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Doc Savage (Bantam) #82
Doc Savage: The Evil Gnome - Q2134, Volume 82
"A circus performer, a state governor and a respected banker - all murdered in the same mysterious way. As the Man of Bronze and his courageous crew rush to uncover the fiendish mastermind responsible, they are drawn more tightly into a web of awesome terror. * To the world at large, Doc Savage is a strange, mysterious figure of glistening bronze skin and golden eyes. To his amazing co-adventurers - the five greatest brains ever assembled in one group - he is a man of superhuman strength and protean genius, whose life is dedicated to the destruction of evil-doers. To his fans he is one of the greatest adventure heroes of all time, whose fantastic exploits are unequaled for hair-raising thrills, breathtaking escapes and bloodcurdling excitement."
120 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published January 1, 1976
5 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Robeson
920 books134 followersKenneth 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 10, 2023
The Evil Gnome is a "Doc Savage" novel by Kenneth Robeson. Kenneth Robeson was the house name Street and Smith Publications used as the author of their popular Doc Savage novels. 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, and W. Ryerson Johnson.
I love reading these old pulp novels from time to time. I read about 80%+ of the Doc Savage novels when I was a teenager but that was a very long time ago. I have been trying to find them again in the Bantam editions I read in my youth. I have found several of them in used bookstores and have bought several from online aftermarket bookstores.
In this one, Doc Savage and his men are in the thick of it again. The action is classic Doc Savage, filled with good old-fashioned adventure and gadgets that always seem to be there when the hero needs them. You can relax and escape for a little while. A good read in the Doc Savage series.
I love reading these old pulp novels from time to time. I read about 80%+ of the Doc Savage novels when I was a teenager but that was a very long time ago. I have been trying to find them again in the Bantam editions I read in my youth. I have found several of them in used bookstores and have bought several from online aftermarket bookstores.
In this one, Doc Savage and his men are in the thick of it again. The action is classic Doc Savage, filled with good old-fashioned adventure and gadgets that always seem to be there when the hero needs them. You can relax and escape for a little while. A good read in the Doc Savage series.
March 26, 2022
Wow! In a series that is about 200 books long, you can expect to stumble upon some stinkers. But, you can also expect to find some really good ones (after all, who would bother reading a series that didn't have a couple of really good installments?). This was one of the latter. By which I mean, this book was good. From our first reading, both Dz. and I were totally hooked. There was some crazy suspense, a truly fascinating villain, and a lot of juicy mystery to sink our teeth into.
I love the over-the-top drama of the pulps. Doc has disguises and tools for every imaginable situation, and it's so much fun to completely suspend your disbelief as you watch him work. With quick costume changes, awesome escapes, and enough specialized tools to make Batman jealous, this was such a delightful story.
Dz. was a bit disappointed by the ending, but honestly, this is more of an issue with him than with the book. Dz. has very particular thoughts on things, which often doesn't leave much margin for surprises. All the same, we had a lot of fun, and after our last read turned out to be a real clunker, it was nice to see him genuinely engaged in something again. While Dz. preferred The Man of Bronze, and I'm inclined to agree, I have to say that this one came incredibly close for me in terms of pure enjoyment, and I look forward to my next Doc Savage adventure.
I love the over-the-top drama of the pulps. Doc has disguises and tools for every imaginable situation, and it's so much fun to completely suspend your disbelief as you watch him work. With quick costume changes, awesome escapes, and enough specialized tools to make Batman jealous, this was such a delightful story.
Dz. was a bit disappointed by the ending, but honestly, this is more of an issue with him than with the book. Dz. has very particular thoughts on things, which often doesn't leave much margin for surprises. All the same, we had a lot of fun, and after our last read turned out to be a real clunker, it was nice to see him genuinely engaged in something again. While Dz. preferred The Man of Bronze, and I'm inclined to agree, I have to say that this one came incredibly close for me in terms of pure enjoyment, and I look forward to my next Doc Savage adventure.
October 1, 2024
If the return of Lester Dent as 'Kenneth Robeson' after a couple of months in the hands of the far more inexperienced William G. Bogart might promise a return to the typical Doc Savage stories of earlier years, let me steal that assurance away from you. This is an unusual entry in the series and not for reasons that have really come up before, at least not altogether.
It's a short book for a start, its setup especially unfolding in unusually short chapters, and it's also a notably quick and uncomplicated read. That's not to say that it isn't without its twists and turns, as there are plenty of those, but the chapter with the most happening roughly equates to average chapters in earlier Dent instalments in the series.
