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Title: The Romanoff Jewels
Series:
The Shadow #19
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages:
142
Words: 43K
Commies, Czar’ists and The Shadow all collide! Man, this was a weird read. Russian Royalty simply hasn’t been a part of our world close to 100 years now and so to read a story about it just after its heyday, still a force to be reckoned with, really threw me. It was kind of hard to take seriously too.
The Shadow really plays up the human factor in this story. He’s fully Lamont Cranston as much as he is the Shadow and he gets shot and beaten up and generally manhandled as any one person would in these circumstances. I’m used to The Shadow utterly triumphing, not surviving by the skin of his teeth.
I’ve never heard of the Romanoff Jewels, so everything about them, (a fabled stash of jewels representing the sum wealth of the Czars that was hidden away for their eventual return) was brand new and any info in the book I just took at face value. I did have some problem with the revelation that they were all fakes at the end. I had to roll my eyes at the naivete and stupidity of both commies and czarists thinking they were real. One jeweler is all it would have taken to prove things. It was shown that The Shadow’s ghirasol ring WAS one of the originals, and while it seems to have no purpose or function, it has a mystical mystique about it that in turn conferred such a feeling on the rest of the horde (that turned out not to exist). It would be like finding out that my food pantry was made up of a piece of wood from the Ark of the Covenant and that Putin and Kamala Harris were both after it.
Another good read and I enjoyed it. Overall, I don’t ever see myself re-reading these Shadow books, but that’s ok. Not every book is written to be re-read. Once and done is sometimes ok...
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
The lofty towers of the Kremlin loomed like spectral spires against a darkened sky. Senov – master spider in a web of espionage – was about to ensnare America in the most nefarious deal of all time: behind the guise of a trade detente, he and his treacherous American trusties will swap the Romanoff jewels for help in restoring the ancient Russian monarchy! Only a certain black-clad form, swept like the shroud of night itself across the oceans and mountains of a desperate world, could hope to challenge such global enemies... and from the mysteries of New York's Cobalt Club to the thrills of a breathtaking submarine voyage the Shadow carves a dark and hidden path for the forces of justice: beware The Shadow as you beware the darkest unknown!
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