Stockholders in Death

The Avenger #7

by Kenneth Robeson (House Name), Paul Ernst

Big business and organized crime team up in the search for millions in missing securities. Their partnership produces murder until The Avenger decides to join the company.

In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human.

It was so with Dick Benson. He had been a man. After the dread loss inflicted on him by an inhuman crime ring, he became a machine of vengeance dedicated to the extermination of all other crime rings.

He turned into the the person we know now: A figure of ice and steel, more pitiless than both; A mechanism of whipcord and flame; A symbol to crooks and killers; A terrible, almost impersonal force, masking chill genius and super normal power behind a face as white and dead as a mask from the grave. Only his pale eyes, like ice in a polar dawn, hint at the deadliness of the scourge the underworld heedlessly invoked against itself when crime's greed turned millionaire adventurer Richard Benson into The Avenger.

Genres: Pulp, Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

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

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by Paul Ernst and first published in The Avenger magazine in March of 1940, this 7th book in the series dives into the world of high finance. This would seem to be a less-than interesting subject for readers used to murder and mayhem in their Justice, Inc. Avenger chronicles but the author manages to pack in plenty of sordid underhanded mischief in this one as well.

Lawyer Joseph Crimm has been killed for his stock holdings. The directors of Town Bank are trying to seize control of Ballandale Glass Corp and Crimm stands in the way. What they didn’t count on is Crimm’s two sons who want justice. The oldest son, Tom is out more for revenge and decides to fight fire with fire so he contacts a big-league gangster to work on his behalf. The younger son, however, chooses the nobler rout and seeks out Justice, Inc. and asks Richard Benson, The Avenger for aid.

What follows is a nicely absorbing story filled with criminal and crime fighting adventure. Benson uses his penchant for disguises to great effect, sometimes even leading us readers into a false sense of what is happening. But this also happens on the gangster side. At one point they even have three bad guys pose as Benson and two of his aides and order them to commit major crimes in order to discredit the real heroes. It’s a bit of a cat and mouse game with both sides trying to play the cat. This sort of sleight-of-hand plotting is typical of the series and always effective.

I’m thankful I own all of the original series so I can happily read the next one whenever I want.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average pulp with average villains, death traps, and mysteries. Main benefit found reading these knock-off Shadows/Doc Savages stories (which do entertain to an extent) is they allow one to appreciate how good Walter Gibson and Lester Dent were in their own stories. Paul Ernst does a passage job with this story of a stock swindle, murders and gangsters, and provides an ending that I expected but still appreciated.

The second part of this reprint was a teleplay that uses the second Avenger story, The Golden Hoard,> for its foundation. It was likely written and directed by Maurice H.H. Joachim.

[Michael Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elderly successful business man is pushed into dying from a heart attack and over a million dollars goes missing. His two sons know what happened, but what to do? One decides on Justice Inc and Benson. The other decides that Benson is probably a crook in it for the money and hires the worst crook he can find. Things go downhill from there as the crooks naturally double cross him, and want all the money, killing people along the way. The bank that swindled the money decide on more killings. One of the brothers is framed for the murder of his father and the police corner him and want to kill him. The good guys are in a house being burned down and are frequently shot at. There is a "death car", and the main villain is exposed at the end, which differs somewhat from other Avenger story endings.

[Kendal · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an awkward read.

[Craig · Rating 4 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.

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man is nearly run down by a car, and as a result suffers a heart attack, leading shortly to his death. Accident? No, cold-blooded murder, as the man is able to tell his sons before he passes away. It seems that he had discovered a stock swindle perpetrated by a highly respectable bank that would steal his sons' inheritance, and this method was used to silence him.

Faced with the fact that the highly respected bank officers would be able to put off a police investigation until the swindle is complete, the brothers call in help. One, an idealist, calls upon Richard Henry Benson, the Avenger and his Justice, Inc. comrades. The other is a cynic who contacts a local mob boss and offers to cut his gang in for a share of the profits in exchange for some gangland vengeance.

Thus, the Avenger must deal not only with the cold and calculating corporate criminals, but two gangs of mobsters out for blood and loot.

While the other members of Justice, Inc. get a look in, this story is primarily focused on Benson himself and his many gifts. A particularly nifty angle is the way he uses his immense wealth and influence to distract the bankers with financial difficulties. But there's plenty of two-fisted action too.

Check out more pulp reviews here: http://www.skjam.com/tag/pulp/

[Scott Combs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the earlier novels. It relied upon too many clichés, i.e., in the shadows, face covered in a vail, etc. This is a pulp story that brings out the worst in the genre.

[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

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

read some time in 1985