What do you think?
Rate this book
The Spider: The Hangman from Hell
When Richard Wentworth discovers a foreign plot to assassinate James Christopher, alias Operator 5, he is rebuffed by the young Intelligence agent and ordered to stay out of official business.
Vowing to track this enemy killer as The Spider, Wentworth encounters more than he bargained for in the person of a hulking brute who calls himself the Hangman, and who wields unique weapons of unimaginable cruelty.
Can these two heroes who fight on opposite sides of the law learn to join forces and stave off a planned invasion of the United States of America? Or will Manhattan succumb to a horrific new weapon of warfare?
Vowing to track this enemy killer as The Spider, Wentworth encounters more than he bargained for in the person of a hulking brute who calls himself the Hangman, and who wields unique weapons of unimaginable cruelty.
Can these two heroes who fight on opposite sides of the law learn to join forces and stave off a planned invasion of the United States of America? Or will Manhattan succumb to a horrific new weapon of warfare?
286 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 7, 2024
5 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Will Murray
696 books76 followersWill Murray is an American novelist, journalist, and short-story and comic-book writer. Much of his fiction has been published under pseudonyms. Will is the author of over 50 novels in popular series ranging from “The Destroyer” to “Mars Attacks”. Collaborating posthumously with the legendary Lester Dent, he has written to date nine Doc Savage novels, with “Desert Demons” and “Horror in Gold” now available. For National Public Radio, Murray adapted “The Thousand-Headed Man” for “The Adventures of Doc Savage” in 1985, and recently edited “Doc Savage: The Lost Radio Scripts of Lester Dent” for Moonstone Books. He is versed in all things pulp.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 9, 2024
Another thrilling Spider novel by a Master Story Teller!
In this Wild Adventure of the Spider, he teams up again with Operator 5 in what turns out to be a prelude to the (in)famous Purple Wars, the so-called War and Peace of the Pulps. And my friends, it's an excellent tale, showcasing the Spider in all his maniacal splendor fighting to save New York City from another apocalyptic menace.
At first, the Operator 5 character seems bland compared to The Spider, but Will Murray masterfully shows that the passions fueling Jimmy Christopher are no less obsessive.
It's a shame that the central character for the Purple Wars was Operator 5, as I can only imagine how it would have developed; certainly, a high body count and mind-breaking angst if such a thing were possible.
In this Wild Adventure of the Spider, he teams up again with Operator 5 in what turns out to be a prelude to the (in)famous Purple Wars, the so-called War and Peace of the Pulps. And my friends, it's an excellent tale, showcasing the Spider in all his maniacal splendor fighting to save New York City from another apocalyptic menace.
At first, the Operator 5 character seems bland compared to The Spider, but Will Murray masterfully shows that the passions fueling Jimmy Christopher are no less obsessive.
It's a shame that the central character for the Purple Wars was Operator 5, as I can only imagine how it would have developed; certainly, a high body count and mind-breaking angst if such a thing were possible.
August 26, 2024
Yikes! Will Murray’s brand-spanking-new Spider novel is another magnificent feast for pulp fans.
I got a charge out of the first few pages, where Will gives a sly nod to one my own favorite pulp writers—Frederick Nebel. But the real shocker came on page 12, when I realized this was prelude to everyone’s favorite pulp epic—THE PURPLE INVASION.
Will has already treated us to some truly audacious ideas (like teaming Doc and the Shadow), Doc and Tarzan with King Kong, and the Spider with G-8 and Operator #5), but to thrust the Spider into the “War and Peace of the Pulps” is audacity on an even grander scale.
What the Spider and his guest-star Operator #5 don’t know—but we do—is that no matter how hard they fight to stop the Invasion (and they fight very hard), it’s coming at the U.S.A. like a juggernaut, and once it begins the Purple Empire (a thinly disguised Germany) marches across country taking untold millions in casualties.
But the threat of the Purple Invasion is just the context. The meat of the book is the relationship between Richard Wentworth and his guest star Jimmy Christopher and their battle against the bloodcurdling new villain Will has invented to bedevil them.
