Secret Agent X: The Torture Trust

The Secret Agent X novels were published in the pulp magazines of the same name which ran for 41 issues between 1934 and 1939. The stories were published under the house name Brant House but there were in fact several authors. The Torture Trust, written by Paul Chadwick, was the first to be published.

Secret Agent X is a typical pulp hero of the time, an amateur crime-fighter who conceals his real identity. He is in reality a war hero who was grievously wounded in the First World War.

He is a master of disguise. Disguise was an obsession with crime writers in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century. It was a somewhat over-used trope and almost always stretches credibility to the breaking point. The Secret Agent X stories push the use of this trope about as far as it could be pushed. To be fair the author tries to make the idea slightly more credible by explaining how the hero manages his extraordinary repertoire of disguises and suggests that he has some sort of theatrical background. The degree of suspension of disbelief required of the reader is still immense.

Agent X can assume his disguises in a matter of minutes, which stretches credibility even further.

As is fairly standard in pulp stories of this type Secret Agent X is regarded with suspicion by the police. They see him as either a master criminal or a vigilante and whichever he might be they don’t approve.

The author goes to great lengths to reassure the reader that despite his unconventional methods and the fact that these methods might at times veer dangerously close to being illegal or unethical he is very definitely one of the good guys. He has secret backing from the government, and of course the government would never be involved in anything illegal or unconstitutional.

As is also fairly standard in such pulp stories Secret Agent X tries very hard to avoid killing. After all if he went around killing people, even criminals, he’d be a kind of government sanctioned assassin or vigilante killer and that might get the publisher in trouble.

There is of course a vast criminal conspiracy afoot. A gang has been kidnapping prominent citizens and engaging in extortion and blackmail. They use terror as a weapon. If their victims refuse to play ball they are permanently disfigured with acid. This method is used against anyone who gets in their way. The acid treatment frequently has fatal results.

Agent X uses his mastery of disguise to infiltrate himself into situations in which he can discover the plans of this nefarious criminal organisation. He disguises himself as everything from a cab driver to a police commissioner.

He has a kind of assistant, a young lady named Betty Dale. There doesn’t seem to be any real romantic attachment between them. Betty’s purpose is of course to get herself captured by the bad guys so Secret Agent X can rescue her.

The villains are not ordinary criminals. A couple of them are doctors, including an expert in psychology. He knows all about breaking people’s wills. Sinister psychologists or psychologists are always fun. Naturally he employs hypnotism as a weapon.

The author uses footnotes to give an air of authenticity and in an attempt to make it plausible that Agent X is an expert in so many fields. I like novels with footnotes.

Secret Agent X has no super-powers, he doesn’t have almost superhuman strength and he doesn’t rely on gadgets. His skill at disguise is however so great that it’s as good as a superpower.

This is pure pulp fun, more or less in the mould of The Shadow, Doc Savage and other 30s pulp heroes. Highly recommended.