It's also far more of a mystery than it is an action adventure, set up through gloriously impossble scenes that would grab any pulp fan's attention. Of course, Doc figures things out long before we do, but he lets his aides in on certain details so that they can help out at just the right moments. And that's most of what any of them do. None get to use any of their specialties, except for minor observations by Johnny; none of them get to use their fists on the bad guys; and none of them are really useful in any substantial way, again except for Johnny, who merely provides a plane when it would be most useful.
There isn't even any of the textbook banter between Ham and Monk, which seems strange indeed. They're hardly even a focal point, even more unusually, though there is a reason why Ham is gone for much of the book. He and Monk are involved, as are Renny and Johnny, though Long Tom does not appear and nobody drops us a reason why. Habeas and Chemistry are absent too and there's no guest slot for Pat. It's mostly Doc, who doesn't explain much and wanders off half the time for his own reasons. Those aides that do appear mostly fail to make much of an impression.
What's more, there aren't many other characters either. The only one who we spend any real time with is Lion Ellison, our focal point from the very first page. She's a female lion tamer who catches the train to Kirksville, Missouri to apply for a job at an apparently well-to-do circus, after being let go from her previous gig because she rebuffed some unwanted sexual advances from a man with a stake in the outfit. She finds that there is no new job either, because the ad she followed was only a way to bring her to town, apparently to hand over her brother's effects. Neddy Ellison died a couple of weeks earlier when his parachute failed to open during work for a flying circus.
Of course, it's not that simple and the second chapter explains why in fantastic fashion. She leaves that appointment with Neddy's stuff, walks over the road to eat at a restaurant, realises that she has lost three days in the process, notices a bloody knife in her purse and sees her own photo on a front page article. Apparently, in her lost days, she murdered the state governor and was caught on film by an amateur photographer during the act. Now there's a $20,000 reward out for her and she's promptly on the run. The only suggestion she can follow is to bring in Doc Savage, as the note from her brother asks her to do.
And so, after a blink of a moment in New York City, we're back off to Missouri, Dent's native state, to investigate, especially given that the wizened old gnome of a man that interviewed Lion was in New York too, attempting to reach Doc. Monk and Renny lock him in a vault of a room, from which he promptly vanishes without a trace. And so it goes, the next impossible scene being the murder of a Kansas City businessman, Ellery P. Dimer, whose throat is slit while he's talking to a room full of respectable people, none of whom see a murderer. The mysteries are strong here and they're capably reinforced.
I rather liked this novel, but it feels a little insubstantial. It's a great setup, of course, in a classic Dent vein, but it doesn't move on the way we expect from him. It shifts around a lot, reminiscent of those two Bogart novels, albeit not so frantically. Nothing much happens, beyond what must to progress the story towards an uncharacteristically damp squib of an ending. It's not inappropriate, given how we get to it, and it plays into the typical application of karma that proves the bad guy's undoing, but it's thoroughly underwhelming.
All the best aspects tie to the mystery, from the initial impossibilities through other creepy facts that Doc and his men uncover. I particularly liked the scene in which the aides search the house of a suspect, while Doc does the heavy lifting of surreptitiously tailing him after his sudden escape. They're still in Missouri at this point, in Kirksville, but Burdo Brockman's letterhead is of a hunting lodge in India, and the photos of him posing next to his big game trophies were not taken in India or with real animals. Everything is off, just as it was for Lion Ellison in the restaurant.
There are a couple of minor details worthy of note to series regulars. Doc records the Lion Ellison interview at headquarters on hardened steel wire using magnetism, a footnote pointing out that this may be the way of the future, replacing needles on wax. Later, when he's attacked not only by one dog, which he can handle, but by three, he tosses out a particular sort of grenade to spread a combination of scents that discourage the attentions of animals. He keeps it right next to his high explosive grenades. I'm glad he doesn't get them mixed up.
And there's a detail I've been waiting for ever since this series run-through reached 1939. Dent not only mentions that there is a war happening on the other side of the pond, but he gives it a name: the 'second great war'. That's new and it only took until April 1940, seven months after war broke out, to get to that point. Later, we discover that the latest victim of whatever superscientific tool the bad guys are wielding will be Prince Axel Gustav something-or-other, who's in the States on an urgent quest to seek American intervention because his neutral European country is "about to be gobbled up by the wolves." Dent seems a little cynical and isolationist here, reflecting a common view of the day.
