Showing posts with label Action/Adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Action/Adventure. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 08, 2026

Extinction (Resident Evil #3) (2007 Movie)

 

Movie Details:

Title - Extinction
Series – Resident Evil #3
Director – Russell Mulcahy
Release – 2007
Rating – R
Time – 1hr 34min

My Thoughts:

This was my least favorite of the movies so far, and if memory serves, of the entire 6 movie franchise.

Firstly, Alice now has superpowers. Yeah, they are “psychic” powers, but it amounts to the same thing. She’s not just a kickbutt heroine any more and I really didn’t like that change. One example of this was when she meets up with the convoy and saves them all from undead crows. She uses her jedi mind powers to burn up the entire sky full of crows.

Then there is a scene near the end where some superzombies are transported to where Alice and the convoy are (Las Vegas) to kill everyone and capture Alice. It is one shipping container, but by the end of the fight scene, I counted over 50 superzombies. They kept coming out of the container like clowns out of a clown car. The numbers were simply impossible.

My final complaint is the big boss at the end. The Big Boss Fight for each of the RE movies doesn’t tend towards the long and drawn out and while I’ve been ok with that, this time I just wanted more. I don’t know why, but this Tyrant felt like he should have had more time as the Tyrant and less time building up to him becoming the Tyrant. It didn’t help that he had to share screen time with the Chairman of Umbrella Corporation.

Now, what I did like. I LOVED that almost the entire movie took place during daylight hours. I could actually see everything going on. I loved how the opening mimicked the first opening, so there was that slight sliver of “did I get the wrong movie?” feeling. It started us as viewers on the back foot and that was great. While I complained about various things above, they did provide for a lot of intense action scenes and that is what Resident Evil movies are all about.

The music was pretty good too. We got back to the hive music, which just represents Resident Evil to me.

I also watched the commentary track for the movie. It was wicked weird though. There were 3 guys talking about it, but it was obvious there were two different commentaries going on at once. Two guys were talking to each other while the other guy was simply monologuing the entire time. It was so obvious, and like I said, weird, that it really threw me out from listening to what they were actually saying. Kind of a waste of a commentary track if you ask me.

A decent addition to the franchise, but like I said at the beginning, my least favorite.

Synopsis from Wikipedia:

click to open

A cloned Alice wakes up in a mansion, wanders through its halls, and is forced to escape several security traps. However, she is eventually killed by a bounding mine hidden on the floor. Her body is dumped into a pit filled with dozens of other Alice clones, representing the failed results of the Umbrella Corporation's ongoing Project Alice.

Five years after Umbrella's attempts to cover up the contamination of Raccoon City,[a] the T-virus has spread around the world, causing ecological destruction to all life. The real Alice wanders the wasteland and, after fighting off marauders, discovers information in an abandoned notebook referring to a supposedly uninfected area in Alaska.

Simultaneously, a convoy of survivors led by Claire Redfield and Raccoon City survivors Carlos Oliveira and L.J. Wade travels across the country in search of supplies and safe harbor. While searching a motel, L.J. is bitten by a zombie. Fearing the harsh fate that awaits him, he chooses not to tell the other survivors about the injury. The next morning, the convoy is attacked by a murderous flock of infected crows. With the team nearly overwhelmed, Alice appears and destroys the remaining crows with her newfound telekinesis, though she falls unconscious. Awaking shortly thereafter, Alice is introduced to Claire and tells her about the notebook, convincing her to take the convoy to Alaska.

Isaacs' attempts to domesticate the infected lead to creating a new zombie breed. Albert Wesker's security officer, Captain Alexander Slater, reports on Isaacs' disregard for Umbrella regulations. Wesker tasks Slater with watching Isaacs, telling him to kill the scientist if he disobeys orders again. Tracing an energy pattern sent out by Alice's telekinesis, Umbrella triangulates her location. Desperate to reclaim Alice to achieve his goals, Dr. Isaacs sends his new zombies to ambush the convoy against Wesker's specific orders. During the attack, most of the convoy is killed, and L.J. succumbs to his infection, biting Carlos before he kills him. Umbrella tries to shut Alice down remotely, but she breaks free from Umbrella's programming and continues to fight. She finds Isaacs at the scene, and he is bitten as he flees via helicopter. Alice and a girl from Claire's convoy named K-mart use Isaacs' computer to track the helicopter's flight path, leading them to Umbrella's underground facility.

As the convoy arrives at the Umbrella Facility, Carlos, dying from his bite, sets out to sacrifice himself, giving some goodbyes to the convoy, including Alice. Carlos takes a tanker truck with dynamite to destroy the zombie horde blocking the entrance to the Umbrella Facility. The dynamite explodes, killing him. Alice and Claire get everyone else onto a helicopter to get them to safety, but Alice stays behind.

Entering the underground facility, Alice meets a holograph of the Red Queen's "sister" AI, the White Queen. She informs Alice that her blood can cure the T-virus, defends the Red Queen's prior actions, and reveals what happened to Dr. Isaacs. On her way to the lab's lower levels, Alice encounters one of her clones, which awakens but appears to die from shock soon after. Alice discovers Isaacs/Tyrant, defeating him after leading him to the replica of The Hive's laser corridor featured in the film's opening. Just as Alice is about to meet the same fate, the system is deactivated by the clone, who is still alive.

Later in Tokyo, Wesker informs his fellow Umbrella executives that the North American facility has been lost. Alice appears during the meeting, declaring that she and her "friends" (the other clones) are coming for him.






Thursday, April 02, 2026

Tower of Terror (Able Team #1) 2.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission


Title: Tower of Terror
Series: Able Team #1
Author: Dick Stivers
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 123
Words: 41K
Publish: 1982



Sigh. I knew after reading The Stony Man Doctrine in January (no review) that this attempt at reading more of the 80’s and 90’s Men’s Adventure Stories probably wasn’t going to be a splendid success. Even still, this was not what I was hoping for.

There is action. Bad guys get beaten up, the good guys get beaten up. People are shot and kabloo’ied and kidnapped to my heart’s content. The problem is that there was a LOT of running around or driving around between those bits and that was so boring that I was going out of my skull.

I was expecting a Die Hard rip off, even though Die Hard hadn’t been produced yet ;-) The actual stuff at the tower takes about the final 10% of the book. Able Teams gets in, kills the bad guys, rescues the hostages and warns all the law enforcement outside about tons of booby traps inside. The End. I wanted some cat and mouse inside the so-called Tower of Terror. Alas, it simply was not to be.

Finding out that the owner of the company that owned the tower was embezzling possible billions of dollars and using the terrorists as a cover, was a good idea. It just didn’t translate into good writing which would have translated into a better story.

