Secret Agent X: The Man of a Thousand Faces

# Catalog Note

This October 1934 pulp magazine features a complete book-length novel, Octopus of Crime by Brant House, depicting Secret Agent "X" infiltrating the Union Bank & Safe Deposit Company to investigate a series of nation-wide, professionally executed crimes he suspects are coordinated by a single criminal mastermind. As Agent "X" examines the bank's safe-deposit vaults, masked bandits break in using a sophisticated experimental torch that cuts through the time-lock's molybdenum steel. Agent "X" attempts escape but is gunned down by a silenced sub-machine gun—the first such weapon he has encountered. The issue also includes "The Secret Council" (Behind the scenes with Agent "X"), "The Murder Masterpiece" by G.T. Fleming-Roberts involving a disturbing bronze sculpture, "Considine Laughs" by Emile C. Tepperman about four men living in mutual distrust for sixteen years, "Ink's Jinx" by Anthony Clemens, and a bonus feature on Brant House by Will Murray.