Kenneth Robeson books

The Avenger #33: The Blood Countess (1975)

Death in Slow Motion (1973)

The Man of Bronze (1975)

Doc Savage- Man of BronzetHow delightful. Spoiler alerts near the end…tThe Doc Savage (dozens and dozens of) adventures were published in the 30’s and 40’s in pulp fiction magazines. I had the great privilege to devour them when they were re-issued in the 70s as short novels. How my single mother...

The Blood Ring (1972)

An ancient Egyptian ring, pale red until dipped in living blood. Then its 600-year-old cure is renewed and a great museum becomes a killing ground. Can The Avenger stop the curse, or will he become its final victim?In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of person...

The Avenger 36 - Demon Island

It was a few minutes after ten in the morning; the fog was lifting. The bright sunlight hit Jepson’s sprawled body, made his bloody white shirt glow.     “Jepson!” cried Tucker. He had been walking along the gritty beach. He was about fifty feet from Jepson’s body when he saw ...

The Avenger 9 - Tuned for Murder

In the world of letters and biology, Sessel’s was a shining name. But as a tap dancer he wasn’t known. That was natural because he had never even tried to tap dance before.     He tried it now in the center of the general office with gaping clerks and scared stenographers watc...

The Avenger 30 - Black Chariots

He wandered to the windows of the Justice, Inc., office. Spring had reached Manhattan, and the street below was bright with warm morning sunshine. The short block was called Bleek Street. It was all owned, though very few people knew this, by the Avenger.     Putting his hands...

The Avenger 6 - The Blood Ring

All reports on Snead, Shaw, Blessing and Marlowe had given them shining reputations. Only Shaw had a questionable spot. He was a little ruthless in his acquisition of Egyptiana. Most collectors tie a can to ordinary ethics and emotions when they go after coveted objects. But Shaw was apparently m...

The Avenger 21 - The Happy Killers

He’d gone like the wind to the great home from which Josh furtively reported. Josh had had the devil of a time keeping him in sight. Brown’s stop in Xenan’s gravel driveway was so abrupt that the tires of his car had slid a dozen yards.     Josh left his car half a block down ...

The Avenger 23 - The Wilder Curse

“Hey!” he said. “What’s the idea?”     “Why did ye run out on us at the garage?” Mac snapped, bitter blue eyes blazing. “Why didn’t ye get in touch with the police in ten minutes? Why—”     “I’ll explain if you’ll give me a chance,” said Beck.   &...

The Avenger 7 - Stockholders in Death

One reason why The Avenger had walked into headquarters with so little of his usual superhuman awareness of danger, was that the place had been left in the reliable hands of Josh Newton.     Wayne shouldn’t have been alone there, to use his own discretion about whether or not ...

The Avenger 16 - The Hate Master

But she hadn’t.     A man walks along a city street, we’ll say. That man gets to a certain spot, and then just vanishes into thin air. How would you trace him?     That was Lila’s problem.     In the twenty hours that had passed since he...

The Avenger 14 - Three Gold Crowns

under a doorbell. How could you collect the rent from Death? What would you confront if you rang the bell—and the door beside it was opened?     No, you can’t have Death on your tenants’ list. But just the same, the name under the bell beside that particular door should have b...

The Avenger 8 - The Glass Mountain

That was partly because of his name, and partly because he had that kind of eyes. They stuck out a little, were far apart in his rather narrow face, didn’t ever seem to blink, and had a glazed look.     Joe Bass dressed in overalls that were ninety percent patches faded to all...

Doc Savage: The Secret of Satan's Spine (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage Book 15)

Down what felt like a ramp that corkscrewed, although it was also reminiscent of the winding steel staircases found on large ships throughout the world. In this case, of course, there were no steps, and the ramp was broader and as smooth as asphalt.Walking deeper into the innards of the earth mad...

The Avenger 24 - Midnight Murder

“At least we’ll dispose of these,” he said. “I have some of the . . . er . . . pacifier with me that we were going to use on Wight, if we found that he had the detector here with him so that we no longer needed him alive.”     “Excellent,” said Gerry puffing lightly at the lon...

The Avenger 4 - The Devil’s Horns

The most perfect of plans can be knocked out of line by some small bit of bad luck that the most brilliant person could not have foreseen. This was a case in point.     The Avenger had schemed brilliantly and perfectly to get Smitty out of trouble. He had marvelously played th...

The Avenger 19 - Pictures of Death

“The guy was crazy,” Smitty concluded.     Nellie said nothing. She just looked thoughtful.     “He must have been,” said Smitty. “There’s no other way to explain it. He wants us to get a picture and take it to the chief to see if he wants to buy it. Then, ...

The Avenger 29 - The Nightwitch Devil

Using a pellet of truth gas, which he broke beneath the gunman’s nose, the Avenger put him into a half-awake state.     He slumped in the sprung old sofa chair he was sitting in, eyes half closing. His crease wound had been treated, and there was a cross-hatch of bandages on h...

The Avenger 10 - The Smiling Dogs

Twelve minutes later, at twenty-eight minutes to eleven, a man got a phone call.     The man was a hard-working young fellow who had just opened an office as sales representative of a New York toy firm. He had two tiny rooms. One was the office part. The other was the sample r...

The Avenger 17 - Nevlo

The drugstore on Sixth Avenue looked like any other drugstore on Sixth Avenue. Or any other avenue. That is, it looked that way from the front.     There were counters behind which were all the thousand and one items carried by modern drugstores. There was a prescription count...

