Sexton Blake Bibliography: 1954

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Notes: Rocco Flint is the main suspect after a £50,000 jewel robbery but his whereabouts are unknown. Sexton Blake wants to talk with one of Flint's former henchmen — a man known as 'Fingers' Olson — but as he approaches, Olson is shot and wounded by an unseen assailant. Blake is able to identify the gunman as a man named Carusoni, who is aboard a passing train to Manchester. The detective, with Tinker, flies north to meet the train and captures Carusoni, who proves to be a disguised Rocco Flint.

Trivia: This strip was reprinted in KNOCKOUT ANNUAL 1960.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

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Notes: A rich explorer named Colonel Merton is one night attacked by a disembodied hand. When he recovers his senses, he finds that his treasures have been stolen. He calls Sexton Blake. Without explanation, the detective drives the Colonel to a nearby circus where he asks for Pedro Silva. Silva sees them approaching and flees. Blake gives chase but when he enters a shadowy area the disembodied hand appears and grabs him by the throat. The detective reaches forward and yanks at something. Silva stumbles forward ... the hand is attached to the end of his whip! A search of his caravan reveals the stolen items.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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Notes: Professor Brand, a famous geologist, sends for Sexton Blake after his earthquake detector picks up three seismic events that no-one seems to have noticed. Blake deduces that the professor's house has been mysteriously shaken three times. The detective hires a local fisherman's boat and rows it into a cave beneath the house. Here he finds evidence of three impacts on the clay wall. That night, having worked out that conditions indicate that another 'earthquake' might be due, Blake rows back to the cave in another boat. He finds that the fisherman has left floating lights around the entrance. The detective drags them to a new position near the fisherman's hut. Some time later, a vessel fires a torpedo that destroys the hut. Blake finds, inside the dummy torpedo, a shipment of smuggled goods. Such shipments had, on previous nights, been fired into the cave to be picked up by the fisherman.

Trivia: This strip was reprinted in KNOCKOUT ANNUAL 1960.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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Notes: Racing motorist Mike Sterling is driving home one night when he narrowly avoids a head-on collision with a car travelling on the wrong side of the road. A few days later he receives a sketch of the car on which is noted the words: The Phantom will drive again. He takes this to Sexton Blake who believes that someone is trying to unnerve Sterling in the lead up to a big race. That night, Blake, Tinker and Sterling drive to the scene of the incident. A car overtakes them and they later find it crashed. The driver reports that he was run off the road by a ghost car. Some days later, after another note is received, the men once again drive along the route and this time find themselves heading for a collision with the phantom car. Blake drives straight at it and it seems to vanish. Stopping, the detective finds a thin filmy substance across the front of his vehicle. When a shadowy figure is spotted nearby, Pedro gives chase and catches him. The man confesses that a rival racing firm had hired him. Blake explains how the trick of the phantom car was done.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are in the office of Sir John Chesworth when they encounter Professor Pawson, who's in charge of rocket research. The professor has been accused of miscalculations, leading to the loss of a number of projectiles. Furthermore, as Sir John explains, secret atomic information is being leaked to a foreign power. Pawson takes the detective to the rocket range on the Scottish coast, where test rockets are fired out to sea. While Blake examines a launch pad, the professor's assistants plan to fire the rocket, killing him in an apparent 'accident'. Tinker overhears this and warns his guv'nor. Documents are found on the two men and Blake realises that they have been concealing secrets in the rockets which are being picked up at sea by foreign agents. The detective sets a trap for the villains and they are captured... clearing Professor Pawson of suspicion.

Trivia: This strip was reprinted in KNOCKOUT ANNUAL 1960.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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Notes: Captain Rigby calls Sexton Blake and Tinker to his cliff-top house and reports that a phantom has been warning him to leave. He tells a story of his war years when the face of his dead brother — who had died in a diving accident — had appeared to him and caused him to steer his ship away from what would have been a fatal collision. Now that face — clad in a diving helmet — has been appearing again. As Rigby finishes his tale, Tinker is shocked to see the phantom diver at the window. It vanishes and Blake starts to investigate. He notices that all the fish in Rigby's pond are dead and discovers that the water is heavily salted. He then finds a trail of white powder leading into the house and to the pantry, which contains salt blocks, a cylinder of hydrogen gas and a box of large balloons. Piecing together these dispirit clues, Blake is able to reproduce the apparition and expose the cunning mind behind it.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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Notes: Sexton Blake, Tinker and Pedro travel to the west country to meet with Anna Tremayne. She explains that her uncle Reuben, who was a hermit, had died and left her a fortune. However, she has found no trace of his rumoured treasure. Anna has also seen mysterious figures lurking around the cave where her relative had lived. As the detectives investigate near the cave, a helicopter lands on the beach and gun-toting thugs disembark. Blake takes pebbles, which he finds in the hermit's kettle, and throws them at the crooks, missing by a wide mark. The villains search Blake, Tinker and Anna before stripping the cave of all Reuben's possessions and making away with them in the helicopter. Blake sends Pedro to sniff out the pebbles he'd thrown. He then scrapes them with his knife to reveal a pearl concealed in each. The hermit had concealed them in the kettle and allowed them to become coated with deposits from the hard water.

