The Phantom Detective pursues a gem thief czar whose evil schemes are cloaked by smug respectability! The world’s greatest detective follows a death-strewn trail to the heart of a sinister murder maze!
Although the magazine was titled The Phantom Detective, the character in the lead story actually went by two different names in each issue. Born Richard Curtis Van Loan, he was a child of wealth. Orphaned at an early age, Van Loan found a father figure of sorts in newspaper publisher Frank Havens, a relationship that would have a direct impact on his future as The Phantom, what the character was called in the series, never The Phantom Detective. Not only did Van Loan share his playboy status with characters both before his creation and after it, he also had something in common with many other Pulp heroes, having served in World War One, specifically as a pilot. Returning from the war, whatever idleness he’d had before was now absent from Van Loan. Struggling to find his purpose, he accepted a challenge from Frank Havens to solve a crime that law enforcement could not. Succeeding at this, the haggard war veteran and millionaire felt he had found his purpose, not something born out of personal tragedy as so many other heroes had, but out of a need to do good, to help others. Having been the epitome of a playboy prior to the war, Van Loan recognized he would need certain skills to follow his new mission, abilities he taught himself. Once believing he was suitably ready, he donned a domino mask, but not the top hat so famously depicted on each of the magazine’s covers, and became The Phantom Detective.
‘The Deadly Diamonds’ was originally published in the Summer 1950 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: Attack in the Night
Chapter 2: A Case for the Phantom
Chapter 3: Rooftops
Chapter 4: Line-up
Chapter 5: Attorney-at-Law
Chapter 6: Alluring Bait
Chapter 7: Double Murder
Chapter 8: Murder Suspect
Chapter 9: Unreported Crime
Chapter 10: Lady in Luxury
Chapter 11: Emerald Death
Chapter 12: Shot in the Back
Chapter 13: Brink of Ruin
Chapter 14: Dance on Air
Chapter 15: Locked Room
Chapter 16: The Phantom’s Trick
Chapter 17: Book of Codes
Chapter 18: Fake Murder
Chapter 19: Broadcasts of Crime
