Dr Death had made his first appearance a year earlier in the pulp magazine All Detective Magazine. He figured in four stories in that magazine. In 1935 All Detective Magazine was renamed Dr Death. Each issue would feature a Dr Death novel. The Gray Creatures was the second such novel, appearing in the March 1935 issue. In the event only three issues of the Doctor Death magazine were published although two further novels were written.
Dr Death is actually a brilliant but insane scientist, Rance Mandarin. He believes he has been chosen by the Almighty to restore the world to its proper order. This will require the destruction of modern civilisation. Dr Death’s first step was to be the assassination of the world’s top scientists. To Dr Death science is an evil that must be eradicated.
Jimmy Holm is the one man who may be able to stop Dr Death. Jimmy is a millionaire criminologist and a police detective whose speciality is cases involving the occult.
Dr Death’s chief assistant has been a beautiful young woman, Nina Ferrera. Nina turned against Dr Death and joined forces with Jimmy Holm. In fact they were to be married. Now Dr Death wants Nina back.
The most terrifying weapon in Dr Death’s arsenal is his ability to create zombies, or at least dead men brought back to life in a way that resembles zombies.
Dr Death’s latest target is a mysterious Egyptian named Harmachis. It appears that Dr Death thinks that Harmachis has access to the occult knowledge of Ancient Egypt.
Dr Death is now headed for Egypt to find a hidden tomb and Jimmy has to find a way to follow him without his presence being suspected. He also has to rescue Nina. Dr Death would never physically harm Nina. The worry is that he will manipulate her into serving evil purposes.
The voyage to that tomb in Egypt is by air, by yacht, by submarine and by truck. With lots of explosions and mayhem on the way.
There will be epic battles against supernatural forces.
There are monsters of various kinds. The monsters are genuinely weird and scary. There’s plenty of out-and-horror in this tale and it gets very creepy and grisly at times.
Of course there has to be a beautiful queen in such a story, and there is.
The action is relentless, the hazards are many and the body count is high. You are very unlikely to be bored by this novel.
Dr Death is an evil mad scientist rather than a sorcerer so while he appears to command supernatural forces some of those forces might in fact be scientifically created. There are however quite a few elements in the story that are difficult to explain away as anything other than supernatural.
The lines between the supernatural, the paranormal and the scientific are constantly blurred in this story which gives it a rather interesting flavour.
It’s also a story in which the evil genius has something more interesting in mind than a straightforward plan for world domination.
It’s all very pulpy and very exciting. This is great stuff and it’s a mystery to me that the Doctor Death magazine wasn’t a success. Dr Death: The Gray Creatures is highly recommended.
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