The Phantom Detective takes part in a mad race with death on the gory trail of a sinister killer whose victims writhe in a strangle-hold of dread! As he runs the gauntlet of organized crime — facing the worst that the cohorts of criminality can threaten — bravely storming the very lairs of the Grim Reaper in his one-man war on the underworld, the world’s greatest sleuth’s resourceful brain and varied accomplishments are often taxed to the utmost capacity. Never have the fates so conspired against him — never have the forces of evil arrayed themselves so strongly, in such evil guise, to combat him as in this mystery in which the dreaded Scourge of the Underworld goes through a diabolical ordeal that will chill you to the marrow!
The Phantom Detective was more or less a straightforward lawman, albeit in a mask. Other Pulp heroes took on lost races, psychotic madmen with plots to litter the streets of New York with thousands of bodies, or mysterious monsters and insane mad scientists. The Phantom Detective, more often than not, steered clear of such outlandish threats and focused more specifically on street level crimes, be it actual crimes against citizens or massive underworld plots to rob the world blind. This more realistic take on a Pulp hero may have made the character easier for multiple authors to either write stories from beginning to end, or even to take tales they were already writing and simply rework them to fit as a Phantom Detective adventure. Regardless, the accessibility of the series made sure that Phantom Detective fans had 170 stories to read from a fantastic variety of authors.
‘Diamonds of Death’ was originally published in the June 1934 issue of The Phantom Detective Magazine and is read with pulse pounding intensity by award winning voice actor Milton Bagby.
