A Few More L Ron Hubbard China-set Pulps
Posted: October 27th, 2013 | No Comments »After my previous post on L Ron Hubbard’s Spy Killer, set in Shanghai and Kalgan, a few more in the Stories From the Golden Age series that also take place in China….
China’s City of Tientsin is under siege: its Native Quarter is half in flames and the dead are piling up in its gutters. Worse, the Chinese inhabitants are sure the entire city will fall after their sacred idol—the Green God—also goes missing.
But when Lieutenant Bill Mahone of Naval Intelligence receives an inside tip on the idol’s whereabouts, he becomes convinced the idol is hidden in the grave of one General Tao, and that unless the sacred idol is found and returned to its temple sanctuary soon, the colossal reign of terror will not end.
Yet what seems like a straightforward undercover mission to steal back the idol turns out to be far more than Mahone can handle when he is met by Chinese officers who want nothing more that to send him to join the ranks of General Tao Lo, eight feet underground!
Flame-haired Michael Stuart’s career as an officer in the US Marine Corps abruptly ended after a failed attempt to return the Chinese Imperial Dynasty to power in 1930s Asia. Abandoned by his country, he’s unable to find safe passage out of China by land or sea.
Now Stuart, also known as the “The Red Dragon,” has a new occupation; he intervenes in matters for the good of the people. Despite the danger, Stuart agrees to help a beautiful young woman search for a mysterious black chest which her father hid in Manchuria before his murder. Their quest takes them from Peking north to the Great Wall of China and beyond. With enemies coming at him from every corner, Stuart finds he’s playing a most deadly game of hide-and-seek.
The Japanese have led a heavily armored assault against the Chinese city of Shunkien. One of the few buildings still standing is the small American consulate, now packed with frightened American refugees. Food is low and deadly Asiatic cholera is starting to run rampant.
Two hundred miles away, the USS Miami drops anchor, but the dilemma is that should the Marines take military action to rush supplies to the consulate, it could force the US into an all-out ill-advised battle with the Japanese–what amounts to an act of war.
Marine Gunnery Sergeant James Mitchell and Private First Class Spivits instead are ordered to conduct a treacherous supply mission facing impossible odds–reach the trapped Americans caught in the crossfire of the invading Japanese forces.
Bat Conroy of World Press is the best news correspondent covering the Japanese invasion of China. But now it’s his legendary reputation of getting the story first that’s under serious attack. No matter how fast he files his war pieces, Bat ends up being scooped by Perry Lane of International Service, a reporter he’s never seen near the fighting (or anywhere, for that matter).
When the biggest story of the war comes Bat’s way, he’s given an ultimatum: outwit Lane and somehow get his story in first or be blackballed from ever working as a reporter again. Before his boss can fire him, Bat sets out to track down his enterprising competitor, little knowing that the real identity of the mysterious newshound is uncomfortably close to home!
Most copies of The Travels of Marco Polo leave out a great deal and are difficult to decipher. Yet when one original manuscript lands in the hands of Lieutenant Jonathan Daly, he’s able to translate the tale well enough to discover the trail to a chest of fabulous red stones buried with the long-dead Emperor of China, Kubla Kahn. An offering to the gods to light the leader’s way to heaven, the glittering stones are worth several million dollars, as they are diamonds.
Recently recovered from a bout of malaria and two bullet holes collected in war-ravaged Gran Chaco, Lieutenant Daly sets out on his treasure travels, ignoring warnings from friends and doctors. He follows Marco Polo’s words straight into a dark maze of betrayal, espionage and death—with more riding on each precious line of text than he ever imagined.
In a tale played out during the last days of pre-World War II China and the rise of Communism, Jim Dahlgren, representative of the Amalgamated Aeronautical Company, has had enough of the fatalistic brand of diplomacy from other nations that claim to want a united China, one that can resist invasion from without and treason within—but which refuses to intervene and prevent it’s demise.
And the damage is just too costly when lives are at stake, especially when a villain known as “The Butcher” is allowed to rise up with fire and sword carving the way on his warpath for complete control of the nation.
When Dahlgren disappears—purportedly to find a mysterious aviator, the man called “Wind-Gone-Mad” who has always fought against the province warlords—he ignites a series of actions which just may spell disaster.
He lies in wait: a man hunted by many, feared by all and controlled by none . . . if, indeed, he is a man at all. Meet The Devil—With Wings. From Shanghai to Vladivostok, the mere sight of this black-garbed white creature has caused heart failure among the soldiers of the Rising Sun.
Now the brooding specter who stalks the borders and skies of 1930s China has launched a personal invasion against the Japanese. Yet standing in his way is a beautiful and vengeful young woman who believes The Devil murdered her brother. Not only must this solitary avenger clear his name, he must get the woman out of the country alive—if only he can stop her from killing him first.
China’s war ace, a fighter pilot nicknamed “The Falcon Killer (Tzun Kai),” is actually Bill Gaylord, raised in Peking by his American parents. Gaylord lost both of them as a child during the violent Boxer uprising and then saw his foster family slaughtered in wartime. With a past that’s hardened his soul and given him nerves of steel, Gaylord has used his resolve to down more Japanese aircraft than can be counted.
When he’s not hunting down enemy planes, intrigue constantly follows him—stars of Tzun’s rogues gallery include an agent provocateur and a despotic Chinese warlord. Soon enough, events pit Gaylord against a Japanese spy who has caused untold trouble for the Chinese. Gaylord must somehow find and defeat him or risk losing an ancient Chinese kingdom to the land of the rising sun.
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