White orchids spell death in this action-packed tale of The Phantom Detective’s perilous pursuit of a master criminal whose diabolical, gruesome crimes follow each other in a grim procession. Death’s skeleton hands ever reach for him — yet the masked sleuth eludes their grisly clutches and continues in his courageous struggle against criminal forces. His ability, his resourcefulness, his ruthlessness in fighting crime have won him the title of Scourge of the Underworld. Follow him on the perilous pursuit of a master criminal — a fiend incarnate whose nefarious activities will chill you to the marrow.
With issue twelve of The Phantom Detective magazine, the house name of ‘G. Wayman Jones’ was retired and the author credited with most, if not all the first eleven stories of this character, D. L. Champion mostly moved onto other series. In order to continue the series, another house name was created, that of Robert Wallace. The parade of authors who would add to The Phantom Detective’s library of tales as Wallace is voluminous and includes Laurence Donovan, Edwin V. Burkholder, Norman A. Daniels, who wrote more than 36 of them, Anatole F. Feldman, C. S. Montanye, Laurence Donovan, Ryerson Johnson, Henry Kuttner, Ralph Oppenheim, Norvell W. Page, Paul Chadwick, Paul Ernst, Ray Cummings, and Emile C. Tepperman.
As a pen name, ‘Robert Wallace’ was not simply pulled from thin air. Hoping readers would relate the name to a well-known British author of thrillers, Edgar Wallace, Thrilling Publications would use the same house name on short stories and novel length tales outside of The Phantom Detective series.
‘Death’s Diary’ was originally published in the February 1934 issue of The Phantom Detective Magazine and is read with pulse pounding intensity by award winning voice actor Milton Bagby.
