The Black Bat Novel That Disappeared

THE BLACK BAT NOVEL THAT DISAPPEARED

At the end of 1951, there was probably a decision at the THRILLING GROUP to drop some of their titles. With the Winter 1952 issues of BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE and G-MEN DETECTIVE, chances are both titles were included in the shake up. The next story in the Dan Fowler series was advertised as Each Night I Die by C.K.M. Scanlon, while the next Black Bat story was advertised as The Eyes of Murder. Following is the announcement in BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE:

"Next issue's Novel: The Eyes of Murder by G. Wayman Jones. Plus - An all-star array of other crime and mystery stories!"

         But the Spring 1952 issue did not appear. Instead, the next issue was Stewart Sterling’s Hot, Willing – And Deadly, Winter 1953, one year later. The same thing happened over at G-MEN DETECTIVE, there was no Spring 1952 Dan Fowler story. Instead, Richard Foster’s The White Death appeared one year later, Winter 1953. Something happened the previous year. My guess is, both titles were canceled. Curiously, Stewart Sterling was brought in for the Phantom Detective in 1952, which makes me wonder if The Eyes Of Murder wasn’t his. Strangely, there is a 1941 Dan Fowler titled The Eyes of Death, and I had a suspicion that he might have planned on rewriting that into a Black Bat yarn.

It gets stranger. The Spring 1953 issue of 5 Detective Novels contains Sterling’s Model For Murder, a similar title to The Eyes of Murder. But let’s go back to 1952, and look at Sterling’s Phantom Detective entries. We have three stories, Candidate For Death, Fall 1952; The Staring Killer, Winter 1953; and Odds On Death, Spring 1953. However, it’s the Winter 1953 story we are concerned with. Here is the Blurb for The Staring Killer.

“It is Muriel Havens alone who has seen The Staring Killer committing a heinous crime. She knows he has pushed a man off a subway platform to death under the train wheels – and what’s more, The Staring Killer knows that she has witnessed the murder. For an instant, as he races past her, the killer gives her one glaring stare – a look she can never forget. It’s a peculiar, frightening stare that seems to bore straight through her hypnotically. A stare that spells death!

The killer’s staring eyes are a challenge that Muriel can’t disregard. At great personal danger, she drifts into the waterfront district, posing as one of the water front babes – determined to find The Staring Killer and help unearth his sinister machinations.”

         Sounds like “The Eyes of Murder” to me.  At the time he was writing The Phantom Detective, Sterling was also writing Myro Catin stories. When the Black Bat was suddenly resurrected, and they asked him for a quick story, he must have made a few changes to Hot, Willing – And Deadly, and it was accepted in place of The Eyes of Murder. They must have asked for more stories, so he turned the second Myro Catin story, The Lady of Death into a Black Bat. At the same time, Norman Daniels, who had moved to California, sent an outline for The Celebrity Murders, and those were the line up for Winter, Spring, and Summer, 1953. But only the Winter 1953 story was published. The Black Bat was canceled again. Sterling reverted The Lady of Death back to Myro Catin, and published it as The Lady’s Out For Blood, TRIPLE DETECTIVE 1953. That’s what I think happened.

There is a footnote to all this, as well. Back at The Phantom Detective, Norman Daniels’ Murder’s Agent was published in the Summer 1953 issue. The announcements listed the next story as The Merry Widow Murders by Robert Wallace, and the plot reads curiously similar to Sterling’s 1943 Spider novel, When Satan Came To Town. The Spider was about to become The Phantom Detective. There was also some similarity to that novel and Odds On Death, PHANTOM DETECTIVE, Spring 1953. Want to bet Sterling wasn’t rewriting some old novels? Nothing wrong with it, authors did it all the time in the pulps. I hope someone proves me wrong, and manuscripts are discovered for The Eyes of Murder and The Merry Widow Murders, but remember in Candidate of Death when the Phantom Detective became The Shadow? Think about it, if I’m right, the Black Bat became the Phantom Detective in The Staring Killer, and The Spider became the Phantom Detective in The Merry Widow Murders. Only in the pulps!   

The Ninja

The Ninja #1: “The Ninja” by Eric Van Lustbader. Nicholas Linnear is a master ninja, the son of a Chinese mother and British father. He has come to the US where he succeeded as an add man for a big corporation, but one day he just quits his position. He lives in the area of West Bay Bridge, where he meets the beautiful daughter of a man worth over 100 million dollars. Of course she hates her father and all his money. It’s not long before they’re in a sexual relationship. Meanwhile, there is a ninja killing people. So we know where the story is headed

Actually, I was surprised this novel was on the New York Best Seller List. The writing is wordy, the action sparse. The only thing that happens in the first hundred pages is what I mentioned in the above paragraph. The story jumps around too much, plus there is a big backstory right in the middle of the first 100 pages, which interfered with the flow. Heck, all the jumping from one scene to another interfered with the flow. The only action is in the bedroom with Nick and Justine. The story just rambles, going nowhere fast. Justine’s moods pop up every few pages until Nick takes her to bed. The book is 526-pages, so figure the reader has a long way to go before it reaches a climax. Good luck if you can last that long.

The Devil's Mirror

The Viking Cypher #5: “The Devil’s Mirror” by Rick Spencer. Big, muscular, handsome, bronzed, trained from age 14 in everything his uncle felt he needed, Eric Ivorsen may resemble Doc Savage, but he’s a mathematician, not a doctor. Flies planes, pilots boats, skis, climbs mountains, investigates caves, loves adventure. In this fifth and final novel he must use his high-tech talents to stop David Tallant, a power-hungry, charismatic anchorman from extending his control over the world with an innovative super-satellite. Croesus is again heading this attack on Viking Cypher, and targets Ivorson’s girlfriend, Maggie McCabe to bring the adventurer and Viking Cypher down. Sadly, following the fourth volume, this one was also slow and giving signs the series was coming to an end. Maybe the author was tiring of the series, or the publisher was. My copy is autographed to Peter and Clay from Rick Spencer, my guess is relatives of the author. A fun story, regardless.