Trivia: This strip was reprinted in KNOCKOUT ANNUAL 1960.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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Notes: A night watchman calls on Sexton Blake and tells him that the previous night he had seen two men fighting on the edge of the roof of a tall building. During the tussle, one of the men had dropped a bottle of red ink which had smashed on the pavement far below, narrowly missing the night watchman. The two men then descended via the fire escape and walked off arm in arm like old friends. Blake recalls that a diamond dealer on the top floor of the building had been robbed some time ago. The thief had been sent to prison but the stolen diamonds were never found. Going to the scene of the incident, the detective finds that the pavement is being dug up just where the bottle fell. The broken concrete is to be delivered to the sea defences at Branksea. Blake asks to drive the load. En route he is held up by two gunmen. He and Tinker overpower their assailants and Blake explains the plot behind the mysterious ink splash.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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Notes: A number of bullion have mysteriously crashed in Wales, their cargo vanishing. Sexton Blake arranges to travel in the next aircraft, which is followed by Tinker in a smaller plane. As they fly over Pengelly Castle, the bullion plane starts to lose altitude. However, below, in the castle, Dr. Mark Anton, an albino, has had word that Blake is aboard and quickly stops his assistant, Weams, from using the strange weapon that affects the plane's engines. The flight continues and arrives safely in Ireland. Blake and Tinker return to Pengelly in the guise of fishermen. In secret caves beneath the castle, they are captured by Dr. Anton's gang and thrown into a dungeon where Jerry Wade, the pilot of the most recently crashed plane, is also held captive. They manage to escape and enter the main part of the castle where they discover Weams using the weapon on another plane. Wade stops him but is attacked by Dr. Anton. The two criminals activate a booby trap before escaping from the castle in a submarine. Blake, Tinker and Wade dive into the sea as the castle explodes and are picked up by a flying boat. They chase the submarine and bomb it, killing Dr. Anton and his cohorts.

Trivia: This is a reprint of issues 573 to 576 (1950).

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

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Notes: Daisy Worple is paid by her mother's tenant, Jules Ravier, to deliver an envelope to an address in France. With plenty of cash provided, for Daisy it promises to be the holiday of a lifetime. In Paris, she meets an Englishman, Bill Taylor, who protects her when a gunman tries to steal the envelope. Written instructions direct her to a rendezvous in the south and Bill promises to meet her there. Meanwhile, in Baker Street, Sexton Blake receives a visit from a rich French businessman, M. Vincent, whose daughter had been kidnapped the previous year. Vincent had paid the ransom and the girl was released but now he wants revenge. He commissions Blake to find the gang, giving him the name 'Ravier' as a lead. The detective's initial investigations connect Ravier with Daisy and he is soon on his way to France in search of her. Daisy and Bill meet up in a small town but the girl is bundled into a car and driven away before Bill can intervene. During the night, as she is driven through a mountainous area, she jumps from the car and escapes. Having heard her captors mention Rocamadour, she reunites with Bill and they both head towards that town. They, Blake and the kidnappers arrive at the same time, as does Jules Ravier who reveals that Daisy was sent on her mission simply as a decoy while he attempted to escape from the rest of the gang. Ravier has been trying to return to the place where he hid the ransom money from his cohorts. Unfortunately, it has since vanished. Who has it? That's a mystery Blake solves when all the participants confront one another. Ravier is killed, the gang overpowered, and the story ends with the marriage of Daisy and Bill.

Trivia: Although Tinker doesn't feature in this case, we are informed that when he wishes to remain anonymous he uses the name Carter. By the New Order Blakes, of course, Edward Carter would be revealed as his real name.

This was the last ever SBL cover to be painted by Eric Parker.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

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