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Doc Savage (Bantam) #5
Brand of the Werewolf
WHO IS DOC SAVAGE?
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 unequalled for hair-raising thrills, breathtaking escapes and bloodcurdling excitement.
BRAND OF THE WEREWOLFSeeking to avenge his brother's murder, Doc Savage and his daring crew become involved in a desperate hunt for the lost treasure of the pirate, Henry Morgan. Stalking them every inch of the way is the archfiend, El Rabanos, and his strange ally, the werewolf's paw!
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 unequalled for hair-raising thrills, breathtaking escapes and bloodcurdling excitement.
BRAND OF THE WEREWOLFSeeking to avenge his brother's murder, Doc Savage and his daring crew become involved in a desperate hunt for the lost treasure of the pirate, Henry Morgan. Stalking them every inch of the way is the archfiend, El Rabanos, and his strange ally, the werewolf's paw!
138 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
5 people are currently reading
197 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Robeson
914 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 - 30 of 51 reviews
February 21, 2024
[Yup, read a silly old Doc Savage pulp over the weekend, because they’re fast and dumb. Pretty racist too, ngl.]
The cover lies — Doc is never at any time throttled by the Universal Studios Wolf Man in Brand of the Werewolf — but the story offers plenty of the usual chases and a decent treasure hunt. The tomfoolery begins as Doc and his crew head by train up to Somewhere, Canada for a hunting and fishing vacation at Doc’s uncle’s vast country estate, unaware that wealthy industrialist Alex Savage has been slain by a gang of mysterious thugs seeking an item in his possession of great value: an ivory cube. Doc is confronted on the train by the effete El Rabanos, traveling in the company of fellow Spaniard Señor Corto Oveja and his lovely daughter Ceres. They have a paranoid belief that Doc intends to murder them.
Anyway, chaotic things happen on the train, by malefactors who leave behind their calling card in the form of marks on the walls shaped like a werewolf’s head. Lester Dent (“Kenneth Robeson” was his house pseudonym) is a fount of plot logic absurdities. The villains behave nonsensically, because he can’t pause too long between the action scenes that Depression-era pulp readers were there for, and he also needs to throw in multiple red herrings. Why send Doc a fake telegram claiming to be from Alex after Doc is already on the train, demanding he stay away in an out-of-character angry tone that suggests a falling-out, when all this would do is set off alarm bells in Doc’s head? Why try to frame Doc for the killing of a porter by simply dropping the murder weapon into the wastepaper basket in his cabin (he just tosses it out the window)? And why overcomplicate the whole scheme with so many double-crosses? Doc’s inexhaustible superhuman powers are wasted on enemies so far below his pay grade. Barney Fife could outwit them on an average day.
(Continued...)
The cover lies — Doc is never at any time throttled by the Universal Studios Wolf Man in Brand of the Werewolf — but the story offers plenty of the usual chases and a decent treasure hunt. The tomfoolery begins as Doc and his crew head by train up to Somewhere, Canada for a hunting and fishing vacation at Doc’s uncle’s vast country estate, unaware that wealthy industrialist Alex Savage has been slain by a gang of mysterious thugs seeking an item in his possession of great value: an ivory cube. Doc is confronted on the train by the effete El Rabanos, traveling in the company of fellow Spaniard Señor Corto Oveja and his lovely daughter Ceres. They have a paranoid belief that Doc intends to murder them.
Anyway, chaotic things happen on the train, by malefactors who leave behind their calling card in the form of marks on the walls shaped like a werewolf’s head. Lester Dent (“Kenneth Robeson” was his house pseudonym) is a fount of plot logic absurdities. The villains behave nonsensically, because he can’t pause too long between the action scenes that Depression-era pulp readers were there for, and he also needs to throw in multiple red herrings. Why send Doc a fake telegram claiming to be from Alex after Doc is already on the train, demanding he stay away in an out-of-character angry tone that suggests a falling-out, when all this would do is set off alarm bells in Doc’s head? Why try to frame Doc for the killing of a porter by simply dropping the murder weapon into the wastepaper basket in his cabin (he just tosses it out the window)? And why overcomplicate the whole scheme with so many double-crosses? Doc’s inexhaustible superhuman powers are wasted on enemies so far below his pay grade. Barney Fife could outwit them on an average day.
