Mon 15 Sep 2025
Diary Pulp Magazine Review: DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE, December 1940.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Magazines[7] Comments
DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE – December 1940. Overall rating: *
FRANK JOHNSON {Norman Daniels] “The Crimson Mask’s Death Gamble.” Novel. The Crimson Mask, in reality pharmacist Bob Clarke, fighting evil the way no police can do, takes on a case that could only happen only during a depression, when jobs are precious and hard to come by. An employment agency collects $50 for sending applicants to tough manual-labor jobs where foremen drive them to quitting, thus forfeiting the $50. In the days when the pay was $21 a week, this would be quite a racket. The Mask’s girl friend has the most intelligence of anybody running around. (1)
CYRIL PLUNKETT “To Hell with Death,” A murderer drives his victim around in a car with carbon monoxide coming from the engine and a lawman in the back seat. Suspense. (1)
ALLAN K. ECHOLS “Dollars to Doughnuts.” An honest man in the hard-hit wartime docks resists temptation. (3)
JOHN L. BENTON [Norman Daniels] “The Fifth Column Murders.” Novel. Patriotism, a strong motivation in the days just before World War II, against the scummy war of infiltration and sabotage. The Candid Camera Kid, news photographer Jerry Wade, stops a gang bent on destroying America’s defenses. Why must the clues by hidden from the reader? (1)
ROBERT LESLIE BELLEM “Agents of Doom.” Mixed up story of blackmail used to destroy bombers headed for Canada. (0)
September 16th, 2025 at 5:33 am
I know I’ve read some of Norman Daniels’ work, but with the exception of a couple of Black Bat novels I can’t remember what they were. This may not be solely my fault: he used about thirty pseudonyms writing for the pulps.
Robert Leslie Bellam was best known for Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective. He was ultra prolific and supposedly wrote over 3000 stories for the pulps, as well as his work in television and for the comics. Another one I’ve read but can’t remember a single story.
Plunkett and Echols were both also busy pulpsters. I don’t know if I’ve read anything about them.
From your description this issue seems to be the epitome of many pulps: fill the pages with something and full speed ahead.
September 16th, 2025 at 9:34 am
There are a lot of positive things you can say about the quality of pulp writing, but I think your last paragraph sums up the large percentage of it. Based on the name recognition most pulp collectors should have for the writers in this issue, it should have been a better one, but sadly, I don’t think it was.
PS. I did not know Norman Daniels wrote both lead novels this time around (and quite possibly he was for the magazine’s entire run) until yesterday, when I posted this. He wasn’t the best pulp writer around, but wow, he was around a lot!
September 16th, 2025 at 11:15 am
I’ve read maybe half a dozen of the Candid Camera Kid stories and really liked them. They’re probably my favorites of Daniels’ pulp work I’ve read. But there are bound to have been some duds among them. The Crimson Mask … ehhh. Never was fond of that character. Daniels was one of those writers who seldom turned out a bad story, but his work also seldom rose above the level of pretty good. However, he wrote the first tie-in novel for the TV series The Rat Patrol, which 13-year-old me will always love.
September 16th, 2025 at 11:58 am
Thanks, James, for sticking up for Norman Daniels and the stories he did for the pulps. I was hoping someone would. What I’ve read from him the most, though, were the paperbacks he did after the pulps died out, including a couple of Gothics he’s said to have written under his wife’s name, Dorothy Daniels. They were actually rather good. They’d have to have been. He probably wrote a hundred of them, maybe more. Besides mysteries and spy fiction, he wrote quite a few westerns and TV tie-in’s, such as THE RAT PATROL.
I don’t think he wrote much in the way of science fiction, though, but he might have, back in his pulp-writing days. I like what you said about him: “Daniels was one of those writers who seldom turned out a bad story, but his work also seldom rose above the level of pretty good.”
Good enough to make his living at it, for a long long time.
September 16th, 2025 at 7:57 pm
Daniels had a bit of success during the Spy craze with Pyramids Man from A.P.E. series that was better than its title suggests. I’ve never read the Crimson Kid, but I liked the Candid Camera Kid. His Rat Patrol books were among the better TV novelizations.
Have to agree though he seldom, if ever, soared. He was usually good, sometimes very good, but never rose above that.
September 16th, 2025 at 11:40 pm
Norman Daniels was also the principle writer of the Black Bat series in Black Book Detective. I liked those quite a lot.
September 16th, 2025 at 11:54 pm
Quite right. Daniels must have worn out several typewriters during his lifetime. For some reason, I do not believe I ever read a Black Bat story. I’m probably too old now.