Davy Crockett's Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and The Wild West: Detective Fiction Weekly

Friday, June 8, 2018

Forgotten Books: THE LEGION OF THE LIVING DEAD by Carroll John Daly (1937)

In the novel Mr. Strang (discussed HERE), our Beatle-haired hero exterminated the rat running what he called the Parole Evil, a racket in which criminals with particular skills were parolled to commit specific crimes.

Now, two years later, there's a new rat leading the pack, and Mr. Strang finds his work is not yet done. Mr. Strang, as I mentioned in the earlier review, is the closest Daly came to creating a Hero Pulp character. Unlike Daly's other heroes Race Williams, Satan Hall and Vee Brown, Mr. Strang has a secret identidy. When not stalking the streets in search of evildoers, he is Strang Cummings, a mld-mannered antique dealer.

Who would ever guess that a mystery man would be dumb enough to use his first name as his crimefighting monicker? Just about nobody, apparently. Pretty clever, eh? To further mask his identity, he changes his appearance by scowling and allowing his eyes to burn like hellfire. Then there's his usual haircut. As Strang Cummings, no one seems to notice it, but in Mr. Strang mode, it produces a lot of comment. Ingenious.

In spite of all that, Mr. Strang is a pretty cool character, made cooler by a bullet lodged close to his brain, producing borderline insanity. His fighting legion is pretty cool, too. The Legion of the Living Dead is a gang of short-timers with incurable diseases. Knowing they'll soon be dead anyway, they're happy to lay down their lives in Mr. Strang's behalf, knowing he'll see their families taken care of.

This four-part serial, from the Apr 24, May 1, 8, and 15, 1937 issues of Detective Fiction Weelkly, was collected in a rare paperback (possibly digest?) edition, published in Canada by Popular Publications in 1947. I've never seen a copy, and know it exists because, thirty-odd years ago, someone sent me Xerox copy of the cover. (I've forgotten who, but thanks, whoever you were!)

As the story begins, Mr. Strang is shot and taken to a hospital, where - along with removing the new bullet - the doctor also removes the old one pressing on his brain. Back on his feet, Mr. Strang is no more, and Strang Cummings is now a sniveling coward. Meanwhile, the parole racket runs wild.

Well. It's obvious such conditions can not long endure, and sure enough, Cummings soon has another life-altering experience which restores the pressure on his brain. Like magic, Mr. Strang is back, and the underworld starts quaking in its boots.

Odds of you laying your hands on the original serial or the old Popular Pubs edtion are not good, but chances are very good that Matt Moring at Altus Press will soon be making the compete saga of Mr.. Strang available to us all. Are you listening, Matt? It's time for old Beatle-head to make a comeback!