(Continued...)
January 23, 2021
I grew up reading Doc Savage novels in my early teen years. In a fit of nostalgia I picked up Brand of the Werewolf to try to recapture a bit of the fun of those years when life hadn’t yet become terribly serious. I didn’t interrogate my reading much, in those days. I only learned of Doc Savage when a friend told me about him. The intervening years had dulled just how poor these books were, from a literary, or even cultural point of view. Doc Savage inspired many of the superheroes that would emerge in the war years and later, but these stories are adolescent boy fodder.
On my blog I discuss the blatant racism of this tale (here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World). Here, I’ll deconstruct the story a little. There will be spoilers! So, Doc Savage and his five companions are attacked on a train while off to vacation with his uncle. A sleeping gas, only barely explained, is used to paralyze them. This is because Doc’s uncle had discovered a treasure map that two groups of bad guys are after. They use a werewolf symbol—there’s no werewolf in the story and their choice of that symbol is never explained. The goal is to recover the treasure from a Spanish galleon wrecked centuries ago off the Pacific coast of Canada.
While Monk potters around with his chemistry set trying to isolate the poison gas, all of the men seem to forget, at several points, that they’re carrying Doc Savage’s patented human guns that put bad guys to sleep. The two groups of villains are secretly run by one and the same leader who, fo some reason, plays them off against each other. No worries, since he’s blown apart by trip-wires planted by an American Indian who hid the treasure. So was it worth the nostalgia? Hard to say. I doubt that, unless overcome by a wave of it again, I’ll be re-reading any of the other Doc Savage novels that were a part of my uninformed childhood.
On my blog I discuss the blatant racism of this tale (here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World). Here, I’ll deconstruct the story a little. There will be spoilers! So, Doc Savage and his five companions are attacked on a train while off to vacation with his uncle. A sleeping gas, only barely explained, is used to paralyze them. This is because Doc’s uncle had discovered a treasure map that two groups of bad guys are after. They use a werewolf symbol—there’s no werewolf in the story and their choice of that symbol is never explained. The goal is to recover the treasure from a Spanish galleon wrecked centuries ago off the Pacific coast of Canada.
While Monk potters around with his chemistry set trying to isolate the poison gas, all of the men seem to forget, at several points, that they’re carrying Doc Savage’s patented human guns that put bad guys to sleep. The two groups of villains are secretly run by one and the same leader who, fo some reason, plays them off against each other. No worries, since he’s blown apart by trip-wires planted by an American Indian who hid the treasure. So was it worth the nostalgia? Hard to say. I doubt that, unless overcome by a wave of it again, I’ll be re-reading any of the other Doc Savage novels that were a part of my uninformed childhood.
March 19, 2017
Reading Challenge 2017: book you got from a used book store. I expected, as the cover depicts, that Doc Savage would be fighting a werewolf during this novel. However, there was no werewolf, only the symbol of one whenever people were knocked unconscious by a sleeping agent. Doc and his five friends must rescue his niece Patricia and her Indian servant Tiny after his brother Alex Savage was killed in the Canadian wilderness. Tiny's husband Boat Face was also killed as well. The Indians speak like classic Hollywood movie Indians in that they have a "heap problem" speaking white man's words. The adventure starts on a train where we are introduced to Senor Oveja and his daughter Cere Oveja and their companion El Rabanos (which means radish in Spanish). We get a lot of Spanish words translated for us (the language learned as in every book) and discover there is a treasure on a hidden Spanish Galleon, ancestors of the Ovejas. There is a carved ivory cube that has a hidden map of the galleon inside that Mr. Radish and his people are trying to locate as they want the gold too. WE discover that Boat Face is not so stupid as portrayed in the story in that he figures out the riddle of the ivory cube, relocates the treasure, all before being killed by Mr. Radish's men. Patricia Savage looks like Doc, and foreshadows her role in future novels.
