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October 1935 - Dust of Death
Dust of Death is another Harold A. Davis novel (revised by Lester Dent) and like The King Maker, it is another story of a country in turmoil, or in this case two South American republics at war. Those countries are the ficticious Delezon and Santa Amoza.
The tale begins with a mysterious telegram from South America that is signed by Long Tom, but Doc realizes that it is clearly a fake designed to keep him from heading to South America. This, of course, causes Doc to leave immeadiately. Ham and Monk accompany Doc in the Stratospheric Dirigible which flies at over 300 mph.
Trouble follows and the heroic trio have to jump out of the airship before it crashes. Along the way they meet up with death by firing squad, death by army ants, and death by dust of death. None of these methods take.
This book is also notable for the first appearance of a reddish ape that befriends Ham. The lawyer decides the ape looks just like Monk and adopts it, calling it Chemistry, to goad Monk. There isn't really a femme fatale in this tale, Senorita Anita Carcetas is more the damsel in distress. Also featured is a mercenary pilot named Ace Jackson.
This is a decent tale, the villainy is enjoyable, and the story is mostly about maintaining war for the benefit of oil companies and munitions manufacturers. I guess that has been on people's minds for centuries.
The pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer and the Bantam paperback cover by James Bama is particularly nice. I'd give Dust of Death an 8 out of 10, but I have to deduct a point for Chemistry, so it gets a 7 out of 10.