I know I loved the Mack Bolan books as a teenager and not so much as an adult (Mack Bolan #448) and that has carried over to these other Gold Eagle productions. I’m not surprised or even disappointed, but I admit I was hoping that maybe the boy inside me would like this more. I’ve got one more “Action Man” book to read, about another group of special forces men, called Phoenix Force and then I’ll be done with these.

★★✬☆☆


From the Publisher

A Wall Street skyscraper had been invaded. Hostages were being held - and, with them, enough confidential banking data to imperil the entire world.

Ugly, city-wide panic was inevitable until Able Team was called in. Carl Lyons, Pol Blancanales and Gadgets Schwarz were the only possible hardmen for such a mission.

The invaders claimed to be FALN, the Puerto Rican terrorist group. But they were not who they said they were, and their huge quantity of devastating armament appeared to have come from. . . the Vietnamese.


Sunday, March 22, 2026

Murder Trail (The Shadow #26) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Murder Trail
Series: The Shadow #26
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 159
Words: 49K
Publish: 1933



I liked the parts where The Shadow shoots it out with mobsters and is investigating Crix (any name with an “X” in it is automatically cooler than a name without), but the premise for the story rubbed me the wrong way.

You have a French guy who is going to collect 20million buckaroos from Americans, and is going to use that money for World Business Blah Blah Blah. In Europe. Blast it, we were subsidizing losers a hundred years ago. Boo to that. So that bit bugged me, but not enough to stir the rating needle down even half a star. It did make me wonder, did the author actually think this kind of philanthropy was viable? Especially in Europe, with Hitler on the rise? Some part of American society certainly thought so, or it wouldn’t have been in a pulp novel like this.

Reading The Shadow stories can be really odd. They are simple pulp stories that I enjoy, but later, when I go to write a review, all sorts of things pop into my head that I wasn’t thinking of when I read the story. It’s like my brain is a crock pot and The Shadow is a big batch of chili, just cooking away in the background.




Harry Vincent, The Shadow’s top agent, was in this story and amazingly, he didn’t get bopped on the head even once, or kidnapped or put in mortal peril. He was actually competent. It was how he should be :-D

★★★✬☆


From the Publisher and Bookstooge

A European philantropist was sending a secret emissary to America to collect money for the good of mankind. But where money was involved, no secret could be kept from the overlord of crime! The emissary himself was the first to die. Then followed cold-blooded murder after cold-blooded murder -- and with every innocent soul who died, more millions of dollars heaped up in the dark coffers of the underworld. The police were baffled -- for this was the work of an archvillian who called himself only "Crix," a criminal genius so adept at covering his tracks that no man alive could discern them. But The Shadow can, and does. Discovering that one of the so-called philanthropists is Crix, The Shadow and his agents confront Crix and kill him. The stolen money is recovered and naive, optimistic philanthropy can go on!



Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Apocalypse (Resident Evil #2) (2004 Movie)

 

Movie Details:

Series – Resident Evil #2
Director – Alexander Witt
Release – 2004
Rating – R
Time – 1hr 34min

My Thoughts:

Spectacle. Bloody, violent and furious spectacle.

Everything from the first movie is ramped up, except for the military style. There are Umbrella Corporation private soldiers and some of them end up hooking up with Alice and some other survivors, but they are not real soldiers. They make for good monster fodder though.

We start out exactly where the first movie ends, with some additional info to give us a larger picture of what is going on. The t-virus has escaped into Raccoon City and apparently RC is a walled city controlled by Umbrella. When Umbrella realizes they can’t control the virus, so they shut the city down, release a monster of their own to test it and it runs into Alice, who it turns out is another Umbrella experiment. So a city full of zombies, a few zombie dogs, a few lickers and then Nemesis. All the while an insane scientist is monitoring it all and thinking he’s in control. Oh, right from the first movie, Umbrella is shown to be thinking that they are in control even when it is apparent to anyone with half a brain that they aren’t. That’s half the fun, even as the situation spirals out of control, knowing that Umbrella is going to burn.

Speaking of ramping things up to an 11, well, a tactical nuke is involved at the end of the movie. It helps provide a count down to force the plot forward, but man, knowing that you have to survive and get out or you get nuked really amps up the tension. I liked it. I also enjoyed the fight between Alice and the Nemesis monster. Knowing it was the nice guy from the first movie just made it that much worse, which is the point of RE. Hold out hope only to yank it away again. That’s the formula and it works for the video games and it works for these movies.

Synopsis from Wikipedia:

Synopsis - click to open

Former security operative Alice and environmental activist Matt Addison escape an underground genetic research facility called the Hive after a zombie outbreak.[a] The pair attempted to expose illegal experiments being performed there by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation before they were taken into custody by Umbrella.

A team from Umbrella investigating the Hive is overrun by zombies, which spreads the outbreak to the nearby Raccoon City. In response, Umbrella quarantines the city and evacuates crucial personnel. Angela Ashford, daughter of researcher Dr. Charles Ashford, goes missing after her security car is involved in a collision during the evacuation. Meanwhile, disgraced S.T.A.R.S operative Jill Valentine returns to her precinct to urge her fellow officers to evacuate. Alice awakens in a deserted hospital and wanders the city for supplies while Umbrella evacuates civilians via the only bridge. At the bridge, Jill encounters her former partner, Sgt. Payton Wells, but a civilian turns into a zombie, biting Wells. Upon the outbreak reaching the bridge, Major Timothy Cain, leader of Umbrella forces, seals the exit, forcing residents back into the city.

After being abandoned by their employer, Umbrella soldiers Carlos Olivera and Nicholai Ginovaef team up with surviving police units to repel various zombie attacks. Their position is overrun; Carlos is bitten and infected. Meanwhile, Jill, Wells, and reporter Terri Morales are saved by Alice just before being overrun. Umbrella deploys the mutated supersoldier, Nemesis, who kills the remaining STARS before searching for Alice. Dr. Ashford hacks into the CCTV system to contact Alice and the survivors, offering to arrange their evacuation in exchange for rescuing his daughter. He makes the same offer to Carlos and Ginovaef, explaining Umbrella plans to destroy Raccoon City with a nuclear warhead to eliminate the zombie infection.

While heading to Angela, Alice and the group are ambushed by Nemesis. Jill kills Wells after he turns into a zombie. Alice fights Nemesis but is injured, leading her to draw him away from the others. Jill and Morales rescue stranded civilian L.J. and later meet Carlos to find Angela, though Morales and Ginovaef are killed. Angela reveals that the zombie outbreak stems from the T-virus, created by her father to treat her genetic condition, and she requires an anti-virus serum to avoid becoming a zombie. Alice uses some of the serum to cure Carlos. Dr. Ashford informs Alice of an extraction point with a waiting helicopter. The group reaches the rendezvous but are ambushed by Umbrella forces. Cain kills Dr. Ashford and compels Alice, revealed to be enhanced by the T-virus, to fight Nemesis. Alice subdues Nemesis but stops when she discovers that Nemesis is Matt, who was mutated by Umbrella's experiments.