However enjoyable this book is, it's probably more notable for the things it doesn't do as those it does and for those it does to be a long way from what we expect. I'm going to remember it being a little different a lot longer than I'm going to remember what actually happens.
Originally posted at the Nameless Zine in January 2023:
https://www.thenamelesszine.org/Voice...
Index of all my Nameless Zine reviews:
https://books.apocalypselaterempire.com/
It's a short book for a start, its setup especially unfolding in unusually short chapters, and it's also a notably quick and uncomplicated read. That's not to say that it isn't without its twists and turns, as there are plenty of those, but the chapter with the most happening roughly equates to average chapters in earlier Dent instalments in the series.
It's also far more of a mystery than it is an action adventure, set up through gloriously impossble scenes that would grab any pulp fan's attention. Of course, Doc figures things out long before we do, but he lets his aides in on certain details so that they can help out at just the right moments. And that's most of what any of them do. None get to use any of their specialties, except for minor observations by Johnny; none of them get to use their fists on the bad guys; and none of them are really useful in any substantial way, again except for Johnny, who merely provides a plane when it would be most useful.
There isn't even any of the textbook banter between Ham and Monk, which seems strange indeed. They're hardly even a focal point, even more unusually, though there is a reason why Ham is gone for much of the book. He and Monk are involved, as are Renny and Johnny, though Long Tom does not appear and nobody drops us a reason why. Habeas and Chemistry are absent too and there's no guest slot for Pat. It's mostly Doc, who doesn't explain much and wanders off half the time for his own reasons. Those aides that do appear mostly fail to make much of an impression.
What's more, there aren't many other characters either. The only one who we spend any real time with is Lion Ellison, our focal point from the very first page. She's a female lion tamer who catches the train to Kirksville, Missouri to apply for a job at an apparently well-to-do circus, after being let go from her previous gig because she rebuffed some unwanted sexual advances from a man with a stake in the outfit. She finds that there is no new job either, because the ad she followed was only a way to bring her to town, apparently to hand over her brother's effects. Neddy Ellison died a couple of weeks earlier when his parachute failed to open during work for a flying circus.
Of course, it's not that simple and the second chapter explains why in fantastic fashion. She leaves that appointment with Neddy's stuff, walks over the road to eat at a restaurant, realises that she has lost three days in the process, notices a bloody knife in her purse and sees her own photo on a front page article. Apparently, in her lost days, she murdered the state governor and was caught on film by an amateur photographer during the act. Now there's a $20,000 reward out for her and she's promptly on the run. The only suggestion she can follow is to bring in Doc Savage, as the note from her brother asks her to do.
And so, after a blink of a moment in New York City, we're back off to Missouri, Dent's native state, to investigate, especially given that the wizened old gnome of a man that interviewed Lion was in New York too, attempting to reach Doc. Monk and Renny lock him in a vault of a room, from which he promptly vanishes without a trace. And so it goes, the next impossible scene being the murder of a Kansas City businessman, Ellery P. Dimer, whose throat is slit while he's talking to a room full of respectable people, none of whom see a murderer. The mysteries are strong here and they're capably reinforced.
I rather liked this novel, but it feels a little insubstantial. It's a great setup, of course, in a classic Dent vein, but it doesn't move on the way we expect from him. It shifts around a lot, reminiscent of those two Bogart novels, albeit not so frantically. Nothing much happens, beyond what must to progress the story towards an uncharacteristically damp squib of an ending. It's not inappropriate, given how we get to it, and it plays into the typical application of karma that proves the bad guy's undoing, but it's thoroughly underwhelming.
All the best aspects tie to the mystery, from the initial impossibilities through other creepy facts that Doc and his men uncover. I particularly liked the scene in which the aides search the house of a suspect, while Doc does the heavy lifting of surreptitiously tailing him after his sudden escape. They're still in Missouri at this point, in Kirksville, but Burdo Brockman's letterhead is of a hunting lodge in India, and the photos of him posing next to his big game trophies were not taken in India or with real animals. Everything is off, just as it was for Lion Ellison in the restaurant.
There are a couple of minor details worthy of note to series regulars. Doc records the Lion Ellison interview at headquarters on hardened steel wire using magnetism, a footnote pointing out that this may be the way of the future, replacing needles on wax. Later, when he's attacked not only by one dog, which he can handle, but by three, he tosses out a particular sort of grenade to spread a combination of scents that discourage the attentions of animals. He keeps it right next to his high explosive grenades. I'm glad he doesn't get them mixed up.
