The world’s greatest sleuth takes a hand in a grim game of smuggling and slaughter! When the U.S. Customs is defrauded, the Phantom Detective pits himself against a diabolical murder merchant who heads a greed-maddened combine of criminals! Follow the masked nightmare of the underworld as he takes a hand in a game of smuggling and slaughter!
The Phantom Detective’s name is a perfect description of Thrilling Publications’ own answer to The Shadow. Richard Curtis Van Loan undertook a rigorous training program that not only turned him into a fine physical specimen, but also honed apparently natural abilities to think critically and solve problems and mysteries. Writers made sure that whatever skill he needed to solve a mystery, he’d learned it himself. Becoming an expert in crime detection and all the sciences related to it, Van Loan most definitely earned the Detective part of his alter ego’s name.
The Phantom half of the name was also earned by Van Loan’s dedication to his mission, to take on the underworld single handedly. Focused on his identity remaining a secret and being able to get out of any jam he might get into, the millionaire turned masked man taught himself to be a master escape artist and a wizard at disguises. As a matter of fact, this aspect of his masked identity was so pervasive that he was only referred to as ‘The Phantom’ in the stories, never as the Phantom Detective. With only one man ever knowing his identity, The Phantom Detective made good use of disguises. Over the course of his 170 stories, he assumes several identities, including chemist Dr. Paul Bendix and Lester Cornwell.
‘The Diamond Killers’ was originally published in the May 1948 issue of The Phantom Detective Magazine and is read with pulse pounding intensity by award winning voice actor Milton Bagby.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: In the Shower’s Rain
Chapter 2: On the Tracks
Chapter 3: Letter
Chapter 4: Dark Attack
Chapter 5: Behind the Tiles
Chapter 6: Lead
Chapter 7: Riverdale House
Chapter 8: Radio Warning
Chapter 9: Dark Room
Chapter 10: In The Hold
Chapter 11: Over the Rail
Chapter 12: Seward
Chapter 13: Sunburst
Chapter 14: Turnabout
Chapter 15: Opening Door
Chapter 16: Chip Calls
Chapter 17: Redhead
Chapter 18: Unmasked