April 14, 2018
Doc Savage vs a werewolf!
Yeah, don't get too excited about that part.
Good setting, a decent mystery and the first appearance of Doc's cousin, Pat Savage!
Yeah, don't get too excited about that part.
Good setting, a decent mystery and the first appearance of Doc's cousin, Pat Savage!
October 5, 2019
Usual sloppy-as-you-go plotting by Dent along with a horrible grasp of basic Spanish words and the fact that Dent couldn't tell the difference between a Mexican and a Castilian Spaniard... there was one unintentionally funny sequence where two elderly train employees seem to be vocalizing an ambiguously gay crush on Doc (one too many "What a man!"s).
December 21, 2023
Not a terribly enjoyable entry in the series, being far less ridiculous than some of the previous books
May 21, 2020
With 180+ Savage adventures, they can't all be hits. This one hit a low point for the batch of novels Lester Dent wrote in the first year of Doc's publication run.
The adventure was okay. Indeed, the opening premise showed great promise: after nearly a year's worth of life-or-death scrapping, Doc and his five besties go on vacation. They're on their way to the Pacific coast of Canada; Doc's uncle has a beautiful wilderness retreat there. On the way, though, a band of Spanish ruffians try to kill Doc and his pals, along with a trio of innocent-or-are-they-really Spaniards also on board the trans-continental train headed West.
Alas, the promise of the premise (along with various subplots) is never fulfilled. For example, we're explicitly told that Doc doesn't have his usual batch of gizmos and tools precisely because he's on vacation -- so he's not even wearing his normal fashion accessory, a bullet-proof vest. That's grand: an adventure wherein Doc must survive and solve the mystery by wits alone! Alas, it is not to be; nearing his uncle's retreat, Doc and his five retrieve their gear and are back utilizing their usual tech crutches.
Even the title is a major non sequitur. The werewolf in the title is little more than a rubber stamp the villains use each time they try to kill someone. But the significance of the symbol is never explained. The criminal gang aren't Scooby-style scum with supernatural trappings -- just a run-of-the-mill band of scofflaws, with everything they do accomplished with plain old bullying, kidnapping, and guns. Even the legend at the heart of the mystery has absolutely nothing to do with anything remotely were-, nor anything remotely wolf.
That's bad enough, but racism returns in full force with this work. It's so abrasive, it can't be written off as simply 21st Century sensitivity squirming at early 20th Century cultural norms. This is over the top by any decent standard. Even Depression-era readers must have taken some level of umbrage. Spaniards, African-Americans, AND Native Americans are all portrayed in the manner of the worst low-budget B-movies of the time.
Dent is usually pretty careful about trying to recreate authentic dialect, accent, and language structure in his dialogue. I got used to that over the prior three or four novels. The shallow, two-dimensional speech patterns of the characters in this one stand in stark contrast.
Overall, it really feels like this was a first draft which Dent simply didn't have time to edit and revise before submitting. That may be completely off the mark, but given the calibre of the novels leading up to this one, that feel is there.
It earns more than one star simply because this is an important work of canon. It's the first time we learn that Doc has any living relatives...in particular, his cousin Patricia Savage, who will appear several more times in the Doc adventures, proving a woman can hold her own in a scrap just as well as any of the men in Doc's cohort -- a hint of how progressive Dent was at his finest.
The adventure was okay. Indeed, the opening premise showed great promise: after nearly a year's worth of life-or-death scrapping, Doc and his five besties go on vacation. They're on their way to the Pacific coast of Canada; Doc's uncle has a beautiful wilderness retreat there. On the way, though, a band of Spanish ruffians try to kill Doc and his pals, along with a trio of innocent-or-are-they-really Spaniards also on board the trans-continental train headed West.
Alas, the promise of the premise (along with various subplots) is never fulfilled. For example, we're explicitly told that Doc doesn't have his usual batch of gizmos and tools precisely because he's on vacation -- so he's not even wearing his normal fashion accessory, a bullet-proof vest. That's grand: an adventure wherein Doc must survive and solve the mystery by wits alone! Alas, it is not to be; nearing his uncle's retreat, Doc and his five retrieve their gear and are back utilizing their usual tech crutches.