Nemesis turns on Cain and attacks the Umbrella troops but is killed while protecting Alice. The remaining survivors seize the helicopter and eject Cain from it, and he is killed by zombies. As the survivors escape, a nuclear warhead detonates over the city, and the resulting blast wave causes the helicopter to crash. Alice sacrifices herself to save Angela and is impaled on a metal pole. T.V. footage attributes the blast to a meltdown of the city's nuclear power plant, obscuring Umbrella's involvement.

Alice wakes up in an Umbrella research facility and escapes with help from Carlos, Jill, L.J., and Angela. She also displays psionic abilities after telekinetically killing a security guard. As they leave, Dr. Alexander Isaacs, a top-ranking Umbrella employee, reveals that Alice's escape is part of Umbrella's plan.



Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Resident Evil (Resident Evil #1) (2002 Movie)

 


Movie Details:

Series – Resident Evil #1
Director – Paul WS Anderson
Release – 2002
Rating – R
Time – 1hr 40min


My Thoughts:

This movie, and the whole franchise in fact, is the kind of movie that shouldn’t work for me. Live action tie-ins to video games usually leave me apathetic at best to downright cold at worst. Now, my only knowledge about the Resident Evil franchise is what I garnered reading the horrible game tie-in books in 2011 (Umbrella Conspiracy, Zero Hour, Caliban Cove). I’ve never played the games but I have watched the movies multiple times and enjoyed them immensely, to the point where I bought a “Complete Collection” on bluray last year.

Resident Evil the movie is almost 25 years old and in some ways it shows. The scenes where it is “computer graphics” copying the style of the game is rough and uneven and not what you’d see today. Other than that though, I thought it holds up remarkably well.

I do have to say that you need to turn your brain off to truly enjoy these. This is a zombie action movie and you can pick it apart all day long. I suspect many of the roots of that come from the game itself but Hollywood does have a way of inserting its own stupidity into things, so I’m also blaming them. I’m not here to nit-pick though. But it is a fair warning. Turn your brain off and enjoy.

The music is spot on. You have a pulse pounding techno-something-metal whenever the action is about to ramp up or is happening. It is played a lot during times when the team is initially invading the Hive (the underground complex where everything is happening). It makes even simple scenes of the team running up/down stairs more engaging. But at the same time, it is not overused. I felt like whoever the musical director/choreographer was did a tremendous job of making the music add to the movie without overwhelming or distracting. I also really liked the theme music. Here is the opening theme and it is just plain creepy:



The progression of enemies is stepped just like in a video game. You start out with the Red Queen (the AI that is actually trying to keep the world safe from the T-Virus) and her defense mechanisms taking out like half the team. Four team members die in just one scene and I was a little disappointed it wasn’t spaced out more.


Then the zombies are introduced and the surviving members have to battle them, unsuccessfully at first as they don’t know that only a bullet to the head puts the zombies down permanently. Then Alice, the hero of the movie franchise, meets some doberman pinschers and whooowheee, they looked BAD! And one of the coolest looking scenes happens with that. She runs out of bullets and there is still one dog left and it leaps to attack her. She runs at a wall intersection and runs up one wall, pushes off it, bounces off the supporting wall and kicks the dog and breaks its neck. It is physically impossible but boy, it looked awesome!


Then the team meets the final Big Bad and it is some sort of humanoid mutating monster that is all exposed muscle and teeth and claws and a tongue like a whip. (I didn't use any of the actual scenes from the movie because they were all too dark, so you get this drawn version) It manages to kill off the remainder of the team and only Alice and some guy who was trying to save his sister survive. They make it out of the Hive just as the blast doors sealing it off come down.


Only for the two survivors to be medicalized by Umbrella scientists in bio-hazard suits. The guy has a t-virus infection that isn’t killing him and Alice is being kept under observation. The movie ends with her waking up and ripping out all her monitors and escaping the lab. She is in Racoon City and it is obvious the t-virus has escaped. She grabs a shot gun and that’s how the movie ends.

I am happy to own this movie and am so glad it has stood up to repeated viewings. This was a LOT more than I was expecting to write, which goes to show how much I liked it :-D I’ll also add that you shouldn’t expect this much wordage from me when I review the next 5 Resident Evil movies. So stock up on shotgun shells, sharpen your machetes and make sure your harley davidson motorcycle is fueled up, because we’ve got a lot of adventure left to get through!

Synopsis from Wikipedia:

Click to Open



Underneath Raccoon City, a genetic research facility called the Hive is owned by the Umbrella Corporation. A thief steals the genetically engineered T-virus and contaminates the Hive with it. In response, the facility's artificial intelligence, the Red Queen, seals the Hive and kills everyone inside to prevent the virus from leaking into the outside world.

Alice wakes up in the bathroom of a deserted mansion, suffering amnesia. An unknown person tackles her as a group of commandos led by James Shade breaks in. Alice's attacker claims to be Matt Addison, who just transferred as a cop in Raccoon P.D. Alice and Matt are ordered to go down to the Hive with the group, where they find another amnesiac, Spence, hidden in their train. The commandos explain that everyone in the group except Matt is an employee of the Umbrella Corporation, and Alice and her partner Spence were assigned to guard the Hive's secret entrance beneath the mansion under the pretense of being married.

A laser defense system kills Shade and three more commandos outside the Red Queen's chamber. Despite the Red Queen's pleas for the group to leave, Kaplan disables it, causing the power to fail and all of the doors in the Hive to open. This releases the zombified staff and containment units holding Lickers, creatures created through experimentation with the T-virus. The horde attacks the group, and J.D. dies while the rest are separated. During that moment, Rain loses her keys and Matt, taking advantage of the chaos, sweeps the keys to escape his handcuffs. Alice starts regaining her memories while Matt finds his sister Lisa, who is one of the zombies. Alice saves him, and Matt explains that he and Lisa were environmental activists. Lisa infiltrated Umbrella to smuggle out the evidence of illegal experiments and shut Umbrella down. Alice remembers that she was Lisa's contact in the Hive but does not tell Matt. The survivors reunite at the Red Queen's chamber, where the commandos explain they have one hour before the Hive traps them inside automatically. Alice and Kaplan activate the Red Queen to find an exit; they rig a remote shutdown to ensure her cooperation.

As they escape through maintenance tunnels, zombies ambush them, and a reanimated J.D. bites Rain before she shoots him dead. They reach safety except Kaplan, who is bitten and separated from the group. Alice remembers that an anti-virus is in the lab, but they find it missing. Spence's memory returns, revealing he was the thief who stole and purposefully released the T-virus in the beginning; he hid both the T-virus and anti-virus on the train. Spence turns against the others but is bitten by a zombie before trapping the survivors in the lab. Spence retrieves the anti-virus but is killed by a Licker. The Red Queen offers to spare Alice and Matt if they kill Rain, who has been infected. A power outage occurs. Kaplan appears, having shut down the Red Queen to open the lab doors. The group heads to the train, where Alice retrieves the anti-virus and kills a reanimated Spence.

