The Eyes of the Shadow (The Shadow #2) ★★★☆☆

 

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Title: The Eyes of the Shadow
Series: The Shadow #2
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 171
Words: 51.5K

Synopsis:

From Thelivingshadow.fandom.com & me

MARKED TO DIE

Six prominent men were expecting a share in a glittering fortune. But, one by one, they were being brutally murdered. Until the Shadow discovered the plan—a plan so fiendish that only the twisted mind of a monster could have conceived it. The Shadow assumes the identity of Lamont Cranston to investigate the serial murders and stalwart Harry Vincent gets to play camper and act as bait. Justice is committed, Shadowstyle!

My Thoughts:

Another enjoyable entry in the Shadow series. I've got a bunch of omnibuses (omnibie?) of Shadow stories that come in sets of 5, so I'm guessing I'll read a quintet each rotation and then take a couple of months off before adding another quintet back in. I can see myself easily burning out on these and I'd really rather take a few extra steps to prevent that as I am enjoying them.

These are beyond a shadow (ha, aren't I clever?) of a doubt “pulp”. So if you know you don't like pulp stories, then you can safely assume The Shadow isn't going to work for you. If you know that you DO like pulp, you can't automagically assume this will work for you, because this is as different from Conan or John Carter as you can get and yet both of those are pulp too. But chances are still better than even. If you like pulp and you like the 1920's era and double pistols are your thing, then I'd say it's a match made in heaven.

The Shadow has some sort of power to blend into “shadows” but it isn't speculated upon or dwelt upon at all. Is it supernatural, is it a mutant power or is it just him being really, really, really good at hiding and disguises? Personally, my vote is that he drank a shot of bad russian vodka and it gave him superpowers. The other thing is that Lamont Cranston, a rich playboy that Bruce Wayne was modeled on, appears to be the Shadow's alter-ego. But I've read enough stuff by Riders of Skaith to know that even that simple deduction isn't so simple and weirdness is going to abound there too. Basically, I don't try to figure anything out.

Bad guys do bad things. The Shadow investigates one way or another, his agents (his “eyes”) act on his behalf and there's a lot of weird laughing going on in the shadows. Oh yeah, and the badguys get what's coming to them. Or their henchmen do anyway. A really good badguy manages to get away.

I've been looking at various covers and man, this one rocks! I couldn't find a really big version of it, but this was as big as I could find. Two-pistol'ing it baby!

★★★☆☆

• The Living Shadow (Book 1)