"The Blood Ring" is the 7th pulp magazine

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 story to feature The Avenger. Written by Paul Ernst

Paul Ernst (Avenger writer)

Paul Frederick Ernst was an American pulp fiction writer. He is best known as the author of the original 24 "Avenger" novels, published by Street and Smith Publications under the house name Kenneth Robeson.-Biography:Paul Ernst was born between 1899 and 1902, and "[took] up fiction writing in his...

, it was published in the March 1, 1940 issue of The Avenger magazine. This novel was re-published under its original title by Paperback Library on November 1, 1972.

Summary

Egyptian artifacts intended for the Braintree Museum in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 are stolen. Mysterious figures from ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

 are sighted at night, people are murdered, a mummy

Mummy

A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...

 speaks and walks, people have terrible headaches and seem to be taken over by their pre-incarnations as ancient Egyptians. The "Blood Ring" is set with a pink cornelian stone that is made blood red and filled with power if it is dipped in human blood every 48 hours.

Nellie Gray is prominent on the list of intended sacrifices, and Smitty, rescuing her at one point, Samson

Samson

Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....

-like, pulls down a reproduction Egyptian temple in the museum. Josh guards the Egyptian exhibit at night after a guard is killed and another quits; realistically nervous, he displays none of the typical feet-shuffling eye-rolling mannerisms often found in the pulps of this time.

Benson's scientific sleuthing reveals that Egyptian symbolism, drugs, hypnosis, and technology were used by the villain as part of a blackmail scheme. Typically, Benson turns the villain

Villain

A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...

and his gang against one another, and tricks them into dying in their own death trap.

External links

• Magazine cover for "The Blood Ring"