THE PHANTOM’S PHANTOM 
An Original Sequel to The Phantom Detective Series

by
Robert Reginald 

THE PHANTOM’S PHANTOM 

The waiter whipped out his right hand from behind his back, revealing a black, stub-nosed, .38-caliber revolver. Then he calmly, coldly, and methodically put six shots into the chest of Count Bâtonrompe. The body of the diplomat slumped over on top of me, the man’s ruby red fluids gushing forth from his wounds. I tried to extricate myself, but the inert mass of the nobleman prevented me from moving. The shooter could easily have killed me then and there, if that had been his intent. My head was still reeling from the loud bangs and the mixed odor of blood and gunpowder and the sheer horror of it all.

But Dastrie Lee Underhill just reached into her chic little handbag, pulled out a pearl-handled .22 pistol, quietly and quickly took aim, and plugged the murderer twice in the middle of his forehead. Only a few seconds had passed. The man teetered a moment, and then fell backwards into a platter of crab-and-shrimp pâté arrayed artistically on the adjoining table. The lady sitting there just looked down at the double-pierced skull of the assailant grinning up at her from her plate and started screaming her bloody lungs out. She wouldn’t stop yelling until someone finally hauled her away.

Then I realized I was still clutching the three-by-five-inch card the waiter had given me. I glanced down at it.

On one side, printed very neatly in embossed Times Roman serifs, was emblazoned the supposed identity of the sender or receiver:

“the phantom’s phantom.”

On the reverse, a message had been hand-lettered in all caps.

“i know who you are!” it proclaimed.

But who are you? I wondered. 

The time is 1953. The world has changed. Richard Curtis Van Loan has been forced to hang up his mask. But The Phantom Detective is drawn out of retirement by the sudden murder of his longtime friend, publisher Frank Havens; and must then face the greatest challenge in his long career, as he finds himself pursued and hounded by a vicious, unseen assailant, “The Phantom’s Phantom.” The hot, sunny hills of Southern California present a very different problem from the cold, dark-edged streets of the Big Apple. As the bodies begin piling up, Van Loan is driven to the very limit of his resources.

Who is The Phantom’s Phantom?

WILDSIDE PRESS

Link to Purchase below
www.wildsidepress.com

ISBN 0-8095-6217-0

 March 2007 ¨ 124 pages ¨ 6 x 9 trade paperback ¨ $15. 00

Reviews

ROBERT REGINALD