SHERIDAN DOOME

Sheridan Doome is an agent with U.S. Naval Intelligence.

If having someone with the last name of Doome does not put a stutter in a bad guy's step, knowing it is this particular Doome that is heading him way will definitely do it. Doome is not only a highly seasoned and experienced investigator, a bane to both crime breakers and foreign spies, he is notorious for being extremely intelligent and patient and thorough. Such a person being after you is a cause for sleepless nights.

So is actually seeing Doome in person.

Doome had been a normal looking individual when he was serving in the Navy during World War One but an explosion near him came close to killing him and certainly destroyed his chances for a normal life. His body was badly injured and had to be pieced (literally) back together. Holding his torso in one section are "numerous steel plate implants". While they work to make a good part of him bulletproof, they also greatly affect his movements.

In the first recorded adventure we find this initial description of him: "He was six feet two inches tall; had a chalk-white face and head. It appeared as though it had once been seared or burned. For eyes, he had only black blotches; glittering optics, that looked like small chunks of coal. His nose was long, the end of it squared off rudely. He had no lips, just a slit that was his mouth. His neck was long, as white and as bony as his face."

From the second adventure comes more information: "Doome was a tall, ghastly figure. His face was blank and gruesome, a white mass void of emotion. He had neither traces of hair nor whiskers and for eyes he had only black blotches. His mouth was a grim slit. A squared-off stump in the middle of his face was his nose. His uniform hung on him loosely, and sticking above his color were two tiny iron braces."

Yet another description tells us: "Sheridan Doome looked more like a robot than a human being. He was tall and ghastly; his uniform fitted him in a loose manner. Long arms hung at his sides; his face was a perfect blank... [Doome] had no control of his facial muscles; consequently, his countenance was always without expression, chalky and bony". And his face "was void of all emotions. It was like the grim face of a snowman which had been designed by a fiend".

Imagine facing such a frightening figure for the first time and having his initial words to you be, as they are often to those he meet, "I am Doome" said in a voice that was brittle, words so short clipped that at first it was hard to understand him.

The long blue pea-coat opened to reveal "along the inside lining, in neat and orderly rows, were a variety of tools he used in the solution of murder". The nature of these instruments seem to vary over time but his use of them is frequent.

Considering that there are 56 different recorded adventures of Doome of varying lengths, Doome does not let his physical situation change his dedication to justice and getting at the truth.

Appearing as the secondary adventure in many issues of The Shadow magazine, this series was apparently a favorite of the readers since no matter how much an editor might like it, if it was not liked, the publishers would have heard about it and yanked it. No yanking - it was liked.

Could it be the strangeness and scariness of the character? That is what definitely cinched it for me. But then too the writing was pretty darn good and the stories and plots were inventive. I can see why it was popular.

What I have to wonder about, though, is why I came so late to the party? I mean, until I was well into this compendium, I had never heard of Sheridan Doone! That is surprising.