Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem is the first in an exciting new retro, rollicking adventure series. This re-imagined pulp novel follows the Doc Savage–style adventures of the first American to reach the North Pole—Matthew Henson.
The tail end of the Roaring Twenties. Harlem.
Hired by controversial spiritual leader Daddy Paradise to retrieve his adult daughter who has been kidnapped, adventurer Matthew Henson does just that. Then he must safeguard the two until the firebrand can deliver a momentous speech at a mass rally. Henson must employ all his survival skills to fulfill his task—skills that kept him whole in forbidden jungles, across Asia, and in sub-zero ice storms when he first reached the North Pole. Henson’s charge brings him face-to-face with such illustrious characters as gangster Dutch Schultz, who’s looking to muscle out numbers racket boss Queenie St. Clair; and famed inventor Nikola Tesla, who is using his electrical acumen to surveil plutocrats. Henson’s pal Bessie Coleman, America’s first Black aviatrix, lends a hand as well.
With a death ray zeroing in on him, Henson races against the clock to save lives, and to keep a mysterious and powerful meteor fragment he brought back from the Arctic years ago out of the hands of monied evil-doers.
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“Along with the rampaging retro action, Phillips smoothly incorporates biting social commentary on the racism of the era. Henson is a terrific character, larger-than-life in a movie-serial way, and the story’s pacing is exquisite.”
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Booklist (starred review)