On the train, they inject Rain and Kaplan with the anti-virus. The Licker attacks them, clawing Matt and killing Kaplan. Alice subdues the Licker before a zombified Rain attacks Matt, the anti-virus having failed to cure her. He shoots Rain dead.

At the mansion, Matt's wound begins mutating. Before Alice can give him the anti-virus, a group of Umbrella scientists seizes them. They reveal Matt is to be put into the Nemesis Program, and the Hive is to be re-opened for an investigation into the incident.

Sometime later, Alice wakes up at the Raccoon City Hospital strapped to an examination table. She escapes outside, only to find Raccoon City in ruins. She retrieves a shotgun from an abandoned police car for defense.






Tuesday, December 02, 2025

The Fingers of Death (The Shadow #25) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Fingers of Death
Series: The Shadow #25
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 137
Words: 42K
Publish: 1933



Someone is killing people and only the Shadow can stop it. I thought I knew who the villain was part way through, because it wasn’t too obvious. Then it became obvious who the villain really was. Only it wasn’t, because it was obvious. Then I realized what was really going on and what do you know, I was FINALLY right. Only took three tries, hahahahahaaha!

See, this is one of the things I like about these Shadow novels. I can never tell what the correct solution is. The author is always switching things up and doesn’t repeat a himself.

★★★✬☆


From the Publisher & Bookstooge

One by one, the city's most prominent citizens fell prey to an ingenious and macabre series of murders. A mysterious, pitiless agent of evil on a single-minded mission of destruction was at work - a terrible power whom hapless victims, in their last living moments, came to know and dread as the Fingers of death. Authorities grew more baffled as the ring of horror spread ever wider. One man and one man alone could penetrate the veil of secrecy and reveal the grim living presence behind those murderous fingers. A man more spectral than night itself, a phantom in a dark slouch hat and flowing cloak, whose eerie laugh of triumph sowed terror in the hearts of criminals everywhere.

Decades ago a civil servant stole millions from a bank and hid the money before dying without telling anyone where it was. The rest of the people involved knew it was somewhere in the town. One man begins killing off the others so when they figure out where the money is, he’ll get it all. Only the Shadow knows what is going on and only he put a stop to things and return the stolen money to the honest townsfolk.



Thursday, October 02, 2025

Six Men of Evil (The Shadow #24) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Six Men of Evil
Series: The Shadow #24
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 128
Words: 40K
Publish: 1933



Whenever I read a Shadow novel, and I’m looking for a synopsis online, I never know what I am going to find. Sometimes I find absolutely nothing and have to do it all myself. Sometimes I can find a publisher’s blurb and depending on how detailed it is, I’ll add my own little bit to that. Then you have the times like with this book. Somebody has gone to TheLivingShadow.fandom.com and written out a highly detailed synopsis, so detailed in fact that I’ll never need to re-read this book again because I can read the synopsis and be good to go. I like those kind the best. The synopses never have credit, so I don’t know how or why some Shadow novels get the royal treatment and others get the shaft.

The basic story is that six men have all had the same face stamped on them by a torturous process and now they are using that to their advantage. They commit crimes and give each other air tight alibis.

Only the Shadow gets negligibly involved and brings them all down. Like he should.

This was an extremely different story from The Shadow’s Shadow, which was filled with action and explosions and gun battles. This was all about showcasing how the crimes themselves and how clever the criminals thought they were being. It was all leading up to the denouement where The Shadow smashes their crime circle into nothing and gives the proof of their crimes to the police.

Now, I like when the story is a slam bang bulletfest with thugs dying by the carload and The Shadow using his .45 automatics like machine guns, but at the same time, that kind of pace is unsustainable. Which is why I do appreciate these slower kind of stories. We see the brainy side of The Shadow and this slower kind of story helps reset my thinking and expectations. The John Wick movie franchise is a good negative example of this. The directors had to go to further and further extremes in each movie so that by the time the final movie happens, it’s like watching a shoot’em up video game. It was pointless and not exciting or fun because it was relying on the “More” principle instead of the “Variety” principle.

I think that is enough for me. I enjoyed this for its slower pace and am looking forward to more The Shadow novels. That is the very pinnacle of success in my books.

★★★☆☆


From Thelivingshadow.fandom.com

A torturous Aztec transformation gives "Six Men of Evil" an unexpected advantage in their criminal pursuits.

Six men travel by horseback in Mexico. They are traveling to the border, where they will have to split up. Charley is the leader of the outfit. They are complaining about their recent failed score. The men aren’t happy with Charley but he says they are just as much to blame and they should be thankful the Aztecs let them leave with the gold and their lives. Another member of the men agrees but says it will be a problem again at daylight. They approach the border. Charley sees their current situation as a blessing in disguise.

"The trouble is, you've weakened. You figured you could go back to the United States and pick up. You had your alibis. Maybe they've got you listed as men who scrambled across the border into Mexico - maybe they haven't. If worst came to worst, you could say that bandits had dragged you there. But that's all ended now, because you're changed men - and you're all in the same boat. You've been little crooks - little enough to get away with it. You enlisted in the army so as to hide, like I did. You didn't like it, and when you found others of your kind, you deserted, like I did. I knew where there was something worthwhile getting, at Zeltapec. We went after it; we flopped; and now, with a few thousand dollars worth of gold apiece, you want to go back to where you left off. I want to go back, too, but not the same man as I went away. So I'm glad of what happened to me at Zeltapec - now that it's all over. I've got my brains; I know the ropes; and I'm free from recognition. When I hit New York, I'll be ready for business, and there's nobody going to know me. That's why I'm glad I'm different!"

One of the men says it's good for him but how is it good for the rest of them. Charley says they are from small towns and there was a good chance they would be identified as deserters. Now they are free from that possibility. Charley tells them to go home, change their name and invest their money in their towns to become respected individuals. They should avoid small crimes and wait until they have the chance for a big score. They will communicate through code using the Aztec sign they learned in Zeltapec. Charley tells them the plan. He tells them he left New York because he was against the only person who could have stopped him, The Shadow. Now they will commit crime The Shadow wouldn't be able to stop.

