The Miracle Menace -- Will Murray

Will Murray's new Doc Savage novels are billed as "The All- New Wild Adventures of Doc Savage."  I don't think they can get much wilder than this.  There are actually two stories, one of them featuring a stage magician who's hiding out in La Plata Missouri while holding out for more money.  The other story is about Doc and the gang as they investigate a mysterious house in the woods near La Plata.  The house has an annoying habit of disappearing and then returning to the same spot it left.  As you might suspect, the two stories converge and become one in the latter part of the novel.

According to Murray, the first story was entirely written by Lester Dent, but it was never published.  So Murray figured out a way to combine it with a Doc novel.  The style is certainly pure Dent, though that's no proof, since Murray himself is an expert at writing in that style, as he proves in his half of the novel.

How wild is this adventure?  Well, besides the disappearing house, it involves ESP, a strange religious cult, a murderous midget, and Christopher Columbus.  Yes, that Christopher Columbus.  In the 20th century.  I thought that was appropriate, since purely by chance I started reading this book on Columbus Day, a holiday that was just introduced at the time in which the novel is set.  The less said about the plot, the better, but it's even wilder than you might think.

If you like Lester Dent and Doc, as I do, you'll want to be the first on your block to own this one. It's a lot of fun.