And there's a detail I've been waiting for ever since this series run-through reached 1939. Dent not only mentions that there is a war happening on the other side of the pond, but he gives it a name: the 'second great war'. That's new and it only took until April 1940, seven months after war broke out, to get to that point. Later, we discover that the latest victim of whatever superscientific tool the bad guys are wielding will be Prince Axel Gustav something-or-other, who's in the States on an urgent quest to seek American intervention because his neutral European country is "about to be gobbled up by the wolves." Dent seems a little cynical and isolationist here, reflecting a common view of the day.
However enjoyable this book is, it's probably more notable for the things it doesn't do as those it does and for those it does to be a long way from what we expect. I'm going to remember it being a little different a lot longer than I'm going to remember what actually happens.
Originally posted at the Nameless Zine in January 2023:
https://www.thenamelesszine.org/Voice...
Index of all my Nameless Zine reviews:
https://books.apocalypselaterempire.com/
December 22, 2024
Before I chose to read The Evil Gnome, my first order of business was to look up the meaning of the word, “gnome.” I use Wordweb on my tablet, so it was merely a change of screens to enter this excellent dictionary. I learned that a “gnome” is a “legendary creature representing a tiny old man who lives underground and guards treasure.” This would seem to be something almost too fantastic for even Doc to tackle … why would the Man of Bronze possibly be concerned with the existence of a legendary creature who lives underground and guards treasure? To answer my own question, I began reading The Evil Gnome.
I read this one in one sitting, and it was the most confusing story I have read in a long time. The story takes place entirely in Missouri, Lester Dent’s home state; the author obviously chose his “old stomping grounds” as a setting for his rather complicated murder mystery. Doc was a combination detective and secret agent this one. Ironically, the rental car that Johnny and the guys used in Chapter XIII sported a Missouri license plate with the number … 007-936; it was probably one of Lester’s old license plate numbers, as it held no particular significance in the story. Lester couldn’t have paid homage to Ian Fleming's James Bond, but perhaps Mr. Fleming had read The Evil Gnome before he created his famous character nineteen years later … Doc Savage was a popular character in his day, and Fleming could have read Doc Savage Magazine. Could this insignificant detail in a Doc Savage story be the source of Mr. Bond's famous agent number? We'll probably never know the answer to that question.
Anyway, I was glad Lester cleared everything up when Doc was addressing the crooks in Chapter XVII, or I would have never guessed the motive of the bad guys or understood the plot of this most intriguing story. Finally, since The Evil Gnome was written in 1940, the European war is prominently featured in the latter part of the story, as it played an intricate role in the current events of the day. Lester worked these current events into his story in excellent fashion. The Evil Gnome is written in a different style from many of the Doc Savage adventures, but with that being said, it is worthy of a five-star rating. *****
I read this one in one sitting, and it was the most confusing story I have read in a long time. The story takes place entirely in Missouri, Lester Dent’s home state; the author obviously chose his “old stomping grounds” as a setting for his rather complicated murder mystery. Doc was a combination detective and secret agent this one. Ironically, the rental car that Johnny and the guys used in Chapter XIII sported a Missouri license plate with the number … 007-936; it was probably one of Lester’s old license plate numbers, as it held no particular significance in the story. Lester couldn’t have paid homage to Ian Fleming's James Bond, but perhaps Mr. Fleming had read The Evil Gnome before he created his famous character nineteen years later … Doc Savage was a popular character in his day, and Fleming could have read Doc Savage Magazine. Could this insignificant detail in a Doc Savage story be the source of Mr. Bond's famous agent number? We'll probably never know the answer to that question.
Anyway, I was glad Lester cleared everything up when Doc was addressing the crooks in Chapter XVII, or I would have never guessed the motive of the bad guys or understood the plot of this most intriguing story. Finally, since The Evil Gnome was written in 1940, the European war is prominently featured in the latter part of the story, as it played an intricate role in the current events of the day. Lester worked these current events into his story in excellent fashion. The Evil Gnome is written in a different style from many of the Doc Savage adventures, but with that being said, it is worthy of a five-star rating. *****
September 6, 2023
The evil gnome is behind the mind turning incidents that seem to defy time. Because of this his, murder happens.