Earl Northrup is meeting with the dignified elderly Anthony Hanscom in his home in Tilson Illinois. He is a successful businessman. Anthony finishes work and they discuss train times going past Chicago. A young man enters the room. This is Carl Walton, Hanscom's secretary. They are working on bonds, Earl has to leave. Hascom says his secretary can finish the work. Northrup has only been in the city for eight months but has done nicely for himself by applying his capital to a sound business in a small city. Northrup takes Hanscom to the train station. Walton does clerical work on the bonds. Once he is done he leaves them in an unlocked safe for review. He hears the train in the distance knowing that Hanscom has boarded. Northrup returns to the house and asks Walton where the bonds are. After reviewing them he takes his leave. Walton says he shouldn't have put them in the safe as it was his responsibility. Northup tells him to look for himself but Walton doesn't have the combination. Walton tells Northrup that he didn't like the way Northrup came in. He couldn't have rang the bell or the butler Moiser would have notified him. Walton checks the corresponding papers in the desk and finds them blank. Now he knows that Northup has stolen the bonds worth a quarter of a million dollars. Walton tries to stop him but is thrown towards a desk where Hanscom keeps a revolver. He turns to aim the gun but Northup pounces on him. He disarms Walton and knocks him out. Moiser, the large butler enters the room to inspect the commotion. He is shot dead by Northrup who wipes his prints off the gun and places it in Walton's hand before leaving. Walton Wakes up to find the dead body of the butler. Two police officers arrive and he tells them that Northup is the killer.

Walton is interviewed by police chief Culver at the scene of the murder. Officer Johnson tells Culver that they found Northup's car at the train station. They wonder why he would use another vehicle to return and commit the crimes he's accused of. Hanscom returns home, joined by Northrup. The police question Northrup to the ire of Hanscom who claims Northrup joined him on the train and has been with him the entire time. The police arrest Walton believing him to be an accomplice to the crimes at the very least. Meanwhile the man with the bonds, Charley Kistelle was boarding a train to Baltimore with the same facial features of Earl Northrup.

In Barmouth Maryland at the first national Bank George Talmadge the bank president gives Sherman Brooks, a cashier $220,000 for a civic relief fund to be delivered to Harold Thurber, the chairman of the civic relief committee. Thurber was a newcomer to town and convinced other business owners to make contributions. Thurber arrives to collect the money. Brooks had been considering employment elsewhere and Thurber tells him about a job opportunity. Thurber tells him when he gets to Baltimore, take the train to Westgate and inquire for a mister Phillip Garmon who is interested in forming a new bank and wants an experienced cashier. He tells him if he hurries he can catch the train. As Brooks is leaving Thurber tells him he would speak to the bank president. When the cashier leaves, Thurber waits a few minutes and discreetly leaves the bank without gaining any attention. $220,000 in his possession.

At 3pm another man claiming to be Thurber arrives at the bank to retrieve the money, joined by two other members of the committee. Talmadge takes them to Brooks' office. When he's absent Talmadge grabs another teller, Davis, so they can grab the committee money from the vault but find it missing. Davis knew that Brooks was on the train to Baltimore. They call the police and have him picked up. Brooks claims that he gave the money to Thurber at 2pm. One of the committee men says that Thurber had been in their presence until they went to the bank at 3pm. Convinced of Brook's guilt Talmadge offers to compensate for the loss of the funds. Brooks is arrested for the theft of the funds.

The Shadow reviews newspaper clippings of unsolved crimes gathered by Rutledge Mann in his sanctum. He isolates the Earl Northrup and Harold Thurber cases due to their similarities. The Shadow sends orders to Harry Vincent to investigate in Tilson and Clyde Burke to investigate the Barmouth Illinois case.

Cuthbert Devenport is the most influential man in the city of Daltona, Georgia. At one time he had controlled the manufactory which afforded employment to the greatest number of workers in the town. Now retired, Davenport still retained real-estate holdings of considerable extent, and his private fortune was estimated at more than two million dollars. His son Perry's waywardness had scandalized the town of Daltona. Perry has become the town drunk. Less than a year ago - shortly after Perry's actions had passed the bounds of reason - Thomas Rodan had arrived in Daltona. An enterprising man, Rodan had entered the real-state business on a moderate scale. He had made contacts with Cuthbert Davenport, and had become a frequent visitor to the Davenport mansion.

A courtship had resulted between Rodan and Sonia Davenport, Cuthbert's only daughter. The old man had given his consent to the marriage; the wedding had taken place after a few months; and now Tom Rodan was living, with his bride, at Cuthbert Davenport's home. Cuthbert Davenport liked Tom Rodan because the young man was the direct antithesis of Perry. Rodan was sober, capable, and enterprising.

Cuthbert meets with Sonia and Rodan to discuss Perry. Rodan expresses interest in helping to bring Perry home. The last time Perry was in the presence of his father he attacked him. Cuthbert has cut off Perry, he left everything to Sonia in his will and in turn Sonia had Tom marked as her sole benefactor if something happened to her. Glade Fitzroy, the county attorney and George Seaton, the county sheriff arrive at the Davenport estate. They exchange pleasantries and Tom says he is going over to Fitzroy’s home for a few hours and will return later. Half an hour later Tom returns with the estranged Perry, who is in a state of inebriation. Tom says he saw Perry on the way to Fitzroy's and tried to help him. He said that Perry wanted to come home to speak to his father. Sonia notices a difference in her husband's speech pattern but it was definitely him. His facial features were remarkably distinct. Perry proceeds to get into another physical altercation with his father. Tom knocks over the phone by a desk and the operator can hear this interaction. Tom pulls out a gun from the desk but instead of aiming at Perry he shoots and kills both Cuthbert and Sonia. Perry then attacks Tom as the Davenport houseman, Fairchild arrives to investigate. Tom shoots and kills him then knocks out Perry and leaves out a side exit. A few minutes later, Billings, Cuthbert Davenport's chauffeur, arrives on the scene. The man had been asleep on the third floor. He saw the motionless bodies; he saw Perry on hands and knees, trying futilely to pick up a revolver. The front door burst open, and two neighbors came dashing into the house. Perry screams that he will kill Tom Rodan. The three men tackle him to the ground as police sirens are heard in the distance, summoned by the listening telephone operator. Perry is accused of the crimes.

In his sanctum The Shadow reviews more news clippings and the reports from Harry and Clyde. Both alibis of Earl Northrup and Harold Thurber were still believed and neither man was attempting to leave their respective towns or do anything suspicious. The one link in these crimes lied in the fact that both men had arrived in their towns less than a year prior. Harry and Clyde manage to find photos of the two men. They were completely identical. The Shadow traces the distance between the two crimes and believes another man was likely to be the traveling look alike since both men had not left their locations for some time. The Shadow learns from a news clipping provided by Rutledge Mann of a third similar crime, the Davenport murders in Georgia. He determines that he must uncover the appearance of the third man, Thomas Rodan. The Shadow boards his plane and flies to Daltona.