The Avenger 20 - The Green Killer

She meant to stay there as a lookout while Smitty investigated the boat.     She didn’t want to stay. She wanted to be in with the big fellow. The tiny blonde, seemingly so fragile in her soft pink-and-whiteness, thrived on action that would have turned an average policeman’s ...

The Avenger 2 - The Yellow Hoard

This particular section, this evening, was not.     There was a bank on the corner, several haberdashery and clothing stores that were open but without customers at the dinner hour, and then some apartment buildings. Only a handful of passers-by were on the sidewalk.  &nb...

The Avenger 35 - The Iron Skull

Smitty roared.     It was two men who’d jumped him as he’d stepped into the old warehouse. Big men, flesh and blood, and not robots. They were both using blackjacks.     Roaring again, Smitty ducked a nasty swing by one of the blackjacks.    ...

The Avenger 3 - The Sky Walker

In a city like Chicago there are many office buildings that, in their way, could be called “tenements” just as many apartment dwelling places are tenements. There are office building in neglected neighborhoods, old and shabby and dingy, waiting to be torn down and meanwhile, rented for whatever t...

Doc Savage: Glare of the Gorgon (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage Book 19)

But his Neapolitan parents had immigrated to America before he was born. When he came squawling into the world, Giuseppe Athalentia Shinola had done so in the city of Chicago. That, conceivably, had made all the difference.His childhood was not remarkable. He had got into no more trouble than any...

The Avenger 13 - Murder on Wheels

I thought you were in New York.”     “I was,” shrugged Nellie. “After I told you over the phone that Will Willis had boarded a westbound train, the chief radioed that he’d seen Willis here in Detroit. So I took a plane and here I am.”     “Too bad,” rumbled...

Doc Savage: Phantom Lagoon (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage)

The blonde hesitated at first, seemed to shrink from the sight of the gorilla-like chemist, but finally accepted the offered paw. Setting the thin-nosed woman on her feet, Monk demanded hoarsely, “Where did you come from?”They all saw that she had two perfectly formed legs with matching feet, and...

Doc Savage: The Ice Genius (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage Book 12)

Seizing the reins, he heeled the horse in the direction of General Chinua and the pony across which Johnny Littlejohn was strapped. The archeologist hung in his ropes like a careless daddy longlegs spider caught in his own web.The bronze man’s thinking was simple. His fighting men could fend for ...

The Avenger 12 - The Flame Breathers

In Bleek Street headquarters there were two. But one of them was for very local reception, indeed. Its activity was confined to the building housing Justice, Inc.     There was a large screen on the front of the cabinet, as on the other one. But this screen was active all the ...

The Avenger 33 - The Blood Countess

Rain, in fat, heavy drops, began pouring down out of the night sky.     “Very appropriate weather for a visit to a haunted castle,” observed Cole as he turned up his collar and ran across the courtyard to the front stairs of the Pedra Negra castle.     Safe...

The Avenger 32 - The Death Machine

“I must say this isn’t a very impressive example of California hospitality, sir.”     “No need to fence with me, Wilson. I am well aware of who you are, the both of you. I’ve studied dossiers on you both.”     “You wouldn’t settle for the explanation that M...

The Avenger 15 - House of Death

She was an extraordinarily beautiful girl.     Her hair was raven-black, but with lustrous highlights in it like the burnished feathers of a blackbird’s wing. It was rolled at the sides, presenting a look not unlike that of a coronet on her head. And, indeed, she was of the st...

The Avenger 11 - River of Ice

Even of Wittwar and his fellow directors of the Foundation. She hadn’t told even them where she was staying in New York. Her address wasn’t on record anywhere at all. Therefore, it took The Avenger over an hour to locate her hotel, and another twenty minutes to get to it. And by then he was too l...

The Avenger 34 - The Glass Man

Nellie Gray came dashing out of the bathroom, a hotel towel wrapped around her. “Yes?” she said after scooping up the receiver.     “Where’s your cronie?” asked a hoarse voice.     “Is that you, Mr. Pike?”     “It ain’t Gypsy Rose Lee,” ...

The Avenger 1 - Justice, Inc.

CHAPTER IV Benson’s Ally His name was Fergus MacMurdie. He was over six feet, and had coarse red hair and bitter blue eyes and hands that doubled into fists like bone clubs. His feet were the biggest Benson had ever seen, and they made the bony legs above them look even bonier.    ...

The Avenger 22 - The Black Death

The three things were a building, a car parked in front of the building, and a man. The man’s destination, from the course he was following, might have been the building.     They seemed perfectly normal and ordinary, but they were not normal at all.     Th...

The Avenger 31 - The Cartoon Crimes

“Guess I’ll head for my own spread,” he said to the living room in general. He turned his freckled head toward Gil. “You sure you don’t want me to hang around?”     Jeanne spoke first. “Gil’s going to spend the night resting, not drawing.”     Gil shrugged ...

The Avenger 5 - The Frosted Death

There wasn’t a police chief in the United States who didn’t know of him.     But here in New York, where The Avenger had his headquarters, every cop on the force knew about him, from the greenest rookie up. That was why the homicide man had called Benson, without question, a f...

The Avenger 18 - Death in Slow Motion

To the eye, it might have looked as though they almost disliked each other. The little blond grenade was always ribbing the big fellow, and he was always snapping back.     But the rest of The Avenger’s little band had noticed long since that if little Nellie got into a jam, b...