W.B.’s Book Report: The Shadow

When the library delivered the audiobook of The Shadow by James Patterson and Brian Sitts, I thought, uh oh, I don’t want this to be the precedent-setting 100th book I read this year. I’ll wait to finish Several small sentences about writing until after I listen to the widely panned reboot of the iconic 1930s and ’40s pulp hero.

But no, Verlyn Klinkenborg had to hook me with the second half of his clinic about writing brilliant sentences, and the next thing I knew, it was the 99th.

And...