Even the title is a major non sequitur. The werewolf in the title is little more than a rubber stamp the villains use each time they try to kill someone. But the significance of the symbol is never explained. The criminal gang aren't Scooby-style scum with supernatural trappings -- just a run-of-the-mill band of scofflaws, with everything they do accomplished with plain old bullying, kidnapping, and guns. Even the legend at the heart of the mystery has absolutely nothing to do with anything remotely were-, nor anything remotely wolf.
That's bad enough, but racism returns in full force with this work. It's so abrasive, it can't be written off as simply 21st Century sensitivity squirming at early 20th Century cultural norms. This is over the top by any decent standard. Even Depression-era readers must have taken some level of umbrage. Spaniards, African-Americans, AND Native Americans are all portrayed in the manner of the worst low-budget B-movies of the time.
Dent is usually pretty careful about trying to recreate authentic dialect, accent, and language structure in his dialogue. I got used to that over the prior three or four novels. The shallow, two-dimensional speech patterns of the characters in this one stand in stark contrast.
Overall, it really feels like this was a first draft which Dent simply didn't have time to edit and revise before submitting. That may be completely off the mark, but given the calibre of the novels leading up to this one, that feel is there.
It earns more than one star simply because this is an important work of canon. It's the first time we learn that Doc has any living relatives...in particular, his cousin Patricia Savage, who will appear several more times in the Doc adventures, proving a woman can hold her own in a scrap just as well as any of the men in Doc's cohort -- a hint of how progressive Dent was at his finest.
November 9, 2024
I last read this book over 50 years ago, when I was a wee lad of about 12 years of age. I remember it as the one that introduced Doc's cousin Pat...but retained little else of the plot. Now, having completed it once again, I do recall that it is a good solid entry in the Doc Savage series, even though I retain my disappointment that
January 7, 2019
Another in a long line of Doc Savage adventures. This one is set mainly in Canada and seems to be the introduction of Pat Savage, the cousin of Doc Savage. I was surprised to see that it did not elaborate on how she came to New York and set up her beauty shop of sorts, but it does lay out how the two cousins met. I was disappointed to discover there was not a real werewolf, but the story was a fairly typical Doc Savage adventure. Bad guys good guys and some thing tying it all together. I read the stories now for the enjoyment of reliving that time of pulp adventure writing. Things in the stories are glaringly dated but that is okay because they were written more than 50 years ago. The stories still stand up as stories and the characters are almost set in concrete for how strictly they adhere to their particular characterizations. Monk and Ham squabbling and fussing over Pat. Renny says Holy Cow a dozen times at least. I always get a kick out of what sort of amazing things Doc does in a particular story. This one he shows he is a ridiculously talented gymnast and can walk on a wire or rope better than many professional wirewalkers. During the story he does his daily exercise routine but it does not say anything about wirewalking. While not super human he is nearly super human. I will never fail to wonder why Doc Savage has never really caught on with the comic book crowd. There have been a multitude of failed Doc Savage runs in comic books. I think it must be very hard to ride the line between the gritty time of the book's writing and how Doc and his crew were portrayed and how comic books of our time portray characters. I read a short interview with Dwayne The Rock Johnson, who may or may not portray Doc Savage in a new movie and I get the feeling that the slightly tongue in cheek style is the way to go for most stories about Doc Savage now. As though he knows he is awkward around normal people and he knows he cannot be attracted to women, etc. In Brand of the Werewolf he gets a kiss from the main female character and it does cause him to think about his situation regarding women, meaning he can't become involved with them lest they be used against him by an enemy. With great power comes great responsibility I guess. Anyway, I have always liked Doc Savage and this story is another in a long line of fun Doc Savage stories.