First the relationship. These heroes have met before (in Will’s earlier novel The Doom Legion), and respect each other’s abilities. Under other circumstances they could be close friends. But the straightlaced Operator #5, who sees right and wrong in strictly black and white, cannot abide the freewheeling philosophy of Wentworth, who recognizes that law and justice can be two different things. And Christopher’s suspicion that Wenworth himself is the Spider makes him even more prickly. So while the enormity of the threat facing the country demands they work together, they must dance around their differences—a handicap that takes them to the brink of being mortal enemies.
As the for the villain, The Hangman is a merciless psychopath who’s the point of the spear for a civilian army of homegrown Purple fascists. His rope, as you’ll see on the cover, has a noose at one end and a scythe at the other, and he’s equally deadly with both.
And, of course, this wouldn’t be a Spider novel without a grisly menace to the city, and Will serves one up that Wentworth’s chief raconteur, Novell Page, would have envied. What is it? I’ll let you discover it for yourself (and shudder!), but having accompanied Doc, the Shadow, G-8, #5, the Spider and many lesser heroes on such doomsday missions, I can assure you this is one of the creepiest.
Can our heroes catch or kill the Hangman before he kills them? Can they save New York without killing each other? Can they stop the Purple Invasion in its infancy and spare the USA a coast-to-coast bloodbath?
Only Mr. Murray—and those who have read The Hangman from Hell—know for sure!
I got a charge out of the first few pages, where Will gives a sly nod to one my own favorite pulp writers—Frederick Nebel. But the real shocker came on page 12, when I realized this was prelude to everyone’s favorite pulp epic—THE PURPLE INVASION.
Will has already treated us to some truly audacious ideas (like teaming Doc and the Shadow), Doc and Tarzan with King Kong, and the Spider with G-8 and Operator #5), but to thrust the Spider into the “War and Peace of the Pulps” is audacity on an even grander scale.
What the Spider and his guest-star Operator #5 don’t know—but we do—is that no matter how hard they fight to stop the Invasion (and they fight very hard), it’s coming at the U.S.A. like a juggernaut, and once it begins the Purple Empire (a thinly disguised Germany) marches across country taking untold millions in casualties.
But the threat of the Purple Invasion is just the context. The meat of the book is the relationship between Richard Wentworth and his guest star Jimmy Christopher and their battle against the bloodcurdling new villain Will has invented to bedevil them.
First the relationship. These heroes have met before (in Will’s earlier novel The Doom Legion), and respect each other’s abilities. Under other circumstances they could be close friends. But the straightlaced Operator #5, who sees right and wrong in strictly black and white, cannot abide the freewheeling philosophy of Wentworth, who recognizes that law and justice can be two different things. And Christopher’s suspicion that Wenworth himself is the Spider makes him even more prickly. So while the enormity of the threat facing the country demands they work together, they must dance around their differences—a handicap that takes them to the brink of being mortal enemies.
As the for the villain, The Hangman is a merciless psychopath who’s the point of the spear for a civilian army of homegrown Purple fascists. His rope, as you’ll see on the cover, has a noose at one end and a scythe at the other, and he’s equally deadly with both.
And, of course, this wouldn’t be a Spider novel without a grisly menace to the city, and Will serves one up that Wentworth’s chief raconteur, Novell Page, would have envied. What is it? I’ll let you discover it for yourself (and shudder!), but having accompanied Doc, the Shadow, G-8, #5, the Spider and many lesser heroes on such doomsday missions, I can assure you this is one of the creepiest.
Can our heroes catch or kill the Hangman before he kills them? Can they save New York without killing each other? Can they stop the Purple Invasion in its infancy and spare the USA a coast-to-coast bloodbath?
Only Mr. Murray—and those who have read The Hangman from Hell—know for sure!
August 30, 2025
Another solid entry in this series from Will Murray. I love the Spider as he is a little darker than both Doc Savage and the Shadow. I think that the Spider was a slightly more adult series than Doc and the Shadow. I have also enjoyed Murray having guest stars in these books. Here we have Operator 5 and there missions do not totally work together so the dynamic is different. I liked it. Murray's knowledge of this genre is second to none. His books are all solid reads.
October 15, 2025
A pulp novel featuring The Spider and Operator 5. Prelude to the Purple War sequence. Nan is in jeopardy! Much chaos ensues.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews