Book Review: The Spider #08: The Mad Horde edited by Rich Harvey
Quick recap: The Spider is a violent vigilante who battles master criminals in 1930s America. He is secretly wealthy amateur criminologist Richard Wentworth, who believes there are some criminals the police simply aren’t equipped to deal with. The Spider brands his kills with his red spider insignia so that others won’t be blamed. Despite his good intentions, the Spider’s methods make him just as much a criminal in the eyes of the law as those he battles!
This volume from the 2005 Bold Venture reprint series primarily reprints the May 1934 issue of The Spider pulp magazine, but leads off with an article from Writer’s Digest in which Norvell Page (who wrote Spider stories under the name “Grant Stockbridge”) describes his writing process. In particular, he discusses the background of the story “Dance of the Skeletons.”
Page learned that Dime Mystery Magazine had an upcoming hole for a story of a certain length. He read a couple of back issues to determine what kind of story the editor liked. Then he checked his files for gruesome bits that might spark an idea. Page found a note he’d made on a newsreel depiction of piranhas skeletonizing a pig, and he was off to the races. The article also briefly mentions the genesis of “The Mad Horde.”
That story begins with Richard Wentworth already hot on the trail in Ohio, disguised as Dr. Sven Gustaffson. He’s investigating the purchase of five thousand dogs from the New York City pound by a vivisectionist named Douglas Brent. That wasn’t illegal, so the police didn’t intervene, but Wentworth’s files revealed that Brent has a criminal record…and no signs of scientific training. Why would such a man need so many dogs?
The Spider gets his first clue when he intercepts a police call about an insane man in a nearby house. Beating the cops there, he learns that the man has already murdered his own children and is in the process of murdering his wife. The killer’s symptoms are clear–he’s in the grip of hydrophobia–rabies! The killer is driven off, and Dr. Gustaffson gets a few words from the woman, but then the police arrive and think he’s the killer. By the time the Spider is able to free himself, the woman is dead.
Fortunately, Wentworth’s chauffeur Ram Singh was parked nearby and saw which direction the fleeing killer went. They track the maniac to the castle-like home of steel magnate Berthold Healey. The Spider learns that the pursued man is Rusk, captain of Healey’s security guards. Rusk summons the last of his sanity to try to warn Healey of something, but a fit of homicidal mania forces the Spider to kill him.
It’s soon clear to the Spider that Brent, now known as the Horde Master, plans to use the dogs (as well as cats, rats and even a few wolves marked with skulls!) as a terror weapon. By unleashing a mob of rabid animals on a town, Brent would cause fear, madness and death. And the Horde Master’s price for not attacking is far too high to pay. Worse, Brent has also made sure to attack and destroy all known supplies of the cure, so that even the small number of people it could have saved are doomed!
The Spider, the faithful Ram Singh, Wentworth’s fiancee Nita Van Sloane, and Professor Brownlee are all that stand between America’s Midwest and the foaming madness of hydrophobia!
Norvell Page shows off a few paragraphs of his research to make the threat seem plausible, but has to invent a new strain of rabies with a much faster onset time and which always results in homicidal tendencies to make sure the story continues at the breakneck pace required by the pulps. The result is similar to the “fast zombies” of stories like 28 Days Later. Many, many people die, both infected and not.
As is often the case in Spider stories, the final reveal of who the Horde Master really is and where he’s been hiding is a bit of an anticlimax compared to the means with which he was disposed a chapter earlier.
There’s a touch of period racism in one section.
If you’re looking for an action-packed, horrific pulp story, this one fits the bill.
The magazine also had two back-up stories which are reprinted here. The first is “Death on Morris Street” by Arthur Leo Zagat, a Doc Turner story. Andrew “Doc” Turner is a pharmacist who has long run a drugstore in a neighborhood filled with immigrants. A trusted member of the community, Doc Turner often helps out when his customers are targeted by crime.
In this case, a young woman commits suicide in the drugstore’s phone booth. Lena Hammerschlag had gone missing a while back, along with a number of other girls from the neighborhood. She’s the third to show up again–dead! While the beat policeman is sympathetic, headquarters has no interest in investigating further the suicides of presumed prostitutes.
Doc Turner’s assistant in these matters, red-haired garage worker Jack Ransom, is called in, and sharp-eyed stock boy Abie finds a clue. It points to the Whileaway Dance Hall a few blocks away. Time to investigate!
There’s implied rape, and a demonstration of police assuming a rape victim is lying to get revenge on a man for regretted consensual sex.
Abie speaks in a vaudeville accent for comedy, which grates at the end as the mood should be somber.
“An Unfilled Grave” by Winston Bouvé is a tense tale of kidnapping. Senator Lonergan’s only grandchild has been kidnapped and held for ransom. Even after the ransom is paid, the kidnappers are still holding out for more money. But they’ve made one fatal slip, giving a clue to the town they’re hiding out near.
Political operative Link Haley arrives only to find the dairy farmer who’d sent in the clue dying, and giving what sounds like nonsensical final words. That is, until Sheriff “Pop” Nason prods Haley into realizing what those words really meant. Except that the family the clues point to can’t be the kidnappers–can they? Link will need to go undercover to find out!
This one has a happy ending.
Overall, this reprint has good value for money. It may take a little tracking down, as the reprint rights have switched to a different company that formats it differently.
