The Crime Oracle and The Teeth of the Dragon: Two Adventures of the Shadow

by Walter B. Gibson

First Dover Printing. Trade paperback with heavy card stock wrappers. VG+ with some light wear along the edges of the front cover. Minor tanning along the inside of the front cover. Mild toning to the rear wrapper.

Genres: Pulp

163 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1975

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

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love these old nostalgic stories. Reminders of simpler times.

[Michael Emond · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Shadow Pulp novel by the prolific Walter Gibson (under the pen name Maxwell Grant), well actually it was a two in one. It was not what I expected in some ways good and some ways not as good. Let's start with the good. There is plenty of action that is well described so you can follow it in you mind's eye (not an easy thing to do for many writers). We get two very distinct novels with one that let's us in on the Shadow's network of agents and one that focuses on a bit of a mystery with some twists and turns. It is a very distinct style and they were both enjoyable reads. I particularly love the way the writer lets us into the mind of the Shadow at key times so we know how he does what he does. The first novel is the weaker of the two (IMO) with the set up being great and the conclusion being a "oh come on". The premise of the Crime Oracle is that the Oracle gives thieves detailed plans to carry out that are fool proof. Great set up. The problem is, one quarter of the way through the novel we forget about that idea and focus on the idea of this "head" which may be a machine that is behind these predictions and how could it do this? And even after all is revealed we never find out how the Oracle was so good at planning crimes. The second one starts off slow and ends with some interesting twists. Both are a little overly complex and I was surprised how the Shadow doesn't use any "super" powers...I guess I had always assumed from what I knew about the Shadow he had super powers of invisibility and the ability to cloud men's minds, but none of that is on display here. He is agile and smart and quick but no supernormal powers. In the end these weren't the most exciting reads I have had but they were supposed to be pulp (high on action; not necessarily great works of fiction) and if you view them on that level they would make great TV episodes and for me it was exciting to finally read the novels that shaped this famous fictional character.