February 2, 2025
This should be in the top ten, maybe even top five, of the original Doc Savage tales. By this fifth adventure, the character of Doc and his associates are set, with few errors after this novel. It also marks the introduction of Doc's cousin, Patricia, into the mythos. The adventure itself is cracking, and the story behind it is very interesting as well.
I'm going to end this review here, because I don't want to risk spoiling anything.
Highly recommended for fans of Doc Savage, and the world of Pulp Adventure in general!
FIND IT! BUY IT! READ IT!
I'm going to end this review here, because I don't want to risk spoiling anything.
Highly recommended for fans of Doc Savage, and the world of Pulp Adventure in general!
FIND IT! BUY IT! READ IT!
June 26, 2018
Doc Savage and his crew head for Canada for, of all things, a vacation. But on the train ride there, to his uncle's place, strange things happen and, you guessed it -- it's not so much a vacation as another adventure, as they find themselves at odds with a gang of criminals who are in search of a mysterious white cube that they expect will lead them to a lost pirate treasure. This book introduces a new character -- Doc's cousin Patricia.
March 19, 2024
VERY pulpy story; entertaining for what it is, but definitely not going to be to most people's taste.
Doc Savage is perfect at everything, his team is perfect at everything , all the women are ultra-beautiful, . . . It's definitely a blast from the past. The racial stereotypes that are prevalent throughout the book definitely date the story significantly, so don't read this if you're easily offended. Would give it 2.5 stars since it is SOOOO pulpy, but 3 stars will have to suffice.
Doc Savage is perfect at everything, his team is perfect at everything , all the women are ultra-beautiful, . . . It's definitely a blast from the past. The racial stereotypes that are prevalent throughout the book definitely date the story significantly, so don't read this if you're easily offended. Would give it 2.5 stars since it is SOOOO pulpy, but 3 stars will have to suffice.
November 13, 2024
This is the first Pat Savage story in the canon. It's not an especially gripping story, and is a bit par for the course in terms of mid-2oth century pulp stories set in Canada, though Mounties are only mentioned. Pat is at least given *some* stuff to do but by the middle of the novel she becomes essentially a talking prop.
There is some anti-Black, anti-Spanish, and most of all, anti-Indigenous racism that is the sort a reader would expect to encounter in a Doc Story.
There is some anti-Black, anti-Spanish, and most of all, anti-Indigenous racism that is the sort a reader would expect to encounter in a Doc Story.
March 31, 2019
I love pulps. I love brevity. I love action.
Yep. Yep. Yep.
Yes, the characters are outrageous. The storytelling is frankly campy to the modern eye, but a fun little romp. The Five cohorts of Doc are really fun characters and you can tell in this early novel he was still developing them. I look forward to reading more of these in the future. Fun...and fast!
Yep. Yep. Yep.
Yes, the characters are outrageous. The storytelling is frankly campy to the modern eye, but a fun little romp. The Five cohorts of Doc are really fun characters and you can tell in this early novel he was still developing them. I look forward to reading more of these in the future. Fun...and fast!
November 4, 2021
This Doc Savage adventure was pretty good, lots of adventure. Why there was a pirate ship in Canada, didn’t make a lot of sense. More so Captain Morgan’s ship. Book cover was a little deceiving there was no werewolf in the whole book. Just described a werewolf brand left by the villain to mark his crimes.
All in all a very entertaining read.
All in all a very entertaining read.
August 17, 2017
Doc goes on vacation to foggy western Canada. Lots of Renny's big hands; not much Pat though it's her first appearance. Doc runs atop a train and does a tightrope thing across waterfall. Oh, and there's no werewolf, darn it. I really do prefer the Shadow and Fu-Manchu to these.
February 5, 2018
I like reading the Doc Savage series, however this was not one of the better stories. The werewolf was not a real part of the story from my point of view. However the story over all was good and made sense. If you like older serial books this a nice read.
June 17, 2019
While perhaps notable for the introduction of Patricia "Pat" Savage, Doc's cousin, this wasn't a particularly distinguished installment in the series so far. The titular werewolf is a disappointment, the mystery is fairly incoherent, and there's a higher than average amount of racist stereotyping. I still enjoy the series, but there's not a whole lot of interest in this one.
