The London Crimes / Castle of Doom

by Walter B. Gibson

Pulp fiction's legendary Knight of Darkness returns in two of his most engrossing adventures. Two legendary crime fighting agencies join forces when The Shadow teams with England's legendary Scotland Yard to investigate "The London Crimes" and the master criminal known as The Harvester. Then, The Shadow journeys to a strange "Castle of Doom", where murder lurks behind its battlements and mystery and intrigue abound in a thrilling tale of lost treasure, secret underground passages, and ghostly apparitions. In honor of The Shadow's first British adventure, popular culture historian Anthony Tollin chronicles the 1930s and 1950s English pulp reprints and the 1940s Australian Shadow radio series. This classic pulp reprint also showcases George Rozen's dazzling pulp covers and all the original interior art by acclaimed illustrator Tom Lovell.

Genres: Pulp, Mystery

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

Walter Brown Gibson (September 12, 1897-December 6, 1985) was an American author and professional magician best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s.

Reviews

[Hunter]

Two more classic Shadow mysteries find the mysterious detective travelling to England to solve crime across the Atlantic.

The first story, “The London Crimes,” is serviceable if a bit dull at times. The star of this volume is the second novel, “Castle of Doom,” which features a masterful misdirection near the beginning of the story before moving on to spend the bulk of the plot on the grounds of a Medieval English castle. The level of action, the interesting setting, and the excellently crafted mystery in this story raise this volume up to a high level among the Sanctum Books editions.