Six Scarlet Scorpions -- Kenneth Robeson (Will Murray)

With Six Scarlet Scorpions (try saying that six times fast) Will Murray begins "The Wild Adventures of Pat Savage," Doc Savage's cousin and a fan favorite from her appearances in Doc's own adventures.

In her opening adventure (based, as I understand it, on an outline Lester Dent did for an unpublished adventure novel), Pat, who wants to get rich, is in Oklahoma with the purpose of buying oil leases.  Her partner in this venture is Monk Mayfair, and they're not in Oklahoma long before they're in a plane crash, which is the least of their worries as they're soon tangled in the machinations of the Scarlet Scorpion, a hooded villain who's out to take over the state by means of extorting money to provide the cure to a mysterious paralyzing disease that he's causing.  

Pat and Monk are framed for the murder of a cop, so they're being chased all over Oklahoma by the good guys and the bad guys, and sometimes it becomes hard to tell just who's one and who's the other, with the mysterious Scarlet Scorpion always floating in the background.

This book reminded me a lot of the old movie serials with its hooded villain and its many cliffhangers.  Lots of gunplay and explosions and huge fires and escapes and pursuits, just the kind of thing to liven up a Saturday afternoon, or any afternoon, for that matter.  Pat Savage is more than up to the job of holding her own in any situation, even though she doesn't have the abilities of her famous cousin.  This new series is off to a humdinger of a start.