Murder on Wheels
"Murder on Wheels" is the 13th pulp magazine story to feature The Avenger. Written by Paul Ernst, it was published in the November 1, 1940 issue of "The Avenger” magazine.
Publishing history
This novel was re-published under its original title by Paperback Library on June 1, 1973.
Summary
Two criminal plots develop side-by-side: 1) theft of the indestructible Marr-Car, and of Phineas Jackson's process for steel-hardening; 2) ongoing sabotage and blackmail at the Marr plant. An auto manufacturer, Ormsdale, wants control of the process, steals the super car and pursues Jackson. Marr is being harassed by Cole Wilson, adoptive son of Jackson, to get millions for Jackson for his process (Jackson doesn't actually want more money). Wilson, an idealist who always fights for underdogs, is Benson-like: strong, intelligent, fast, handsome, resourceful. While in face-molded disguise at the Marr plant, Benson is attacked, trapped and nearly (accidentally?) killed in the metal-hardening chamber; the radiation restores his face, skin, hair. Wilson, in Benson's usual role, has anticipated the criminals, saves the Justice Inc. team from a fiery death, traps the escaping criminals inside the Marr-Car. The Justice Inc. team, impressed, invites Wilson to join the team.
Notes
- The rather confused plot and continuity inconsistencies may reflect extensive re-writes to significantly change the series direction.
- Introduces engineer Cole Wilson, oddly similar to Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar aka. The Saint.
- The Marr-Car has aspects of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car.
- Smitty is a "good contortionist."
- Benson is an honorary member of the United States Secret Service.
- Benson had met "hundreds of men in all walks of life".
- Benson is "very young".
- Benson can "see a little in the dark, like a feral animal".
- Like Doc Savage, Benson has memorized maps, carries a silk line and grapple around his waist.
- Cured of facial paralysis, Benson is "an entirely different person" that blends his original self and "that cold machine for fighting crime"; he has "an amazing youthful and handsome countenance" subject to "iron self-control."
- Curiously unexplained: Benson's fight in the Marr plant with a mysterious man who is nearly his physical equal; this man traps Benson, then rescues him before he is killed. The man seems to have been Cole Wilson: the next novel, Three Gold Crowns, states that Wilson "had almost beaten the Avenger himself”. Wilson had been non-violent in his harassment of Marr; perhaps the near death of Benson was an accident.
