Cannibal Isle - Albert Richard Wetjen

“Cannibal Isle” (ACTION STORIES, June 1941) is the sixth and apparently final story in the Stinger Seave series, and oddly enough, it takes place earlier in the Stinger’s career than any of the others. The story begins by filling in the history of Seave’s first meeting with Big Bill Gunther, who becomes his best friend and occasional first mate despite captaining a South Seas trading ship of his own at times. This part of the story is an action-packed account of the mutiny that brought Seave and Gunther together for the first time.

The remainder of the tale focuses on Seave’s attempt to rescue Gunther when the man is taken prisoner on an island full of cannibals. There’s some action in this part, as well, but for the most part it’s more a matter of author Albert Richard Wetjen building suspense very effectively.

This is a very good story, but it’s kind of a letdown, anyway, since it’s the last one and Wetjen leaves so many of the tales he hinted at in the course of the series untold. There’s an epic adventure novel to be written about Stinger Seave. Unfortunately, we won’t get to read it. Wetjen continued to write for ACTION STORIES for a couple of years after this, so I have to wonder if the editor, Malcolm Reiss, told him to lay off with the Stinger stories or if he was just tired of writing about the character. I suspect we’ll never know the answer to that. Ultimately, the Stinger Seave series promises more than it delivers, but I enjoyed reading the stories and think it was time well-spent, especially since they can all be found on-line.