Finished reading Mystery Under the Sea. When I was in high school and college, I read the Bantam reprints of the Doc novels as soon as they were published. Several years ago, I decided to read them in the order they were originally published back in the 30s and 40s, however, I only made it through about the first 30 or so. I have continued this sporadically in recent years, reading Murder Mirage a few months ago. Mystery Under the Sea is next in line. I happened to have one of the Sanctum reprints that includes Mystery plus The Red Terrors. This volume actually had a restored version of Mystery that included more than 7000 words that were edited out of the original publication. It also contained an article about Lester Dent and some of his sources for the novel. Also discussed how Red Terrors became a sequel to Mystery Under the Sea.
In Mystery, a mutilated man who has been burnt with acid makes his way to Doc's headquarters but dies before he can tell them anything. Even so, Doc and his crew are soon on the trail of modern-day pirate Captain Flamingo and ruthless heiress Diamond Eve Post, racing to the Caribbean to claim the lost science of TAZ, ancient outpost of Atlantis. This one seemed to take a long time to get going. The novel was more than half over before Doc and his crew eventually get kidnapped and on to the lost city. Some interesting features of the novel include use of a substance that makes it possible to go under water without breathing. The restoration also included the first mention and explanation of Doc's "flea run", the pneumatic escape system mentioned in later novels. Overall, I liked this one better than the last couple of Doc's I read that were written by authors other than Lester Dent. I'll read The Red Terrors at a later date.
In Mystery, a mutilated man who has been burnt with acid makes his way to Doc's headquarters but dies before he can tell them anything. Even so, Doc and his crew are soon on the trail of modern-day pirate Captain Flamingo and ruthless heiress Diamond Eve Post, racing to the Caribbean to claim the lost science of TAZ, ancient outpost of Atlantis. This one seemed to take a long time to get going. The novel was more than half over before Doc and his crew eventually get kidnapped and on to the lost city. Some interesting features of the novel include use of a substance that makes it possible to go under water without breathing. The restoration also included the first mention and explanation of Doc's "flea run", the pneumatic escape system mentioned in later novels. Overall, I liked this one better than the last couple of Doc's I read that were written by authors other than Lester Dent. I'll read The Red Terrors at a later date.
