The Spotted Men

Doc Savage (Bantam) #87

by Kenneth Robeson (House Name)

The events were bizarre. First, a millionaire industrialist vanished. Then, his workers broke out in red spots and went crazy. The Man of Bronze and his courageous crew sped to the scene of disaster to search for the perfidious plotter willing to gamble the minds and bodies of men to amass a vast fortune. Were they already too late?

Genres: Pulp, Adventure, Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction, Pulp Adventure, Action

121 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1977

About the author

Kenneth Robeson was the house name used by Street and Smith Publications as the author of their popular character Doc Savage and later The Avenger. Though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent, there were many others who contributed to the series, including:

William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson

Lester Dent is usually considered to be the creator of Doc Savage. In the 1990s Philip José Farmer wrote a new Doc Savage adventure, but it was published under his own name and not by Robeson. Will Murray has since taken up the pseudonym and continued writing Doc Savage books as Robeson.

All 24 of the original stories featuring The Avenger were written by Paul Ernst, using the Robeson house name. In order to encourage sales Kenneth Robeson was credited on the cover of The Avenger magazine as "the creator of Doc Savage" even though Lester Dent had nothing to do with The Avenger series. In the 1970s, when the series was extended with 12 additional novels, Ron Goulart was hired to become Robeson.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Spotted Men is a "Doc Savage" novel by Kenneth Robeson. Kenneth Robeson was the house name Street and Smith Publications used as the author of their popular Doc Savage novels. Though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent, there were many others who contributed to the series, including: William G. Bogart, Evelyn Coulson, Harold A. Davis, Lawrence Donovan, Alan Hathway, and W. Ryerson Johnson.
I love reading these old pulp novels from time to time. I read about 80%+ of the Doc Savage novels when I was a teenager but that was a very long time ago. I have been trying to find them again in the Bantam editions I read in my youth. I have found several of them in used bookstores and have bought several from online aftermarket bookstores.
In this one, Doc Savage and his men are in the thick of it again. The action is classic Doc Savage, filled with good old-fashioned adventure and gadgets that always seem to be there when the hero needs them. You can relax and escape for a little while. A good read in the Doc Savage series.

[Hal Astell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh joy, another Doc Savage novel written by William G. Bogart. This is his fourth and one more opportunity to get it right, after the gimmicky 'World's Fair Goblin', the promising but underwhelming 'Hex' and the hyperactive 'The Angry Ghost'. Sadly, like 'Hex', it fails to live up to its early potential and, like, 'The Angry Ghost', it never sits still, which is one way to keep us constantly on the hop but also one way to provide a needed grounding.

If you read any random Doc Savage novel prior to these two latest from Bogart and I then asked you to state where it was set, you'd provide a quick answer that's either one or two places, given that the action often shifted halfway. Crucially, if I ran the same experiment with a dozen other friends, they'd all provide the same answer. I don't believe that would be the case with these two Bogarts. With 'The Angry Ghost', there are too many answers and, with 'The Spotted Men', there aren't enough. It's mostly set around Buffalo but it's never actually in Buffalo or any other place we can name, beyond Lake Erie.

At least we know what it's about. The MacGuffin this time is T.3, a new kind of steel that's both stronger and more durable than regular steel and at a much lower weight. It will be a gamechanger to everything from construction to the military, with another nod here to how powerful American's new battleships are; in case that deliberately disguised "little half-baked European country" from 'The Angry Ghost' is reading.

The problem is that we begin the novel with a bunch of tests, risky enough ones that put lives in jeopardy, and they all fail. Tink O'Neil tries out a midget racing car with T.3 steel in its brake drums and rear axle, all of which fall apart when he gets up to speed, in front of J. Henry Mason, the president of one of America's largest steel companies, the one, in fact, that developed T.3. What's more, it's to be tested later that morning in the wings of a new aeroplane, which will be flown by Mason's own daughter, Molly, and Pat Savage.

We don't know why the steel is failing and one frustation I had here is that Bogart never explains it, but the firm implication is that it's being messed with in some fashion. It'll be the gamechanger it promises to be, but only once Doc saves the day and stops whoever is behind the sabotage. That's backed up by a giggling seven-foot-tall giant covered in red spots, who kidnaps the boss while Tink is hidden under the midget race car, then attacks Tink while he's calling Doc Savage. After all, Tink wants to stop the plane test, though he doesn't know at which airfield it'll happen, but he does know that Pat is Doc's cousin.

