Midnight Murder

The Avenger #24

by Ken (as Kenneth Robeson) Ernst, Paul Ernst

Book # 24 in the series of The Avenger.

Genres: Pulp, Fiction

158 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 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.

[Steve Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pulps are often like bad Kung fu movies. You love to hate them. This is was one of them.

Before Jack Reacher, there was Dick Benson...a perfect man with superhuman strength and intellect, and who rarely, if ever, makes a mistake and is always one step ahead of the enemy.

Like Doc Savage, he surrounds himself with incredibly capable people.

This is sort of reminds me of The Hardy Boys, but with mayhem.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This appeared in the final issue of the Avenger pulp, although shorter stories were published in other magazines this was the last Avenger novel of the pulp era. I'm not a huge fan of the later Avenger stories, with the exception of this one. It can definitely be read as a Doc Savage pastiche.

[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