This is an omnibus edition -- the third of Carroll & Graf's eight reprint editions from 1992 -- collecting two unconnected Spider novels: "Death's Crimson Juggernaut" (originally published in November 1934) and "The Red Death Rain" (originally published in December 1934). Oddly, the cover art is from a third Spider novel ("The Council of Evil"), which I'd really like to read because goons in gas masks are always cool.

"Death's Crimson Juggernaut" involves some pretty edgy, brutal villains ("The Torture Trust") who crucify and torture their victims before killing them. I was actually a little surprised that the murders were so violent. There's a nice climactic scene on a sinking cruise ship. As with most of the Spider's foes, the crimes are committed by unscrupulous businessmen willing to commit mass murder to make a quick buck.

"The Red Death Rain" involves a plot that proves that smoking really *does* kill. Tobacco is being chemically poisoned and because it's the 1930s, everyone smokes. And dies. Lots and lots of people die. The plot was cooked up my an evil Oriental mastermind.

SPOILER ALERT:

The climax in the mandarin's lair is really, really good. It involves a threat to Nita van Sloan (the Spider's fiancee) involving a lecherous orangutan. This beast -- shockingly -- ends up raping and killing the evil female Chinese seductress who was working with the mandarin. This was probably the best Spider story thus far, probably because of the outre plot.

As with the first two omnibus editions, I highly recommend this one. In fact, these were two of the strongest Spider novels I've read thus far. Both novels included here were fun reads with good plots that made sense and absolute brutal action scenes.

Review copyright 2009 J. Andrew Byers ( )