Things escalate, of course, because they tend to, but in interesting ways, because Bogart seems to be pretty good at setting things into motion. This particular giant isn't the only character afflicted with this particular form of madness, as others at Mason's steel mills succumb, each manifesting red spots, giggling and turning into homicidal (or sometimes suicidal) maniacs, wreaking havoc that threatens the business. There's a neat touch that has Pat receive Monk's message not to take off because of the danger, only to ignore it because she assumes that it's just Doc blocking her fun as usual. And Monk and Ham are buzzed in the air by a mysterious but very fast black plane that spews a black cloud that eats their oxygen. Yes, Bogart knows how to begin.

The problem is that he doesn't know how to end. I can't remember another entry in this series that left so many loose ends dangling. Sure, the bad guy gets his comeuppance, a mandatory last step, but the revelation of his identity is sorely lacking, enough so that I didn't buy it, even though I'd figured it out in chapter two. Sure, we learn the technique by which the spotted men are created, but we don't learn what the affliction actually is. Sure, we learn why such a weird plan is put into place to begin with but not really why an accomplished villain might think it would be a good idea. We don't know a lot here, even after turning the final page. Bogart doesn't seem to know either.

The other problem is that he doesn't know how to get from his capable beginnings to his unsatisfying endings. Like 'The Angry Ghost', he bounces us from one place to another in enough speed that maybe we won't notice the various holes in the plot or just how many of our questions he leaves unanswered. He does exhibit patience in leaving Doc's arrival until chapter five, an approach that's worked well in recent novels, but he doesn't seem to be comfortable with Doc's aides yet.

Pat is highly capable, except when she isn't. Monk is notably capable too, except when he needs to lose a fight to a spotted man, but Ham is just there. The pets are mentioned but always in absentia—they're outside right now—which begs the question as to why they're even mentioned at all. Renny shows up at a point where his presence would be useful but he doesn't contribute anything beyond confirming how amazing the T.3 formula is before we learn that it isn't the T.3 formula after all. Long Tom and Johnny are mentioned only in passing, probably because someone not actually there needed to do something.

The more I think about this book, the more it underlines that point about Bogart setting things up well but then losing control of them. Monk wakes up at one point, chained to a ring in the deck of an oil tanker which is promptly bombed and starts to seriously list; he gets out, of course, but only because Ham notices the key to the chain on the wall. That's cheap. A trio of capable thugs working for the wonderfully named Wart, are described in wonderful detail: they're skinny and tall and share bony faces, "like hungry undertakers viewing the Fountain of Eternal Youth". Boy, do I want to see more of these guys! Nah.

I guess this novel gets from point A to point B, albeit via a dizzying amount of short plane trips, and it certainly impresses early on, but it needed some serious outlining. When you spring something on us in chapter fifteen, it helps to have set us up for it in chapter eight, but Bogart doesn't do that often. He certainly knows how, because he does it with cases Doc secretes in the woods, but he clearly doesn't like the approach. He'd rather get to an impasse and just introduce something new without going back to insert what's needed to telegraph it. And that means that it confuses and it underwhelms and it left me with a lot of questions that are going to remain unanswered forever.

Fortunately, series creator Lester Dent will return next month, April 1940, and he'll write the next three novels. So, hopefully we'll find ourselves back on track when Doc takes on 'The Evil Gnome'!

Originally posted at the Nameless Zine in December 2022:
https://www.thenamelesszine.org/Voice...

Index of all my Nameless Zine reviews:
https://books.apocalypselaterempire.com/

[Randy D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Spotted Men gets off to a quick start as once again Lester’s part-time contract writer starts a story's action in the initial paragraphs; the 87th story of the Doc Savage series takes place in and around a vast steel production facility at Buffalo, New York. It was first printed in the March, 1940 issue of Doc Savage Magazine; I read the March, 1977 edition of the Bantam reprint, downloaded from the Faded Page website.

We're introduced to “Tink” O'Neil, an engineer who crashes a midget race car in a test run due to the failure of a new type of steel; the millionaire steel mill owner, his boss, J. Henry Mason is mysteriously kidnapped; two huge spotted men make appearances in the story; then Monk and Ham are almost killed in a plane crash by a mysterious black plane above Lake Erie at Buffalo, New York, while they frantically search for the plane in which Pat and her companion are flying. And if that’s not enough, Pat and her new acquaintance, Molly Mason, inform Monk and Ham over the radio they are in a nosedive, as the right control cable snaps in Molly's new plane. This all happens in the first three chapters. So, the stage is set for another thrilling Doc Savage adventure.

