FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE BLACK SPOT

 The Black Spot by "Kenneth Robeson" )Laurence -- sometimes given as "Lawrence" -- Donovan, this time)  (first appeared in Doc Savage Magazine, July 1936 [issue #41]; reprinted as Doc Savage Adventure #76 by Bantam Books, 1974; reprinted with The Midas Man by "Kenneth Robeson" [Lester Dent], 2005; probably also included in one of the countless Girasol Collectable Doc Savage reprints; also available online at Project Gutenberg Australia, 2006)

Laurence Donovan was the first pinch-hitter for Lester Dent at Street and Smith's Doc Savage Magazine.  Donovan penned nine Doc Savage adventures (The Black Spot) before moving on to create Captain John Fury for S and S's The Skipper (as "Wallace Brookner") and The Whisperer (as Clifford Goodrich).  He also ghosted the adventure of Pete Rice in Wild West Weekly (as "Austin Gridley"), as well as stories for most of Street and Smith's fiction magazines under such pseudonyms as "Walter Wayne," "Patrick Everett," and "Patrick Lawrence."  Donovan's career at Street and Smith can to an abrupt end after a "liquor-induced falling out with [editor] John Nanovic in 1938."  He then moved to Thrilling Publications where he ghosted the adventures of The Phantom Detective (under house name "Robert Wallace"), eventually ghosting most of Thrilling's heroes, including G-Man Dan Fowler (The Masked Detective) and D.A. Tony Quinn (The Black Bat).  

Donovan's life is partly shrouded in mystery.  He claimed to be born in County Cork, Ireland, but records do not support this.  He preferred the spelling of his name "Laurence," although he may have been born "Lawrence."  He died "in seclusion" in 1948 at age 62.  Pulpster Walter B. Gibson remembered that Donovan had changed his last name from something like "Donegal."  He married in 1924 and fathered two sons; but indications are that he had been married previously and had fathered a third son.  He deserted his wife in the late 1930s.  As hinted in the above paragraph, he may have had a problem with alcohol.  He died "in seclusion" in 1948 at age 62,

Donovan put Doc Savage through his paces in The Blind Spot.  Doc is captured, beaten, wounded, set on fire, blown up, and nearly dies a number of times in the book.  I don't remember Lester Dent treating the hero so shabbily.

We open at a large party on the Westchester estate of multi-millionaire Andrew Podrey Vandersleeve.  (Multi-millionaires often use their full names, that way you know they are rich: another example is Cedric Cecil Spade.)  The party has a gangster theme, with guests posing as criminals and their molls.  Actual gangster "Jingles" Sporado has his men invade the party.  They gun down a wealthy playboy (known as "Happy Joe") and two policemen, and easily get away.  This excitement detracts from another murder:  unknown to the partygoers, Andrew Podrey Vandersleeve has been murdered in his locked study.  The locked room was the least puzzling part of the crime.  The Victim had a black circle on his chest; the circle did not penetrate the skin but, below the skin, a circular tube of "something" penetrated into his heart, turning all the blood in his body to a thick, black mass of goo.  Whatever had killed the millionaire was a weapon that made all others obsolete.

It happened that a guest at the party was Doc's cousin, Pat Savage.

Pat alerts Doc, who soon realizes that he is up against a fiendish killer who strikes without warning.  Doc is afraid that his associates -- Monk, Ham, Renny, Long Tome, and Johnny -- may be targeted and orders them, and Pat,  to stand down.  (Doc is spot-on with this hunch; we later learn that the black spot killer had decreed that Doc's five associated be killed before Doc Savage is killed -- the logic here is specious, but what the hell.)  More people die from the black spot and Doc is too late to save them.

We learn  that Jingles Sporado has teamed with the black spot killer.  The killer has targeted a number of people and Jingles and his men have strict orders to steal only a relatively small amount -- $131,549.20 -- from each victim; once all the victims of the black spot killer are eliminated (including Doc and his gang), the black spot killer will withdraw, giving Jingles his deadly weapon, which will allow Jingles to start a crime spree beyond imagining.

Among the suspects are Arthur Jother, Vandersleeve's secretary, who may or may not be dead; millionaire James Mathis, one of the intended victims, "Red" Mahoney, an eager news videographer;  Ronald Doreman, a trusted employee of the Electro-Chemical Research Corporation; and "reformed" bootlegger Silky Joe Scarnola.

Complicating things are a seemingly invisible man through whom bullets pass without effect.

Truth to tell, this story is a muddled mess and perhaps not worthy of the Doc Savage heritage.  But the pace is rapid-fire and the pulpish business of the tale is pretty inventive. leaving the reader pulled along (and hopefully, unaware) before he realizes just how bad the story is.  Have you ever watched a juggler and, after the performance was over, was not sure if all the balls that went up in the air actually came down?

And what about the suicide of a man years ago in a mansion now rumored to be haunted?