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!
Death is the payoff when a diabolical master of crime turns to the sport world for his field of operations and hurls a bold challenge at the Phantom, forcing him to battle to smash a million-dollar racket...
The idea that The Phantom Detective was kept largely street level and ‘ordinary’ in his skill set is not without merit once the majority of stories are considered. Most of the pulp novels focus on crime that involves gangsters, murderers, and the occasional evil genius trying to concoct the unsolvable mystery. There are no forgotten civilizations or over the top science fiction type death devices that readers find in Doc Savage stories or some of The Shadow’s adventures.
As is common today, it was also not unusual in the heyday of the Pulps for characters to find their ways into other mediums. The Phantom Detective did just that, though not to the level of The Shadow or even Doc Savage. While never gracing the silver screen or embarking on radio adventures, Thrilling Publications’ entry into the Hero Pulps made his way into comic books published by Standard (also known as Nedor and Better) Comics, the comic book arm of Thrilling. Even though his continued success in the Pulps never got him his own title, The Phantom Detective had several adventures that essentially translated the character from prose to comic with little changes, save one. While he wore a top hat on the covers of the Pulp magazines, The Phantom Detective rarely, if ever, donned one as a part of his costume in the actual stories. In the comics, however, the top hat is as much a part of the Phantom Detective’s look as his domino mask.
Murder Makes the Bets was originally published in the January 1943 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: A Texan’s Bet
Chapter 2: Death-Trap for the Phantom
Chapter 3: Unexpected Entrance
Chapter 4: A Hard Man to Cross
Chapter 5: Hundred-Thousand-Dollar Plot
Chapter 6: A “Legitimate” Knockout
Chapter 7: No Champion
Chapter 8: One of Six
Chapter 9: The Pay-Off
Chapter 10: Matching Wits With Death
Chapter 11: Paid in Lead
Chapter 12: At the Bottom of the River
Chapter 13: Death Lurks on the Terrace
Chapter 14: Glory — Hallelujah
Chapter 15: One Strong Suspect
Chapter 16: Devil’s Brew
Chapter 17: Trapped!
Chapter 18: One Against Eight
Chapter 19: Gas Pipe Rescue
Chapter 20: Judgment Day
