Fans of pulp heroes like The
Shadow, The Spider, The Black Bat and The Avenger will adore this new pulp
magazine inspired series!
Trail of The Bat Beasts
(New Pulp)
By Darryle Purcell
Independent Publishing
Platform
ASIN # B077GK1XP4
Price $1.99
119 Pages
Rating 4-Stars
Two people in industry are
tricked and imprisoned in a hidden stockade on the Amazon River. Industrialist
Ralph Thorn and the voodoo priestess, Ayida Patel fall in love, become lovers,
and under her training he learns the ability to control men’s minds. They
eventually escape, but on the river in a fast moving boat, Ayida is hit by a
native’s poisoned dart and falls into the river where a school of piranhas
attack her. Unable to help, Thorn’s boat is pulled on downstream. When he returns
to California he uses his training to become The Man of The Mist to fight
crime.
Thomas Walker, the News
Tribune political cartoonist, is hated by the mob and political powers alike,
and as he leaves the newspaper one day he is attacked by a flying bat beast and
killed in front of a newsstand run by a 12-year-old boy. When Ralph Thorn and
his secretary learn of the murder, they feel the boy’s life may be threatened
and take him to Thorn’s apartment. While they are away, the bat beast kidnaps
the boy, and now The Man of The Mist must find him and bring justice to the
criminals.
Overall, this was a good
plot, and I really loved the interior art in the book. The criminal behind the
case was a little too easy to figure out, but that was okay. The author also
writes a lot of westerns in the format of serials and B-westerns, and these get
a lot of play in this story, including the old Miracle Studio used in those
stories. Although the author compares his character to The Shadow and other old
pulp heroes, the closest I can see in the resemblance might be the three 1946
Shadow movies starring Kane Richmond and Barbara Read, from Monogram Pictures,
which were more comedy than drama. And for me, there was a little too much
comedy in what should have been more drama in this story to really appeal to
me. But I think new pulp readers will enjoy it. Highly recommended.
Tom
Johnson
Author
of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA
I like his HOllywood Cowboys novels better, but this was pretty good too!
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