Lamont Cranston checks into the Southern Hotel in Daltona. Cranston looks up Rodan in the phone book and tells one of his employees that he has important business that he would like to speak to Rodan about. Shortly after 12pm, Tom Rodan walked hurriedly into the hotel and approached the desk. He inquired for Mr. Cranston. When they meet, Cranston tells him that he wants to buy real estate in Daltona. Cranston is also seeing that Rodan's face is identical to Earl Northrup and Harold Thurber. Rodan is suspicious of Cranston. As they look over different properties Rodan tries to trick Cranston into revealing anything that proves secret intentions. Cranston never slips. After Cranston departs Rodan wonders if Cranston might have been a detective. He decides he is overreacting and has nothing to worry about. He reassures himself that he is a man of iron nerves. The Shadow materializes in the home of the Davenports, now owned by Rodan. He whispers the word "MURDERER!" Rodan stands up to find the person who made that accusation. Rodan hears the accusation again. He knows he wasn't the man that killed the Davenport family. He calls the hotel and finds Cranston had checked out.

Walking steadily across the room, Rodan reaches a writing table and draws forth a pen, ink, and paper. He sat in momentary speculation, and as he rested there, he was forgetful of the room behind him. Something was taking place - something that Rodan did not see. From the darkness of the wall, a tall figure came into view. Silently, and with gliding tread, The Shadow moved directly toward the seated man. Like a phantom of vengeance, he approached until he was but a few feet away. He stood there, his burning eyes focused upon Rodan. Then, from unseen lips came a softly whispered word. "Beware!" Upon a sheet of paper, Rodan inscribed a mysterious symbol. It consisted of a circle, with two crosslines in its center. Above it, Rodan marked a crescent, with the points turned downward. Below, he made the same symbol, pointing the same way. While the paper lay beside him, Rodan addressed an envelope. The name that he wrote was Eastern Specialty Company; the address is a street number in New York City. A silent motion took place behind him. The Shadow emerged from his hiding spot. His tall form gilded forward. His brilliant eyes peered over Rodan's shoulder. They saw all that the man had written. As Lamont Cranston, The Shadow had deliberately aroused the suspicions of Thomas Rodan. The result had been a secret message of warning, posted to the place of contact in New York. The Shadow makes his way back to New York to find the possible leader of The Six men of Evil.

In New York The Shadow follows a gangster that goes by the name Pasty. He meets with another gangster named Boots Marcus. Pasty gives Boots the letter sent by Rodan that has an image of a New Orleans hotel on it. Boots has been laying low and keeping his location a secret. Pasty, being the mob leader's messenger, was the only person who knew Boots' location. After receiving the message Boots tells Pasty to join the rest of the mob and wait for later plans. When Pasty leaves, The Shadow arrives and holds a gun on Boots. The Shadow tells Boots to give him the envelope Pasty gave him and the postcards in his possession. Each postcard has the same address with a different hotel image on the opposite side. He tells Boots to share what he knows.

Boots says that Charley came to see him about a year ago but his face was completely different. Charley wanted Boots to send any letters to him that come addressed to his office. He says to use the name Craig Kimble, which was enough like his own moniker. He never writes anything, he just sends postcards showing' the picture of the hotel where he's stopping at. "There was some letters like the one that come in today. I never opened none of 'em; just put 'em in the new envelopes an' sent 'em on to Charley. I don't know what he wanted 'em for." "How many letters have you forwarded to Kistelle?" inquired The Shadow coldly. "Just a few of 'em," began Boots. Then, as he saw The Shadow's piercing eyes, he added: "Let's see. There was one - two - three - this one was number four since Charley went away.”

Boots tells The Shadow, Charley Kistelle is behind everything. Boots used to work for Charley a few years ago before he fled town. The Shadow tells Boots Charley fled because he feared The Shadow. Boots stalls to explain everything to The Shadow. While speaking he sees his door open slightly as Pasty is returning. Pasty figures out what's going on and quietly leaves to get the rest of the mob. Boots is now speaking in an attempt to keep The Shadow unaware of imcomming reinforcements. As Boots continues to tell The Shadow unhelpful details on the letters he glances at his door as a member of his gang tries to enter. The Shadow catches his glare and spins to fire at the entering monster. The Shadow turns back to Boots in time to catch him pulling his gun. The Shadow fires and slays Boots. The Shadow shoots the light out cascading everything in darkness. He uses gunfire to briefly illuminate the room at fire at other gangsters. After taking out the mob he catches Pasty before he can alert reinforcements. Spotting the glimmer of his gun, The Shadow shoots and kills Pasty.

The Shadow sorts through detailed records of his previous cases in his sanctum. He reviews details on Charles Kistelle. During a previous crime Kistelle was an underling who managed to escape. He decided to not only break contact with his known associates but he joined the army under a false name. He deserted the army along with several others near the Mexican border. The Shadow theorizes that others may share the same face that were already confirmed on three other men. The Shadow knows that Kistelle is in New Orleans but decides not to go directly after him. First he would need evidence that would free the three men in jail accused of previous crimes. The Shadow decides to act as Boots to contact Kistelle in order to learn of upcoming plots by these criminals. The Shadow deciphers the symbols used in letters sent to Kistelle as hieroglyphs of a lost Aztec tribe in the unknown city of Zeltapec. The Shadow calls Burbank with orders for Harry to receive and mail letters sent to Boots' hideout. He then takes a plane to Texas to find the city of Zeltapec.

The citizens of Zeltapec are conducting their moon ritual as the crescent moon hangs in the sky. The Shadow locates the tribe and flies his autogyro under the moon and lands in the center of the tribe. The isolated tribe has never seen anything like this. They believe The Shadow to be a messenger of their moon God. The Aztecs take The Shadow to a room that holds a giant emerald called Chicquatil. The light that enters the room and reflects through the gem. The Shadow sees a metal statue of the Aztec God Colpoc, an evil deity in their religion. The face of the idol bears the features of Rodan and the other men.

The Aztec Chiefs show The Shadow a process they use as a form of punishment. They have metal masks of the face of Colpoc that are tightly secured to their victims until it molds their face into that of Colpoc. The Shadow asks if they ever had to use the masks. The chiefs tell him of the single occasion. This tribe by custom is welcoming to visitors. Some time ago six men came to their village. The traded goods for gold. The men had learned of Chicquatil and attempted to steal it. They were caught and forced to wear the masks so the rest of the world would see them for their wicked deeds with the visage of their malevolent deity. They were released with the gold they had traded for the tribe would not take back their gifts of trade.

In Fargo, North Dakota, Charley meets with Horace Fenwick, one of the men who share the face of Colpoc. Charley mentions Eddie, going by the name Edward P. Montague, the sixth member of their team stationed in Riviere near New Orleans. While they speak they are being spayed on by The Shadow. The job they are working in North Dakota in the town of Sharport involves a jewelry store run by a man named Dagewood. They set a time to enact their plan and separate. Kessle leaves in a new coup which The Shadow leaps on unnoticed.

