The Annihilist — Lester Dent

The dread Annihilist was slaughtering the criminals of New York in wholesale lots. Hundreds of men were found mysteriously murdered, victims of the hideous pop-eyed death. The finger of suspicion pointed directly at one man, Doc Savage himself. Even as The Man of Bronze scrambled to solve the terrifying enigma, the invisible assassin began to play havoc with one of humanity's most important secret defenses -- Doc Savage's legendary crime college. Lester Dent was an American pulp-fiction author, best known as the creator and main author of the series of novels about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage. The 159 novels written over 16 years were credited to the house name Kenneth Robeson. Dent's Master Fiction Plot, often referred to as the Lester Dent Formula is a widely circulated guide to writing a saleable 6,000-word pulp story and has been recommended to aspiring authors by Michael Moorcock, among others.