The Pirate Isle

Doc Savage (publication order; no omnibus) #111

by Kenneth Robeson

Unknown Binding

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

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good Doc Savage yarn. The setting of this book takes place in the South Seas of the Pacific Ocean. Doc’s office in New York City does not enter the story at all. Monk and Ham do not enter this story at all either. This is the first Doc Savage novel that the two are away from the story. They are in South America on business. Little John is in this, at the beginning. He is on the City of Tulsa. He is in the top mast of the schooner as a matter of fact. He is throwing snow balls at the crew down below. He is throwing snow balls in the South Pacific in one hundred and two degree weather. The mystery only gets deeper. Later, Doc arrives on the scene via plane with Renny and Long Tom who are searching for the missing Johnny. The City of Tulsa was heading for San Francisco but has been waylaid and rerouted to a little island called Jinx.

The author of this one is Lester Dent and was originally published May, 1942. Some mention is made of the Japanese “troubles” in China. No mention is made of the war in Europe.