The Grey Phantom by Brian K. Lowe

I recently discovered a new New Pulp hero, The Grey Phantom, created by Brian K. Lowe. At present there are two novels, The Invisible Crimes and The Mad Monk, with a third coming, The Perfect Murders.

There are also two short stories available electronically, “The Silverback Murders” and “The Golden Rainbow Murders.” I hope they appear in print in some form soon, maybe added to future novels.

In Capitol City, a Midwest city, crime seems out of control in the early 1930s. In steps the mysterious Grey Phantom, who is working to put a stop to it, wearing just a simple full-face gray mask and using a pair of silenced automatics. Who he really is, and why he is doing it, is not known to us.

We soon meet a variety of other characters. There are the people at the Capitol City Chronicle, including editor Lovell Christopher, reporters Alexandra “Alex” Lundberg and Kane Dennison, and office boy Oliver Jeffcote. We meet a couple of cops, including Sgt. McGlynn and Detective Douglas. The governor, Jonas Sanderson, is Alex’s uncle. And there is the mysterious man behind the crimes, as well as the equally mysterious Professor. A man named Prentice works for the unseen mastermind, directing their work.

The first novel, The Invisible Crimes, shows the start of The Grey Phantom’s career. The general public, even most criminals, don’t know there is a Grey Phantom. He is working to stop the theft of a device created by the Professor. Alex gets pulled into things as she wants to report on real matters. Will she become a sort of agent or source of information for The Grey Phantom? Or even a possible love interest?

We soon learn that the device seems to cause amnesia, either short-term or permanent. Criminals are using it to commit robberies without anyone remembering what happened. Can The Grey Phantom put a stop to this without exposing who he really is?

The Grey Phantom works to figure out who the mastermind is. Along the way, he has to save Alex a few times, and even does an interview with her on why he is doing this, though we don’t learn what is in it. Prentice even tries to involve the governor in putting a stop to The Grey Phantom. Will he succeed?

In the end, Alex thinks that either Dennison or Douglas may be The Grey Phantom. We’ll learn who he really is at the very end. But who is the mastermind, and are his plans still in place?

In the next novel, The Mad Monk, set a few weeks after the prior one, it seems that Rasputin didn’t die, and he is now in Capitol City. Is that good or bad, as others are after him, including a Soviet assassin? Our mastermind is still operating and has replaced Prentice with his partner, who has a plan on how to get rid of The Grey Phantom. Will he succeed? Will The Grey Phantom figure out who the mastermind is?

Things get hairy as The Grey Phantom doesn’t just have to deal with criminals after him, but corrupt cops and an assassin. And is The Grey Phantom getting a love interest?

I find The Grey Phantom an interesting character. There is some mystery about him. What is his background? Why did he decide to fight crime? What skills does he have, and how did he obtain them? Does he have a secret source of funds? I hardly think the job he had would allow him to afford safe houses, weapons (which he often has to dispose of), vehicles, etc. And he doesn’t have a network of contacts or aides of any kind, though he tries to make use of some he meets, with mixed results. It will be interesting to see where this series goes.

I’m not sure when the third novel, The Perfect Murders, will come out, but I look forward to it. I wonder how long the plotline of who the mastermind really is will play out.

The only complaint I have deals with formatting in the first volume. In many of the chapters, things shift to a new location or time, but there is no break in the text, such as a blank line or the like, so this gets confusing at times. This really needs to be fixed and, thankfully, was addressed in the second novel.

Lowe has another New Pulp character, The Nemesis, I want to check out. There are three novels out, with a fourth coming, but none of them are available in print. I really don’t like reading ebooks. I’m not sure why they aren’t available in print when The Grey Phantom is. The novels are No. 1 The Choking Rain, No. 2 The Scent of Death, No. 3 The Killing Scar, with No. 4 The Shrinking Men coming at some point.