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!

 

Millions are at stake in this tense mystery of greed, intrigue and vengeance as brutal crime and sinister tragedy stalk hand and hand in the wake of the Bat’s duplicity! Follow Richard Curtis Van Loan as he takes the trail of a Napoleon of Crime who defies justice.

 

Even though he was indeed a one-man army against crime, The Phantom Detective did not live in the world alone, nor could he completely carry on his crusade by himself. The crimefighter’s identity was known to one man. A friend of his father’s and a man influential in Richard Curtis Van Loan’s raising, Frank Havens was not only the powerful publisher of The Clarion, the city’s newspaper. He was also the only person who knew the Phantom Detective’s identity and he had also suggested Van Loan take on a case to solve that had the police baffled. Havens’ suggestion not only led his young charge to solve the case, but also to become The Phantom Detective!

 

The connection with Havens would also provide The Phantom Detective with a love interest and, in some stories, somewhat of a partner. Muriel Havens, Frank’s daughter, proved to be a capable ally and much more than a damsel in distress. Another character that Havens provides the connection for is tough guy and sometimes hardboiled Clarion reporter Steve Huston, who proved himself a hero as well in several stories.

 

By 1939, comic books had begun influencing Pulp magazine heroes to a degree and in the case of The Phantom Detective, this meant he acquired a sidekick, a teenaged boy named Chip Dorlan. Another ally that appeared several times was Jerry Lannigan, once Van Loan’s personal mechanic and pilot.

 

The Yacht Club Murders was originally published in the January 1939 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: The Yacht Club

Chapter 2: Murder — Wanted!

Chapter 3: Shots from the Dark

Chapter 4: Through the Transom

Chapter 5: Enter the Phantom

Chapter 6: The Getaway Scheme

Chapter 7: The Bat

Chapter 8: Death Sentence

Chapter 9: Corpse Cargo

Chapter 10: Icy Water

Chapter 11: Red-Headed Fury

Chapter 12: Chase in the Bay

Chapter 13: A Strange Message

Chapter 14: The Threat

Chapter 15: Makeup Magic

Chapter 16: “Joe Bartlett”

Chapter 17: The Hidden Safe

Chapter 18: Found — and Lost

Chapter 19: Water Hideout

Chapter 20: Turn of the Tide

Chapter 21: The Ruse

Chapter 22: Greed’s Victim