The Trail of The Red Diamonds

The Trail of The Red Diamonds (Adventure)

By L. Ron Hubbard

Galaxy Press www.goldenagestories.com

ISBN #978-1592123315

Price $9.95

124 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Fast-Paced, Colorful Characters, And Exciting Stories.”

This volume actually contains two stories by L. Ron Hubbard: THE TRAIL OF THE RED DIAMONDS, published in THRILLING ADVENTURES, January 1935, under the pseudonym of Lt. Jonathan Daly, the main character of the story. And THE HURRICANE’S ROAR, published in THRILLING ADVENTURES, April 1939.

In the first story, Jonathan Daly translates passages from Marco Polo’s manuscript while laid up in a hospital in San Francisco; coming across several mentions of Kublai Khan’s final burial site, and the treasure buried with him, Daly’s interest is peaked when he learns the treasure consists of rare, valuable red diamonds. Leaving the hospital, he contacts a friend in China, Jim Lange with coded details, requesting camels and soldiers for their trip to the burial site. Naturally, there is much adventure before arriving at their destination, as well as intrigue and death.

You might call THE HURRICANE’S ROAR a costumed hero story, or pulp hero, if you will. Although the author doesn’t say in this story, Jim Dahlgren, an American who lives and works in China selling planes, is also the flying hero known as Wind-Gone-Mad (name for hurricanes, so he’s essentially The Hurricane). Wind-Gone-Mad flies a scarlet plane with a dragon design. His goggles are like a domino mask, and the helmet is also painted like a dragon. In this story two warring bandit leaders are causing a lot of problems near the Khinghan Mountains where Amalgamated Aeronautical Company wants to build a runway, and near a mine worked by an American named Bill McCall. Someone is planning on marketing their own deal if The Hurricane can’t stop the fighting and broker a deal benefiting everybody.

These novelettes were a lot of fun. The writing is fast-paced, and the characters colorful, and the stories are exciting. Highly recommended to lovers of adventure fiction.

Tom Johnson

Author of CARNIVAL OF DEATH