Sargon's jewelry shop owned by James Sargon is positioned in a popular part of town. Maurice Cotter, James' junior partner informs him that Raymond Dagewood and Horace Fenwick were in the shop. James meets with the two men. Dagwood is known to be the wealthiest man in town. Fenwick has shown interest in seeing a collection of diamonds Dagwood has been interested in buying. After looking at them Fenwick says they look to be worth the $300,000 asking price. Fenwick claims that he has a set of gems that he wants appraised. Dagwood recommended that Sargon could take a look at them. The three of them leave the store as Cotter remains. As they approach a limousine. Fenwick holds up his thumb and index finger as a sign to Kissle waiting in his Coup. The Shadow then follows and attaches himself to the limo. As they approach the Dagwood estate they enter the home. Fenwick, who is the last to enter, hears the voice of Kistelle saying Chicquatil. Fenwick believes this means Kistelle came to tell him that something has gone wrong. Fenwick makes an excuse to the two men that he needs to check his car in order to meet with Kistelle. Fenwick finds himself face to face with The Shadow. Fenwick realizes this must be the man Kistelle spoke of some time ago in Mexico. The Shadow forces Fenwick at gunpoint to drive both of them to the jewelry store.

As Cotter closes the store he is met by Kistelle pretending to be Fenwick. Kistelle tells Cotter that Sargon wants the list describing the diamonds and that he will probably make a sale that night. When they enter the room with the safe Kistelle pulls a gun on Cotter and demands the diamonds. Kistelle tells Cotter that he will claim that Fenwick stole the diamonds but Fenwick is at the home of Dagwood and Cotter will be blamed as he was accused of theft in a jewelry store he used to work at in Chicago, unless Cotter flees the scene tonight. While Kistelle attempts to blackmail Cotter, Fenwick walks through the door. The Shadow walks in, one gun on Fenwick, the other on Kistelle. Charley drops his revolver. The Shadow tells Cotter to call the home of Dagwood and the authorities. After doing so Cotter uses Kistelle’s revolver to keep the two criminals at bay. The Shadow gives Cotter a paper that documented all six men with the same face including Edward Montague who was mentioned earlier during Kistelle and Fenwick’s meeting. The note had evidence that would exonerate the men implicated in previous crimes. The Shadow waits for the police to arrive before escaping into the night.

While the police, Dagewood, Cotter and Sargon are all on the scene discussing the crimes committed by Kistelle and his men, Kistelle and Fenwick attempt an escape. They disarm an officer. Kistelle uses the gun to shoot and kill one officer. They take the diamonds and steal Dagwood's limousine. Police chase the limo, The Shadow is also chasing the criminals in Kistelle's coupe. During the chase Kistelle drives the limo as a train approaches. The Shadow manages to cross the tracks before the train passes. The Shadow gets close enough to the Limo to start firing. He shoots one of the Limo’s tires. The Limo approaches a large ravine. Before plummeting Charley manages to jump out of the limo. The Shadow leaves the scene before the police arrive. Fenwick doesn't survive the crash and Kistelle escapes before The Shadow can confirm his death.

In San Francisco's Chinatown Charley Kistelle enters a shop that appears closed. He asks to speak with a man named Tam Sook. Dressed in an American style suit sat Tam Sook, one of the most important figures in Chinatown. Tam doesn't believe he is Charley. Kistelle looks at him and says "Don't look at my face, Tammy, listen to my voice. That's all. You'll hear Charley Kistelle's voice. That ought to be enough for you." Sook and Kistelle worked together in New York. Tam agreed that he would help Kistelle if he needed him. Kistelle tell's Tam that The Shadow had interrupted their fourth big crime and one of the six men are dead. He tells Sook when he set up the crimes he and his men committed he had set a signal for everyone to meet at Tam Sook's if their plans were discovered. They will all be at Tam's in two days to divvy their earnings and give Sook a cut. Kistelle tells Sook he is worried about The Shadow coming. Sook tells him not to worry. Tam intends to use his influence in Chinatown to handle The Shadow. The Shadow is spying on them during the meeting. All three men await Friday night when the four men with the same face will arrive.

Tam Sook is sitting in his office at 8 pm Friday evening. Tam Sook was young and functioned as an intermediary between rival factions of the Tongs. The Shadow enters Tam's building and quietly knocks out two guards. He confronts Sook in his office. He asks where the remaining members of Kistelle's gang will meet. Sook tells him that he has rigged the room to blow up if he doesn't reset the bomb in five minutes The Shadow shows Tam Sook his girisal ring. The gem pops up on a hinge to show a symbol. The sign of Chow Lee!" The sign of The Great One!" "Yes," came the weirdly-whispered reply, "the gift of those of Chow Lee - those who are even more powerful than you! Only one man, other than your own, has this sacred symbol. I am that man!" Tam Sook was still staring at the symbol. To him, as to all important Chinese in America, the sign of The Great One was a symbol of faith and loyalty. Whatever hates or friendships were made, all were leveled before this mystic symbol. All the leaders of Chinatown respected those who carried it. Tam Sook was in a daze. It was The Shadow's quiet voice that aroused him. Four minutes have passed. The Shadow tells Tam he should press the other side of his desk to diffuse the bomb. Sook realizes that the Shadow discerned the way to deactivate the bomb and still showed mercy to Tam. Having the sign of the great one and the fact that he didn't eliminate Sook and seems to be all knowing, Sook decides to help the Shadow. Kistelle arrives at the meeting place where the other four men are present. They split the earnings of all their crimes. Kistelle tells them that the jig is up. He plans to return to Mexico to steal the Chicquatil. The Shadow enters the room to confront them. Kistelle attempts to pull a gun but the Shadow uses an explosive powder by snapping his fingers to halt Charley. The Shadow pulls out the Chicquatil and places it on the table. The men shudder at the sight of it, reminding them of the torture that changed their faces. The Shadow tells them that their crimes are over and the innocent men have been freed. All that's left is for them to sign confessions that the Shadow produces. He forces them to sign each confession. He tells them that Tam Sook had betrayed them.

The Shadow takes the stolen money and the gem and hides them under his cloak. With the gem gone Kistelle gains his bearings. He recalls when he and Fenwick escaped a superior crowd of enemies. If he doesn't act now all will be over. With anger he sands and cry's " death to The Shadow". The men stand and attempt to pull their guns. The Shadow pulls his two 45s and eliminates all five of them before they can land a useful shot.

The police shortly enter the room to find each man dead with their unique confession in each of their hands. The confession of Fenwick was on the table, signed by The Shadow



Thursday, August 14, 2025

The Shadow’s Shadow (The Shadow #23) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Shadow’s Shadow
Series: The Shadow #23
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 154
Words: 48K
Publish: 1933



A criminal finally gets smart and figures out that The Shadow has agents and uses those agents to track down the alter-ego of The Shadow. Only thing is, said criminal doesn’t realize that The Shadow has multiple aliases. That means The Shadow still gets to beat the bad guys, on all fronts. We as readers also learn a possible history of The Shadow as a WWI ace pilot.