February 2, 2024
I have started re-reading my Doc Savage Bantam collection in original pulp order, and I’m really enjoying the journey! Brand of the Werewolf is a great adventure. With the added bonus of bringing Pat Savage into the group!
October 4, 2017
Another good Doc adventure that I read back in the 70s.
November 29, 2017
This was a pretty good story, among the better ones in the early days.
May 2, 2018
The adventures of the heroic Doc Savage continue. A little more blood and killing in this one, but the mystery gets solved......did it.....
June 19, 2019
Another pulp adventure of the infailable Doc Savage. This is better than others I've read, but the racist stereotypes left me cringing more than enjoying.
April 20, 2020
3.5 / 5
June 28, 2020
Was quite disappointed with this story, everything was too easy for Doc and quite simplistically written.
April 27, 2023
Fun to read. Amazing how Lester Dent wrote things back in the 1930's and current writers are writing similar stories.
August 25, 2024
I first read this book when I was a senior in high school. Silly pulp action - The man of bronze with his five sidekicks and his cousin Pat.
As usual they save the day
As usual they save the day
September 25, 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!
March 10, 2023
Well here we are, #5, but for a book called Brand of the Werewolf, there sure wern't any werewolfs in it.
I have never read so many diffrent offensive ways to describe spanish or american indians before in my entire life.
This one was a bit harder to read and wasn't quite as exciting as the previous ones i've read but still readable.
Oh well, on to the next one!
I have never read so many diffrent offensive ways to describe spanish or american indians before in my entire life.
This one was a bit harder to read and wasn't quite as exciting as the previous ones i've read but still readable.
Oh well, on to the next one!
July 10, 2014
Pulp lore has it that when Bantam Books reprinted this Doc Savage story in 1965 (fifth in their weird reprint order), it proved to be the best-selling title in the series. This can only be because of the exciting cover art, because that's the only worthwhile thing about Brand of the Werewolf.
This story, first published in January 1934, was the eleventh Doc adventure. It is notable for the introduction of a new character: Doc's cousin Patricia Savage, "a two-fisted woman who could go out and do things." Like Doc, Pat is bronze-haired, easy on the eyes, and smart as a whip, although she lacks the lifelong intensive training that has converted Doc into a superman. When Pat's father is murdered by a gang searching for a mysterious ivory cube, Doc and his friends find their vacation to British Columbia diverted into a game of cat-and-mouse with the killers.
This is one of those Doc novels where the racism of the era gets in the way of the story, at least in the early chapters (a black train porter and two First Nations characters each get some embarrassing dialogue). But it isn't much of a story to start with. Once you get past the cube and the presence of Pat, this is a run of the mill lost treasure story with a second-rate villain, too much dependence on bulletproof vests, and a hack ending that raises more questions than it answers. And those drawn in by the cover will be doubly disappointed: there's no actual werewolf in the story, but the Bantam reprint does put a huge (but predictable) spoiler right in the blurb.
This story, first published in January 1934, was the eleventh Doc adventure. It is notable for the introduction of a new character: Doc's cousin Patricia Savage, "a two-fisted woman who could go out and do things." Like Doc, Pat is bronze-haired, easy on the eyes, and smart as a whip, although she lacks the lifelong intensive training that has converted Doc into a superman. When Pat's father is murdered by a gang searching for a mysterious ivory cube, Doc and his friends find their vacation to British Columbia diverted into a game of cat-and-mouse with the killers.
This is one of those Doc novels where the racism of the era gets in the way of the story, at least in the early chapters (a black train porter and two First Nations characters each get some embarrassing dialogue). But it isn't much of a story to start with. Once you get past the cube and the presence of Pat, this is a run of the mill lost treasure story with a second-rate villain, too much dependence on bulletproof vests, and a hack ending that raises more questions than it answers. And those drawn in by the cover will be doubly disappointed: there's no actual werewolf in the story, but the Bantam reprint does put a huge (but predictable) spoiler right in the blurb.
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