Doc Savage has his hands full with Retta Kenn and THE ROAR DEVIL
This was a real treat to read. I bought the Bantam reprint way back when but for some reason put it away without even glancing through it. THE ROAR DEVIL is a pleasure because of the touches of screwball 1930s comedy and the little surprises Dent puts in almost every page. From June 1935, the story basically concerns another mysterious supercriminal who can silence all sound in a given area and who seems to be creating earthquakes to cause dams to collapse. What's actually going on, as revealed at the end, is quite a surprise and yet explains everything logically.
All the aides except Long Tom are involved, and Johnny shows some concern for human life that's a nice touch. In a fight in the dark, Monk and Ham slug at each other for five minutes before realizing it. It's interesting that here, as in a few other early novels, Ham can hold his own against Monk in a fight. Without his cane in later years, he never semed much of a scrapper but at first, he was as tough as the other aides.
The real treat in THE ROAR DEVIL is an independent investigator named Retta Kenn. She is as capable and competent as any adventurer of the genre, getting in fistfights, using guns and trick gadgets, chasing
crooks and slugging cops, hiding in the trunk of a car to track someone, and generaly starting trouble every chance she gets. She definitely enjoys action for its own sake. Even Renny has a difficult time catching
and holding on to her. She needles Doc to the point where he gets irritable with her and Dent remarks that even the bronze man's stoic emotional control has its limits.
Actually, I like her as well,but not better than Pat Savage, and would have enjoyed seeing her turn up as a regular character, stirring things up. She would have made a fine addition to the Five, but Doc never considers this. Not only because she's a woman (and this was 1935, remember) but because she has more nerve than common sense and frankly,she irritates him. He's not used to someone telling him what a flat tire he turned out to be.
At one point, she has a gang of thugs captured, pointing a machine gun at them and they do not escape. "I'm good," she tells Doc. "You have to admit it."
There are many nice little moments. The aides are startled to encounter someone who can understand modern Mayan (although not the older dialect they use), but they realize that it's not an entirely unknown language, just rare. Retta comes barging into Doc's office and bumps her nose on the sheet of bulletproof glass. Doc reflects that he prepares for a hundred eventualities that never come to pass, for every one that does, which is why he is always doubletracking,checking on everyone, hiding gimmicks and supplies everywhere. And throughout the adventure, he is giving first aid and medical treatment to all the injured participants, reminding us that he is an actual doctor.
The cover to the Bantam reprint is by Boris Vallejo and it's technically very well rendered. I don't see his interpretation of Doc as completely authentic, though, but it is a neat version. And this is a tiny bit of trivia, but notice that here, it's the LEFT sleeve of Doc'sfamous torn shirt that has the cuff still attached. Was the artwork flopped for publication or was Boris just putting his own stamp on the visual?