The War Makers

The War Makers (Doc Savage)

By Kenneth Robeson (Will Murray & Ryerson Johnson)

ISBN #978-1618271495

Altus Press www.altuspress.com

$21.89

322 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“The Action Never Slows Down.”

The story starts out with Webster Neff test-driving a shiny green roadster from Huron Motor Company out of Detroit. He almost ran over a small child who had followed a bouncing ball into the street. However, his car stopped of its own accord, as if hitting an invisible wall.  Webster learns that this is happening all over the US, and most accidents involve Huron vehicles. He is heading back to Detroit when again encounters the invisible wall; he is heading for a head-on collision with another vehicle when both cars slam into an unseen structure. The driver and passenger of the second automobile just happen to be Ham Brooks and Monk Mayfair; they, too, are headed for Detroit.

The story flies at break-neck speed, as Doc, Monk, Ham, Long Tom, and Pat race off to Florida, then D.C., and finally to the Canadian Arctic. Doc also visits his Fortress of Solitude. The episodic adventures never lack for action, as something is going on from beginning to end.

For Doc Savage fans, this is a sequel of sorts to several prior stories; one in particular is THE MOTION MENACE, from May 1938. I won’t divulge the others, as it might reveal some of the mystery. THE WAR MAKERS is based on an outline by Doc Savage ghostwriter, Ryerson “Johnny” Johnson. In fact, the use of cellophane cigar wrapping as one of the escape scenes in this adventure was also used in Johnny’s Phantom Detective yarn, THE SILENT DEATH, December 1936. THE WAR MAKERS thus contains writing by Lester Dent, Ryerson Johnson, and Will Murray.

The series has yet to falter under the hands of Will Murray and Altus Press, and I know readers and fans of Doc Savage can look forward to many more years of The All New Wild Adventures of Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze! Highly Recommended.

Tom Johnson

Echoes Magazine