There is a strong tie-in with circuses and date devils but is more to do with the back story. The adventure begins in a small town in Missouri. The scene witches to Nee York City in which the young women seeks Doc’s aid, along with his associates. They follow the trail back to Missour farmland before heading to Kansas City.
Written by Lester Dent and published April, 1940.
There is a strong tie-in with circuses and date devils but is more to do with the back story. The adventure begins in a small town in Missouri. The scene witches to Nee York City in which the young women seeks Doc’s aid, along with his associates. They follow the trail back to Missour farmland before heading to Kansas City.
Written by Lester Dent and published April, 1940.
July 1, 2018
the Kindle version of this was like reading WS burrough’s cut ups using thru Kerouac’s verb systems and typeset by the Zodiac killer.
if sure the book was as good as its peers but the people in charge of adapting these digitally have committed a crime against literature.
if sure the book was as good as its peers but the people in charge of adapting these digitally have committed a crime against literature.
July 18, 2017
5 for nostalgia! I know I read this one several times. One of the first in my collection once I discovered the paperbacks (All Golden Press books prior).
October 11, 2017
Doc adventure read in the 80s
June 29, 2022
A pulp novel featuring Doc Savage. One of the better in the series with a creative villain.
October 15, 2016
The first Doc Savage story appeared in 1933 and the series ran in pulp and later digest format into 1949. Bantam reprinted the entire series in paperback with wonderful, iconic covers starting in the 1960's. Doc was arguably the first great modern superhero with a rich background, continuity, and mythos. The characterizations were far richer than was common for the pulps; his five associates and their sometimes-auxiliary, Doc's cousin Pat, and the pets Chemistry and Habeas Corpus, all had very distinctive characteristics and their byplay was frequently more entertaining that the current adventure-of-the-month. The settings were also fascinating: Doc's Fortress of Solitude, the Hidalgo Trading Company (which served as a front for his armada of vehicles), and especially the mysterious 86th floor headquarters all became familiar haunts to the reader, and the far-flung adventures took the intrepid band to exotic and richly-described locations all over the world. The adventures were always fast-paced and exciting, from the early apocalyptic world-saving extravaganzas of the early days to the latter scientific-detective style shorter works of the post-World War Two years. There were always a few points that it was difficult to believe along the way, but there were always more ups than downs, and there was never, ever a dull moment. The Doc Savage books have always been my favorite entertainments... I was always, as Johnny would say, superamalgamated!
September 26, 2022
Bit of a mess.
Doc and company are well written, as is the girl of the book.
Too bad, she does nothing after the halfway point.
The title villain is mildly creepy and interesting, but spends too much time off stage
The mystery starts out interesting, but then gets a bit gory for a Doc Savage novel. Feels more like the kind of thing that'd happen to the Spider.
The mystery gets convoluted, but never reaches 'well, it's fun, I'll just go along for the ride.'
It's just weird and confusing.
The circus aspect, which is a big deal at first, just kind of fades away and there's a bit of political satire which kind of feels tacked on.
Was amused that the while most Doc books involve international travel, this one takes us to the exotic locales of Kansas and Missouri.
Doc and company are well written, as is the girl of the book.
Too bad, she does nothing after the halfway point.
The title villain is mildly creepy and interesting, but spends too much time off stage
The mystery starts out interesting, but then gets a bit gory for a Doc Savage novel. Feels more like the kind of thing that'd happen to the Spider.
The mystery gets convoluted, but never reaches 'well, it's fun, I'll just go along for the ride.'
It's just weird and confusing.
The circus aspect, which is a big deal at first, just kind of fades away and there's a bit of political satire which kind of feels tacked on.
Was amused that the while most Doc books involve international travel, this one takes us to the exotic locales of Kansas and Missouri.
March 1, 2016
Of all the pulp era heroes few stand out above the crowd, Doc Savage is one of these. With his 5 aides and cousin he adventures across the world. Fighting weird menaces, master criminals and evil scientists Doc and the Fab 5 never let you down for a great read. These stories have all you need; fast paced action, weird mystery, and some humor as the aides spat with each other. My highest recommendation.
December 24, 2016
3.5 Note to self as a writer, seeing someone fall over in front of you with their head suddenly cut off is a great murder scene ... This opens with a female circus performer, now out of work, suddenly discovering she's apparently murdered a politician while blacked out for two days. Can Doc Savage explain things? A solid pulp thriller, even though I guessed the murder method well ahead of time.
November 15, 2018
read some time in 1980
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews