I hope everyone had as good a Christmas as I did today. All four of us were together, the food was plentiful and delicious, I even got a little work done early, and there was some top-notch reading material under the tree, among other things. It was a fine Christmas, and tonight I count myself among the luckiest of fellows.
Never trust a guy in a suit of armor, that's my motto. You don't hear much about the Phantom Detective anymore, but I've always liked this series ever since I started reading the Corinth paperback reprints 50 years ago. Generally good covers and some fine yarns by various authors. This particular story is by Laurence Donovan.
Years ago, I read the Phantom Detective novel from this issue in one of those little Hanos reprints from Greece that had the tiny print. I probably wouldn't even attempt to read print that small these days, but that wasn't exactly the Golden Age of Pulp Reprints back then so I was glad to get even the Hanos volumes. I've never forgotten that distinctive cover. As for the novel itself, it's by George A. McDonald, one of the better Phantom Detective authors, writing under the Robert Wallace house-name, and I don't recall anything about it except that I liked it. I've read a bunch of Phantom Detective novels over the years, some in reprints and some in the original pulps, and always enjoyed them.
