Knocking off the John Smith Club (THE BOSS OF TERROR, Doc Savage)
From May 1940, this is almost a generic Doc Savage book. There's a mysterious mastermind killing people with a weird Mad Science gadget, Doc and his crew go after him, a couple of people tag along (one of whom HAS to be the villain), there are are deathtraps and fistfights and kidnappings and so on. It's all fun in a familiar way, but it's nothing we haven't seen many times before. There's really nothing new here; it's like going for one more ride on the same rollercoaster.
Someone is killing Smiths. Yep. people with the last name Smith are being charred by some strange gizmo that apparently is sending lightning bolts into people's homes. (I bet sales on rubber galoshes and raincoats would soar if this got out to the public.) It turns out there's a John Smith Club, whose members all have that name and who are therefore known to each other by nicknames - Radiator Smith, Sailboat Smith, Broker Smith and so on. (What is the point of this club, anyone? What do you get out of it? It's like belonging the Hazel Eyes Society or the League of Coffee Drinkers.)
Doc Savage and the inevitable duo are joined by Long Tom for this case. Our grouchy electrical genius would seem to be the perfect choice to call in on a mystery like this. People being seemingly electrocuted indoors on beautiful cloudless days... geez, Long Tom should be able to get to the bottom of this in no time. Unfortunately, he's promptly captured and spends most of the book at a hostage. Drat, I would have liked to have seen him get one chance to shine on a case. (When a woman insults him, Long Tom snarls, "Shut up or I'll upset you. I ain't very
gallant." You have to say he has a consistent personality.)
Not much else to note for the archives. Doc does use a motorcycle, the first time I've noticed him with one. He makes good use of ventriloquism, here depicted as the way the art actually works (unlike some Harold Davis stories where Doc's voice literally sounds behind someone). Long Tom writes a check for one of his kidnappers and manages to leave a message on it in invisible ink. Our boys pull off a nice ruse right in front of a suspicious cop, involving a stolen ambulance and a
chauffeur Doc wants to impersonate. The death dealing gadget turns out to be reasonably explained, although I have my doubts about why it would have no commercial value. Sometimes, at the end of an adventure, the bronze man describes the shortcomings of some wild invention that has had the nation in a panic, explaining why it's really of no practicaluse. Frankly, I suspect Doc is saying this because the darn thing is just too dangerous to be released and he intends to safely store in the Fortress of Solitude with the other crazy gizmos he's confiscated.
Also, I did not attend medical school but it seems like a questionable idea to feed someone a radioctive compound (strong enough to register on an electroscope several feet away) which will not be digested and which forms a lump too big to pass out of the stomach. Yikes. I assume Doc intends at some point to recommend the compound be surgically removed from the person's insides but even so, this strikes me as something that should not become a widespread practice. Monk blithely comments, "He's been complaining of a bellyache. I guess your radioactive stuff gave it to him."