The Mystery of the Sea Horse by Lee Falk, who is really Frank S. Shawn, who is really the late great Ron Goulart. This is snappy and fast-paced little Phantom novel which is adapted from the twelfth Phanton daily story by Lee Falk and Ray Moore, gets to the action tout sweet. Diana Palmer gets involved with a handsome gent going by the name of "Chris Danton" who turns out to be a drug smuggler, and the Phantom just so happens to be in California and is able to race to her rescue. But that's just the beginning.
The Sea Horse in the title is a number of things. The main villain of the piece has a passion for seahorses, so much so that he has named his remote estate and his yacht after the tiny creature. Whether Goulart is going for a pun since this guy is a smuggler of narcotics, in particular heroin or to put it oddly a chap who moves "horse" across the "sea", I can't say.
As the story unfolds, we learn that our villain might well be a Nazi, with name change and new line of work. He's being hunted by diligent if brutal assassins. Add to that the Phantom who is on his trail relentlessly for having made the critical error of attempting to harm Diana. The duo of "Walker" and Palmer head down to Mexico in pursuit of the villain. Eventually we get aboard "The Sea Horse" where the story reaches its climax.
This is a humdinger of a little adventure. There's little in the way of what I'd call specific Phantom action and the Deep Woods only comes into play in that our villain knows of it and of the Phantom before the action even starts.
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