Stockholders in Death

The Avenger #7

by Paul Ernst

Reprint double volume by Sanctum Books. includes radio script for "The Golden Hoard" by Paul Ernst, originally airing Sept. 9, 1941.

Big business and organized crime team up in the search for millions in missing securities. Their partnership produces murder until The Avenger decides to join the company.

Genres: Pulp, Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Paul Frederick Ernst was an American pulp fiction writer. He is best known as the author of the original 24 "Avenger" novels, published by Street & Smith under the house name Kenneth Robeson.

He "[took] up fiction writing in his early twenties." Credited by pulp-expert Don Hutchison as "a prolific manufacturer of potboilers-made-to-order," his stories appeared in a number of early Science fiction and fantasy magazines. His writing appeared in Astounding Stories, Strange Tales and Amazing, and he was the author of the Doctor Satan series which ran in Weird Tales from August, 1935. His most famous work was in writing the original 24 The Avenger stories in the eponymous magazine between 1939 and 1942.

When pulp magazine work began to dry up, Ernst "was able to make a painless transition into the more prestigious "slick" magazines, where his word skill earned him higher financial rewards." As of 1971, he was "still active as a writer," including penning "Blackout" for the July 1971 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. He died in Pinellas County, Florida.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_...]


Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Paul^Ernst

Reviews

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by Paul Ernst and first published in The Avenger magazine in March of 1940, this 7th book in the series dives into the world of high finance. This would seem to be a less-than interesting subject for readers used to murder and mayhem in their Justice, Inc. Avenger chronicles but the author manages to pack in plenty of sordid underhanded mischief in this one as well.

Lawyer Joseph Crimm has been killed for his stock holdings. The directors of Town Bank are trying to seize control of Ballandale Glass Corp and Crimm stands in the way. What they didn’t count on is Crimm’s two sons who want justice. The oldest son, Tom is out more for revenge and decides to fight fire with fire so he contacts a big-league gangster to work on his behalf. The younger son, however, chooses the nobler rout and seeks out Justice, Inc. and asks Richard Benson, The Avenger for aid.

What follows is a nicely absorbing story filled with criminal and crime fighting adventure. Benson uses his penchant for disguises to great effect, sometimes even leading us readers into a false sense of what is happening. But this also happens on the gangster side. At one point they even have three bad guys pose as Benson and two of his aides and order them to commit major crimes in order to discredit the real heroes. It’s a bit of a cat and mouse game with both sides trying to play the cat. This sort of sleight-of-hand plotting is typical of the series and always effective.

I’m thankful I own all of the original series so I can happily read the next one whenever I want.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average pulp with average villains, death traps, and mysteries. Main benefit found reading these knock-off Shadows/Doc Savages stories (which do entertain to an extent) is they allow one to appreciate how good Walter Gibson and Lester Dent were in their own stories. Paul Ernst does a passage job with this story of a stock swindle, murders and gangsters, and provides an ending that I expected but still appreciated.

The second part of this reprint was a teleplay that uses the second Avenger story, The Golden Hoard,> for its foundation. It was likely written and directed by Maurice H.H. Joachim.

[Michael Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elderly successful business man is pushed into dying from a heart attack and over a million dollars goes missing. His two sons know what happened, but what to do? One decides on Justice Inc and Benson. The other decides that Benson is probably a crook in it for the money and hires the worst crook he can find. Things go downhill from there as the crooks naturally double cross him, and want all the money, killing people along the way. The bank that swindled the money decide on more killings. One of the brothers is framed for the murder of his father and the police corner him and want to kill him. The good guys are in a house being burned down and are frequently shot at. There is a "death car", and the main villain is exposed at the end, which differs somewhat from other Avenger story endings.

[Kendal · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an awkward read.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Avenger, Richard Benson, was one of the greatest pulp crime-fighters. He and his band of associates comprised Justice, Inc., and, armed with keen gadgets, clear genius, stout hearts, good humor, and the force of right set forth from their Bleek Street headquarters to thwart evil, defend goodness, and protect American society. The adventures were published as "by Kenneth Robeson, the creator of Doc Savage," (which may have led to the perception that The Avenger was something of a second-rate Doc), though the originals were actually written by Paul Ernst and then continued by Ron Goulart many years later. Armed with Mike & Ike, a very special knife and gun, Benson was teamed with Mac and Smitty (analogous to Monk and Ham from the Doc Savage series) from the beginning, and then joined by blonde and diminutive Nellie Grey (who could definitely have held her own with Pat Savage or Nita van Slaon) in the second book, Josh and Rosabel Newton, perhaps the best-depicted African-American couple from the era in The Sky Walker, and light-hearted Cole Wilson in the thirteenth adventure. The stories were well-paced and exciting and very well-written for the context of the era. Benson's origin, as recounted in Justice, Inc., the first story, was similar to Bruce Wayne's in that the loss of his family spurred his decision to fight crime; his wealth and physical prowess allowed him to do so. The loss of his wife and daughter resulted in a weird facial
deformity that made his skin lose its pigmentation and left it malleable like wax so that he could reform it and made him "the man of a thousand faces"; the loss of this ability in the thirteenth novel was a downturn in the series. The series continued for a second dozen adventures in the 1940's, and then revived for a third dozen in the 1970's when Warner Books had Goulart continue the series for another dozen volumes after they put out the first two dozen in paperback. It was a fun and thrill-packed intelligent series, more down-to-Earth than the Doc Savage books and much less crazy than The Spider series.

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man is nearly run down by a car, and as a result suffers a heart attack, leading shortly to his death. Accident? No, cold-blooded murder, as the man is able to tell his sons before he passes away. It seems that he had discovered a stock swindle perpetrated by a highly respectable bank that would steal his sons' inheritance, and this method was used to silence him.

Faced with the fact that the highly respected bank officers would be able to put off a police investigation until the swindle is complete, the brothers call in help. One, an idealist, calls upon Richard Henry Benson, the Avenger and his Justice, Inc. comrades. The other is a cynic who contacts a local mob boss and offers to cut his gang in for a share of the profits in exchange for some gangland vengeance.

Thus, the Avenger must deal not only with the cold and calculating corporate criminals, but two gangs of mobsters out for blood and loot.

While the other members of Justice, Inc. get a look in, this story is primarily focused on Benson himself and his many gifts. A particularly nifty angle is the way he uses his immense wealth and influence to distract the bankers with financial difficulties. But there's plenty of two-fisted action too.

Check out more pulp reviews here: http://www.skjam.com/tag/pulp/

[Scott Combs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the earlier novels. It relied upon too many clichés, i.e., in the shadows, face covered in a vail, etc. This is a pulp story that brings out the worst in the genre.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like Doc Savage the Avenger fights crime with the help of his aids. While the stories aren't as exciting and world ranging as Doc he is still a great pulp character and read. Very recommended

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

read some time in 1985