Forged in war, The Phantom Detective wages a one-man battle on crime! Solving impossible mysteries and delivering his own justice, he is the underworld’s masked nightmare!
The Phantom Detective hurtles down the stretch when masked killers nose out the Law — battling to keep the forces of crime from taking first, place or show!
In 1939, Lawrence Donovan added a cast member to The Phantom Detective stories. Chip Dorlan was initially a carbon copy of other teenaged sidekicks of the era, someone who was there to help sometimes, but also someone else to be saved. Donovan, however, brought an interesting twist with Chip in later stories. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Chip enlists in the Army. Working in intelligence, he is continually mentioned in the stories and even returns for a few tales when the war is over. Although possibly not unique, it was not common for anyone to age in Pulp stories significantly or go through such a striking change as Chip does in the Phantom Detective canon, all a credit to Donovan’s skill and influence on the series.
Donovan also gave his stories a bit more of a hard-boiled edge, added a bit more danger to the tales. Although he didn’t alter the formula significantly, Donovan’s contributions to The Phantom Detective seem more mature and the stakes which the characters face feel more real. This in part is due likely to Donovan’s career as a journalist, but also to the fact that at the time he was writing The Phantom Detective, he was well over fifty years old and had lived a life that many would only find in a Pulp magazine. The Phantom Detective had always been written as a street level character, more human and realistic than his Hero Pulp peers. Lawrence Donovan definitely added to that with his own writing style and experience.
Race Horses of Death was originally published in the October 1941 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: Seance of Murder
Chapter 2: Death in the Saddle
Chapter 3: Fatal Rabbit’s Foot
Chapter 4: One Is Silenced
Chapter 5: Sela Kane
Chapter 6: Mysterious Poison
Chapter 7: Face Under a Mask
Chapter 8: Strange Doc Craig
Chapter 9: Devil Tiger Claws
Chapter 10: Derby Horse Murder
Chapter 11: New Horse Trainer
Chapter 12: The Sea Queen
Chapter 13: Death Swims the Sea
Chapter 14: Mysterious Señor Ruiz
Chapter 15: Stubborn as Death
Chapter 16: Underground Treasure
Chapter 17: Sinister Seance
Chapter 18: Destroy Phantom
Chapter 19: Fire in the Sky
Chapter 20: Face in the Flames
Chapter 21: Crime’s Home Stretch
Typical and enjoyable pulp read. 