Another enjoyable pulp romp between the world wars. The action takes place in New York City and down into New Jersey a little bit. I’ve done enough traveling up and down the East Coast that I was actually familiar with some of the roads and tunnels described in the story. Not greatly familiar, but enough so that I could visualize things (I’m sure it looked totally different in 1933 than it did in the 1990’s, but come on, a tunnel is a tunnel, right?) and I just found that I liked that familiarity.

This was the 23rd Shadow novel and it’s taken that long for at least one bad guy to twig on to the fact that The Shadow might have an alter-ego. AMAZING!!! At first it made me shake my head but then I began to wonder, does it seem naive to me not because we are smarter as a society today but because we’re so much more evil? The utter gratuitousness of crime today is beyond what they could have imagined back in 1933. It made me ashamed to be honest. Of course, then people like Ira Levin come along a mere 20 years later and write books like A Kiss Before Dying and I realize the rot was already at the heart of the tree even back then. Which makes me feel better, because I realize that people were just as evil back in the 1930’s as they are today.

"God's in his heaven, all's right with the world"

★★★✬☆


From the Publisher & Bookstooge

It was to be the perfect crime. A daring heist that would net the greedy mobsters undreamed-of millions. And with internation criminal mastermind Felix Zubian and ace gunman Gat Hackett at the head of the determined gang, nothing could go wrong.

Nothing, that is, except the unwelcome intervention of The Shadow, phantom of the night, scourge of evildoers everywhere. The conspirators of crime h it upon a grim, ingenious scheme--use The Shadow's own dreaded techniques of stealth and surprise against him. In short, shadow The Shadow--and blast him into the grave!

An International criminal, Felix Zubian, trails The Shadow. It is revealed that during WWI, Zubian learned of an aviator in the air forces of the United States, one called "The Black Eagle," because of his penchant for flying at night. Zubian believes he has found the aviator who has now taken on a new identity as The Shadow!

The Shadow knows the evil in men’s hearts though and turns the tables on the gang and destroys them where they thought to destroy him.



Friday, June 20, 2025

The Creeping Death (The Shadow #22) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Creeping Death
Series: The Shadow #22
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 144
Words: 45K
Publish: 1933


After reading that abominable Murder Geniuses earlier this week, I needed a good dose of the REAL Shadow, and I got it with this book.

In this story The Shadow is up against a scientist who can make fake gold and he is planning on flooding the market with fake gold and owning genuine gold. Said scientist is also working on a poison that he can put on letters to kill from a distance. The scientist is working in conjunction with several crooks the world over and several of them get the big idea to take over and thus begins a fight amongst thieves and murderers. A Secret Service agent is involved and The Shadow has to protect him while setting the various criminal elements against each other.

This was good stuff. This was all about the bad guys offing each other and The Shadow just nudging things along, up until the end where there is a climactic gun battle between everybody and only the Secret Service agent and The Shadow walk away. That’s the way a good The Shadow novel ends.

This is the first cover to feature Skelly the Skeleton. Obviously that’s not his actual name and he’s not a character in the story, but he does feature on several of the covers and The Shadow seems to be rather pallsy-wallsy with him. Call me deadophobic, but you won’t catch me hanging while a skeleton drapes his arm over my shoulder and points out a word on the page of the book I’m reading. The hatchet from our survival gear would come into play wicked quick, let me tell you.


Jimbo’s got the right idea here!

★★★✬☆


From the Publisher

The lure of gold – that lust which has made men kill throughout the ages – had gripped the enemies of justice. The swindle of the century threatened to put the world at the mercy of either a power-hungry, underhanded financier and his cohorts, or an eccentric creator of synthetic gold. But the common purpose which brought Forster, Morales, and Armagnac to inventor Lucien Partridge did not stop them from cunningly plotting behind each others’ backs. Only The Shadow could halt the creation of a Gold Empire. Garbed in black, silently stalking the streets, he alone could triumph over evil. The insidious princes of the underworld would be crushed by this Master Crime-Fighter – The Shadow!



Thursday, June 19, 2025

Firefight (Victor the Assassin #12) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Firefight
Series: Victor the Assassin #12
Author: Tom Wood
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 380
Words: 108K
Publish: 2024



Basically, Victor gets embroiled in more consequences from his past work and that causes problems. This story is about surviving those problems.

Victor kills boatloads of people, has tons of other people trying to kill him and pretty much pisses off everyone he comes into contact with. I do not see how Victor is going to survive much longer in this fictional world. He’s been working for the US Gov, the British Gov, the Russian Mob plus other large security entities that I’ve forgotten. In this one, he gets on the Israeli radar, so I’m sure they will be next.

The whole premise of Victor, at the beginning, was that he was a non-entity. That is how he survived. Well, that idea is shot to pieces by now, so there’s not much more room for Victor to wriggle around in. In fact, in an afterwards, the author admits that he’s running out of ideas for Victor. The two options are for Victor to die, for real, none of this fake bs, or for Victor to somehow retire and live on a beach with his chicky-boo until they die. Technically, he could take up the fight of his chickyboo and fight the faceless, nameless, formless Evil Thing that Chickyboo is fighting against, but he still would have to die doing that. I just can’t foresee a happy ending for Victor.

Which makes each book very bitter sweet for me. I have grown to quite enjoy Victor’s path of destruction and his avoidance of the ties that bind to the rest of humanity; a far cry from my review of the first book indeed. But Victor’s options are narrowing, faster and faster and thus at some point I know the Final Countdown will have to start and my time with Victor, no matter the outcome, will end. Personally, I hope the author can stretch things out for several more books, like maybe eight more? Make it a nice round Twenty book series ;-)

★★★★☆


From the Publisher

MERCY HAS A COST. TIME FOR VICTOR TO PAY.

Assassin-for-hire Victor is in Bucharest, Romania, to kill two targets meeting to exchange stolen intelligence his client wants back. It should be a simple task - until he realises the second of his targets is a former ally. Even for a man of Victor's twisted morality, he's not prepared to kill someone to whom he owes his life.

To atone for not completing the job, Victor agrees to take on the kind of dangerous assignment he would otherwise avoid. At a conference on international relations, he must identify and assassinate a killer just like him and remain unseen, despite a guest list of spies, dignitaries, and security experts. Even for an elite professional, the job is a tall order - which is why he looks for help from the person whose life he spared in Romania.

Yet unbeknownst to Victor, the Bucharest contract stepped on the toes of powerful enemies from his past; enemies who now know exactly where to find him . . .


Imperatoris Chronicorum II

  Well, this week then, right? Sunday started off with Resurrection Sunday, known to the heathens and nominals as Easter. Our chur...