The Feathered Octopus: Doc Savage #

by Lester Dent

The monstrous financial manipulator High Lar, his wife Lo Lar and their gang execute a dangerous plot to gain control of all of the world’s airlines. Knowing that Doc Savage may try to foil their plans, they lure him into a trap with a bogus appeal to his humanity before he can get wind of their evil scheme.

130 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2020

About the author

Lester Dent (1904–1959) was born in La Plata, Missouri. In his mid-twenties, he began publishing pulp fiction stories, and moved to New York City, where he developed the successful Doc Savage Magazine with Henry Ralston, head of Street and Smith, a leading pulp publisher. The magazine ran from 1933 until 1949 and included 181 novel-length stories, of which Dent wrote the vast majority under the house name Kenneth Robeson. He also published mystery novels in a variety of genres, including the Chance Molloy series about a self-made airline owner. Dent’s own life was quite adventurous; he prospected for gold in the Southwest, lived aboard a schooner for a few years, hunted treasure in the Caribbean, launched an aerial photography company, and was a member of the Explorer’s Club.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last time I read The Feathered Octopus I believe I was in the sixth grade. It so perfectly illustrated how the opponents who faced Doc Savage were caught by their own traps that I used its climax as the foundation for a school exercise where we had to give a speech in front of our class. I cannot remember all of the elements, but this one still stands out to this day more than forty years later.