ROBERT WALLACE – The Corpse Parade. The Phantom Detective. First published in magazine form, December 1937. Reprinted as a paperback by Regency / Corinth in 1966.

   A series of evil murders stalks the streets of New York City. The victims are all connected with the automotive and trucking industries, the bodies found with amputated arms, being dragged behind ambulances, fire trucks and buses. Richard Van Loon, alias the Phantom Detective, answers a summons from publisher Frank Havens to find the secret behind the sinister threat posed by the ring of bloody killers.

   The cover [of the paperback] reveals how the arms [of the victims] come to be missing – not the work of the giant Ethiopian’s scimitar, but of a fantastic guillotine. The explanation is better than the story itself, which with its mistakes and flaws, never getting interesting in spite of the furious action.

Rating: *