THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL

By Paul Malmont
Simon & Schuster
367 pages

Without a doubt, the two greatest pulp magazine heroes of all time were both published by Street & Smith Publications; THE SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE. Month after month the adventures of the Man of Bronze and the Dark Avenger thrilled thousands of readers across the country during the time of the Great Depression. These were pulp sagas of the highest order.

Now writer Paul Malmont has written a classic, pulp-like tale wherein the writers of these two heroes join forces to share their own, thrill-a-minute adventure. Walter Gibson, a divorced father of one, an expert on magic, teams up with his chielf literary rival, the larger than life outdoorsman and pilot, Lester Dent. Accompanied by Dent's beautiful wife, Norma, the two men find themselves embroiled in a mystery that starts with the death of horror writer, H.P.Lovecraft adn then climaxes in the streets of New York's Chinatown, where a fanatical madman has come to seek his revenge against those that murdered his beloved family.

Interweaving historical events that would precipitate the start of World War II in China, Malmont sets the stage and then populates it with a lively cast of characters as colorful as the purple prose they made their living from.

No fan of pulps should miss this true homage to a glorious, long-ago age when gifted writers made a penny-a-word living and in the process entertained an entire generation hungry for escapism and heroes. This book is a humdinger.