscoe
• Golden Derringers, by J.E. Grinstead
• The Duchess Pulls a Fast One: The Complete Cases of the Duchess, by Whitman Chambers
• The Invasion of America, by Frederick C. Painton
• Bait for Men: The Complete Cases of The Lady From Hell, Vol. 1, by Eugene Thomas
• The Dew of Heaven, by Max Brand
• The Festival of the Dead: The Complete Chinatown Cases of Jimmy Wentworth, Vol. 1, by Sidney Herschel Small
• Beyond the Law, by J. Allan Dunn

So what are these?

We get the first of Carroll John Daly’s Satan Hall. Daly is known as the creator of the hard-boiled detective in Black Mask, and of Race Williams and several other detective characters, which Steeger Books has been reprinting.

Satan Hall was a long-running detective who appeared in two-dozen stories mainly in Detective Fiction Weekly. He has a pronounced widow’s peak and slightly pointed ears and eyebrows, and is willing to give as good as he gets from criminals, a clear forerunner to characters like Dirty Harry. This volume joins the fourth in what I think will be a total of six volumes. It has the first six stories, including the previously unknown first story.

After too long, we get the second Jigger Masters detective story from Anthony Rud. Here we have the title serial, which ran in Detective Fiction Weekly in 1933, when Rud brought back Masters after over 10 years. This one would later be reprinted in hardcover at the time. I wonder what changes Rud made in the character and series?

While they have been reprinting Theodore Roscoe‘s series about naturalists Peter Scarlet & Bradshaw and French Foreign Legion soldier Thibaut Corday, he wrote other works. East of Suez collects a loose set of nine adventure stories set in that local from Argosy.

Golden Derrigners is a Western mystery set in the Ozarks involving, yes, a pair of golden derringers, as our hero looks for a mysterious killer.

The Dutchess, police reporter Katie Blayne, is a rare female newspaper scribe/detective in the pulps. Her series ran seven stories, mostly in Detective Fiction Weekly. They are narrated by her reporter rival Pinky Kane, who hopes she will accept his frequent marriage proposals.

Another in the genre of “invasion of America” is Invasion of America from Frederick C. Painton, which was cover featured in Argosy in 1938. As the world was dealing with the rise of fascism, there seemed to have been more stories about the invasion or overthrow of America by such groups, either internal or foreign. Here, our hero uncovers such a threat from a group called the Steel Fists, led by a wealthy American who thinks only he is qualified to rule us.

We get a different female protagonist in “The Lady From Hell:” reformed master criminal Vivian Legrand. A former blackmailer, the red-haired Legrand goes up against both the British Secret Service and the criminal Underworld. This is the first 10 of 25 stories that ran in Detective Fiction Weekly from 1935 to ’36. Hopefully, this will be done in two volumes.

Max Brand, actually Frederick Faust, is best known for his Westerns, but also did several historical-fiction works as well. Such as this one set in Panama of pirates, including Captain Morgan (of rum fame).

Sgt. Jimmy Wentworth, born in China, is a police detective on the San Francisco Chinatown squad. There he battles the Chinese tongs and some supernatural foes as well. This volume has the first six of 30 stories that ran in Detective Fiction Weekly from 1931 to ’36, here including the battles against Kong Gai, supreme leader of the tong.

In a departure from his usual adventure fair, J. Allen Dunn, in Beyond the Law, has a detective tale from Argosy. Here a young man is framed for the murder of his foster father. Thanks to plastic surgery, he has a new identity, which he will use to hunt down and kill those responsible.  This reminds of the various “revenge” heroes of Johnston McCulley and others.

As always, there are volumes here I am definitely going to get, such as the Jigger Masters and Satan Hall volumes; others, I am thinking about, such as the East of Suez volume. And yes, some I have no interest in. But hopefully, there are something here that will interest everyone. Check out these volumes.