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Secret Agent X
Secret Agent X - The Torture Trust
Secret Agent X - The Torture Trust [Diamond Distribution Only]
Paperback
First published February 1, 1934
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 9, 2018
Beware of acid-throwing mutes!
Brant House (Paul Chadwick) brings us “Secret Agent X”, a super secret crime-fighter who is a master of disguise and is pursued by the police as well as by criminals. In many sense this is another clone of “The Shadow” (the guy even hypnotizes folks) with the key differences being that he is working for the government and that he has no awesome costume. Like “The Spider” he leaves his calling card and the name “Secret Agent X” is fairly well known, making it something less of a secret.
Much of the story follows the agent himself, donning various disguises and tracking down clues to “The Torture Trust”, which proves to be three guys in robes who direct acid-throwing minions from their secret base. You get the usual bit with some evil geniuses trying to blackmail the world and in theory they apply unspeakable tortures.
In this book we get: a long series of disguises, a prison break, a taxi-cab rigged with knockout gas, a different taxi-cab being riddled with bullets as it drives off a pier, kidnapping from an ocean-liner, a woman in peril, a British financier also in peril, color-fade calling cards, and plenty of acid-spritzing.
There's also a short story thrown on at the end, “Hidden Evidence” by H. Ralph Goller, which may have appeared with the novel in 1934, not sure about that. In that story a man gets out of jail after having been wrongfully convicted of killing his uncle and must find the “Hidden Evidence” that the DA was the real killer. It's a charming enough yarn, kinda low key.
“The Torture Trust” actually seems to represent a more pacified form of the pulp hero genre, since “Secret Agent X” doesn't kill anybody (he lets the police do that) and there's actually very little in the way of torture. The villains are evil sadists and all and they do talk a big game, but I don't think they ever did more than dowse some folks in acid. You'd think there'd be some mad Poe-esque torture stuff in there, but there isn't.
Oh! The woman in peril may not actually be a girlfriend, and our hero remains nameless throught.
Anyhow, I got a couple of the Corinth edition paperbacks of this series, and they're basically in mind condition, which is pretty sweet. This was worth the dig and I'll be reading others in the series.
Brant House (Paul Chadwick) brings us “Secret Agent X”, a super secret crime-fighter who is a master of disguise and is pursued by the police as well as by criminals. In many sense this is another clone of “The Shadow” (the guy even hypnotizes folks) with the key differences being that he is working for the government and that he has no awesome costume. Like “The Spider” he leaves his calling card and the name “Secret Agent X” is fairly well known, making it something less of a secret.
Much of the story follows the agent himself, donning various disguises and tracking down clues to “The Torture Trust”, which proves to be three guys in robes who direct acid-throwing minions from their secret base. You get the usual bit with some evil geniuses trying to blackmail the world and in theory they apply unspeakable tortures.
In this book we get: a long series of disguises, a prison break, a taxi-cab rigged with knockout gas, a different taxi-cab being riddled with bullets as it drives off a pier, kidnapping from an ocean-liner, a woman in peril, a British financier also in peril, color-fade calling cards, and plenty of acid-spritzing.
There's also a short story thrown on at the end, “Hidden Evidence” by H. Ralph Goller, which may have appeared with the novel in 1934, not sure about that. In that story a man gets out of jail after having been wrongfully convicted of killing his uncle and must find the “Hidden Evidence” that the DA was the real killer. It's a charming enough yarn, kinda low key.
“The Torture Trust” actually seems to represent a more pacified form of the pulp hero genre, since “Secret Agent X” doesn't kill anybody (he lets the police do that) and there's actually very little in the way of torture. The villains are evil sadists and all and they do talk a big game, but I don't think they ever did more than dowse some folks in acid. You'd think there'd be some mad Poe-esque torture stuff in there, but there isn't.
Oh! The woman in peril may not actually be a girlfriend, and our hero remains nameless throught.
Anyhow, I got a couple of the Corinth edition paperbacks of this series, and they're basically in mind condition, which is pretty sweet. This was worth the dig and I'll be reading others in the series.
September 6, 2023
A pulp novel featuring Secret Agent X. An evil cabal is torturing their victims with acid. Much chaos ensues.
April 16, 2026
A fun read. Quite enjoyable.
May 3, 2011
I thought this was a lot of fun. There's a gift inscription in my copy: "Ain't this a lulu -- boy, how dated can you get. This is the type of stuff we thought was real live excitement back in the early thirties." Secret Agent X is as silly as any superhero: bankrolled by ten patriotic millionaires, he works justice outside the law. But unlike a lot of outside-the-law types, he never kills anyone -- he just uses his anesthesia-shooting gun. He's a master of disguise, a hypnotist, a skilled burglar, an expert of psychoanalysis, a cryptologist, and he can hold his breath for two minutes and swim like "an otter." The villains are three upper crust sadists who have trained an army of deaf-mutes to throw acid at rich people. They have been building a reputation: now they will move into kidnapping and blackmail. X gets in a lot of tumbles and always comes out on top. His final scheme is particularly ingenious. He impersonates one of the villains and kidnaps a British celebrity in order that the villains be caught in the act. There are scenes of explicit physiognomical musings.
August 3, 2016
A nice and lightly entertaining pulp where the fantastical happens to a central hero and the suspension of belief allows for reader enjoyment. I hope to check out more Secret Agent X stories as a break from other books because of the entertainment value.
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August 22, 2008The Torture Trust by Brant House
May 3, 2016
read SOMETIME in 1997
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews