"Der Rote Finger!" the foreign spy gasped as he came face to face with America's top agent. Ford Duane, a mild mannered bookstore owner is, in truth, the dreaded Red Finger, top agent of P.A.T., hunter and destroyer of foreign spies. Carrying only a strange gas gun, foreign agents end up dead after they meet this nemesis. His black gloves have one oddity, the trigger finger is painted blood red, giving him the name foreign spies have come to recognize and fear-The Red Finger!
For the first time, all 12 stories by Arthur Leo Zagat from the back pages of Operator #5 are collected in one edition. And a newly-written story, "Obituaries are Final" by Tom Johnson-published here for the first time-puts closure on this classic series.
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By Michael Brown
Jan 5, 2011
Altus Press presents another great series of hero pulp stories. This one showcases a little known (I had never heard of this character) hero pulp character who had a series of 12 short stories in the back of Popular Publications' "Operator #5" pulps. Written by Arthur Leo Zagat, a lawyer turned pulp writer, they focus on the mysterious "Red Finger", a costumed counter-spy who operated in the mid-1930s US against various sinister foreign spies and saboteurs in pre-WWII America. While the counties these foreign spies worked for is never mentioned, its clear they are from Germany, Italy, and Japan, and a few others (one appeares to be Mexico). The Red Finger is really Ford Duane, an unassuming man running a little used bookstore. He gets mysterious coded messages from his boss, the unknown and unseen "T", and goes into action. The method of sending the messages change with each story. All use the code phrase of "P.A.T" as identification. He stops... More > the spy or saboteur, usually killing them, tho not always without danger to him. When in action as the Red Finger, he dresses in a gray hat, and a gray mask covering his lower face (nose and mouth), and wears black gloves with the trigger finger in blood red (hence his name). The agency he works for is never named. These are not glamourous stories like James Bond, but gritty urban adventures. As these are short stories (about 15 pages long) there are little distractions with any secondary characters. A female agent of the same org is introduced in one story, and appears in a couple of others. It appears that Ford has fallen for her (she is refered to as "Flower"). In addition to the 12 original stories, we get the original illustrations as well. Plus, we have a new story by Tom Johnson which sorts of wraps up the character and series, and a nice intro and author bio by Will Murray. I do have to take Johnson to task for his story. He makes the mistake of claiming that "P.A.T." identifies the Red Finger's boss. It doesn't. And make him a bit emotional in rescuing "Flower" from the bad guys, when he didn't act that way in prior stories featuring her.< Less