Doc handles most of the brain work in solving the mysteries that abound in the story; Ham and Monk are assigned the mundane tasks of trailing suspects or surveillance work, Renny is assigned the task of a laboratory technician, and it is revealed very late in the story that Long Tom and Johnny have been bodyguards to the millionaire steel mill owner, J. Henry Mason at Doc's headquarters. So, Doc was basically a one-man show in The Spotted Men.

This Doc Savage adventure leaves much to be desired; it was ghosted by William G. Bogart, as Lester must have been involved in other projects. The Spotted Men was written in the early months of World War II, so a reference was made that the new steel that was the subject of the story was especially useful in times of war, which seems to surprise Monk. Also, the Lend Lease Act of 1940 was just getting underway … this was the act that provided American war materiel to Great Britain for use against Nazi Germany. So, the second European war that was just heating up served as a backdrop to the story. With regards to the story's plot, Doc wraps everything up rather quickly; he knew the identity of the primary villain within a few hours of his arrival in Buffalo, and a day or so later, the Man of Bronze learned the villain’s motives behind the madness that provided the fear that prevailed throughout the mill town. He also knew a vast number of Lower East Side thugs from New York were involved as well.

I was right with Doc on this one … I figured out who was the “brains” behind the elaborate scheme; he is referred to as the “masked man” by Doc and his crew, and was known as the “boss” by his hired hands. The Spotted Men was an “okay” story, but I have rated it accordingly; a four star rating is quite liberal for this “not so thrilling” Doc Savage adventure. ****

 

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid entry in the series, as Doc goes to a steel mill town in upstate New York, to protect an industrialist with a secret formula from a criminal gang and the mysterious and dangerous 'spotted men' of the title.

Decent read, moves at a good pace, enough suspects that it isn't painfully obvious who the mastermind is and refreshing to have a story that stays in one location.

The Famous 5 don't get a ton to do, though Renny gets to actually work in his chosen field and help Doc that way.
Pat Savage shows up, promptly ignores instructions from her cousin and is kidnapped and off stage for most of the book.

Ending is rushed, but they do tie up all the loose plot threads and it makes sense.

Fun read.

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monk and Ham are sent upstate New York when Doc’s cousin Pat and her friend Molly Mason disappear while trying out Molly’s new airplane. After millionaire steel magnate J Henry Mason turns up missing and crazed spotted men are turning up in and around the steel plant, Doc and Renny come and join the investigation. Behind it all, there is a mysterious masked man thwarting the investigation.

Authored by William G Bogart and Lester Dent and published March, 1940.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first Doc Savage story appeared in 1933 and the series ran in pulp and later digest format into 1949. Bantam reprinted the entire series in paperback with wonderful, iconic covers starting in the 1960's. Doc was arguably the first great modern superhero with a rich background, continuity, and mythos. The characterizations were far richer than was common for the pulps; his five associates and their sometimes-auxiliary, Doc's cousin Pat, and the pets Chemistry and Habeas Corpus, all had very distinctive characteristics and their byplay was frequently more entertaining that the current adventure-of-the-month. The settings were also fascinating: Doc's Fortress of Solitude, the Hidalgo Trading Company (which served as a front for his armada of vehicles), and especially the mysterious 86th floor headquarters all became familiar haunts to the reader, and the far-flung adventures took the intrepid band to exotic and richly-described locations all over the world. The adventures were always fast-paced and exciting, from the early apocalyptic world-saving extravaganzas of the early days to the latter scientific-detective style shorter works of the post-World War Two years. There were always a few points that it was difficult to believe along the way, but there were always more ups than downs, and there was never, ever a dull moment. The Doc Savage books have always been my favorite entertainments... I was always, as Johnny would say, superamalgamated!

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the pulp era heroes few stand out above the crowd, Doc Savage is one of these. With his 5 aides and cousin he adventures across the world. Fighting weird menaces, master criminals and evil scientists Doc and the Fab 5 never let you down for a great read. These stories have all you need; fast paced action, weird mystery, and some humor as the aides spat with each other. My highest recommendation.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. A mysterious force is destroying a new experimental super-steel with military applications—but the villain's agenda is completely not what I expected (the man behind the curtain was, it's one of those where there's only one suspect). Readable, and some good bits with Doc's cousin Pat, but too many plot holes.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doc Savage vs. pimples? No, not really, though some might think this mediocre-at-best 1940 adventure a **ahem** blemish on the great pulp hero's legacy. Not the worst Doc tale ever written, but it's definitely for the completist.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yep, it's not great literature, but I do love me some hero pulps! This one was pretty good, it had everything I expect from a Doc Savage story (mysterious villains, bad guys appearing out of nowhere, Doc having exactly what he needs at the correct moment.)

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

read some time in 1985