Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed The Spider: The Spider Strikes / Satan's Workshop (Pulp Doubles, Vol 9) on + 1184 more book reviews
Finished reading THE SPIDER STRIKES, the first of two Spider novels included in this pulp reprint. Spider Strikes was originally published in the first issue of the Spider magazine in October 1933.
The Spider, alias Richard Wentworth, is a vigilante who fights crime and takes vengeance on those deserving it. He appears to be independently wealthy and has a socialite girlfriend, Nita Van Sloan, who is aware of his secrets. Ram Singh, a Hindi, is Wentworth's loyal manservant and is a deadly knife thrower and usually carries several knives with him. In Spider Strikes, Wentworth is after a master criminal who is planning a super crime that is not revealed until late in the story. The criminal is also a master of disguise and is able to escape from Wentworth on several occasions. But in the end, the Spider triumphs as usually happens in pulp stories.
The story seemed a lot more violent that some other pulp novels I have read such as Doc Savage and The Shadow. Early in the story Wentworth kills a card shark who may have been a bad guy but not necessarily one worthy of killing! R.T.M. Scott wrote the first two Spider novels and then Norvell W. Page continued to write most of the subsequent stories under the house name Grant Stockbridge. I will probably read the second story, Satan's Workshop, by Page in this compilation at a later date but overall, I would only mildly recommend this.
The Spider, alias Richard Wentworth, is a vigilante who fights crime and takes vengeance on those deserving it. He appears to be independently wealthy and has a socialite girlfriend, Nita Van Sloan, who is aware of his secrets. Ram Singh, a Hindi, is Wentworth's loyal manservant and is a deadly knife thrower and usually carries several knives with him. In Spider Strikes, Wentworth is after a master criminal who is planning a super crime that is not revealed until late in the story. The criminal is also a master of disguise and is able to escape from Wentworth on several occasions. But in the end, the Spider triumphs as usually happens in pulp stories.
The story seemed a lot more violent that some other pulp novels I have read such as Doc Savage and The Shadow. Early in the story Wentworth kills a card shark who may have been a bad guy but not necessarily one worthy of killing! R.T.M. Scott wrote the first two Spider novels and then Norvell W. Page continued to write most of the subsequent stories under the house name Grant Stockbridge. I will probably read the second story, Satan's Workshop, by Page in this compilation at a later date but overall, I would only mildly recommend this.
