The Complete Adventures of the Moon Man, Volume 3: 1934

by Frederick C. Davis, Andrew Salmon (Introduction)

One of the strangest pulp heroes is finally available from Altus Press! Created by pulp fiction legend Frederick C. Davis for the pages of the ultra-rare title, Ten Detective Aces, the Moon Man fought the forces of the underworld in 38 unforgettable tales. Volume 3 collects the next six stories from this series: "Moon Doom," "Calling Car 13!," "Fingers of Fear," "Corpse's Alibi," "The Sinister Snatch" and "Badge of Blood." And it includes an all-new introduction by Moon Man expert Andrew Salmon.

333 pages, Paperback

Published January 13, 2017

About the author

Frederick Clyde Davis (1902-1977) was an American pulp writer. He was educated at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and became a professional writer at the age of 22. Davis wrote several novels featuring his series detective, Professor Cy Hatch. He also wrote as Murdo Coombs, Stephen Ransome and Curtis Steele. Books under his own name were published in the UK as by Stephen Ransome. Other series characters were Schyler Cole and Luke Speare.

Reviews

[Dale]

The pulp magazines’ weirdest hero!

As this is volume three of the adventures of the Moon Man, I have to point out that there are a few things that get old about these stories. McEwen’s rants in every story, Sue McEwen’s emotional pleas with Steve Thatcher, and Angel’s attempts to dissuade the Moon Man from action begin to harm rather than help the story.

By the time the first story in this volume was originally published, thirteen previously stories had already set forth the fact that McEwen was unrelenting, Sue was emotional, and Angel was loyal to a fault. There is no reason to continue to point this out every story. Because of this, all books forward will lose one star from me.

***Possible Spoiler Alert***

Now, on to the stories:
• “Moon Doom” A new crook in town uses snake venom as a weapon and calls himself The Rattler!
• “Calling Car 13” crooks masquerade as cops to rob the Police Ball by diverting the police to Angel’s hideout!
• “Fingers of Fear” When McEwen’s raids on illegal gambling houses threaten a crook’s livelihood; influence is put on Curtis Mead, president of the Police Board to bust McEwen using his failure to capture the Moon Man as an excuse.
• “Corpse Alibi” McEwen thinks the Moon Man is a cop and goes to check the police force fingerprint file to see just who…
• “The Sinister Snatch” The editor of the Great City Star is kidnapped, the Moon Man vows to find him and claim the reward money
• “Badge of Blood” A man in a skull mask is a robber and learns the Moon Man’s secret; using the information for blackmail purposes…

The stories are exciting, barring the conditions mentioned above, so I give the book four stars!

Quoth the Raven…

[Edward Butler]

I proofread this, so it should be clean as a whistle. Great pulp fiction, too.