The Shadow #3: The Shadow Laughs

The Shadow Pulp #3

by Maxwell Grant

A PIVOTAL SHADOW NOVEL OF DEATHTRAPS AND GANGLAND BATTLES

When Frank Jarnow learns of a criminal scheme aimed at his brother Blair and millionaire Henry Windsor, he tries to warn . But before Jarnow can reveal the details he is shot before Windsor's eyes, and Henry Windsor finds himself framed for murder and arrested as the killer. From the secret sanctuary where The Shadow plots his countermoves against crime, the black-garbed nemesis of evil sends his ace lieutenant, Harry Vincent, to watch over Blair Jarnow and learn what he can of the plot against the young man. When The Shadow discovers he is facing his two greatest enemies, the criminal mastermind, Isaac Coffran (from Eyes of The Shadow) and vicious gang leader, Steve Cronin (from The Living Shadow), the nemesis of crime knows it will be the battle of his life. One from which even The Shadow, with all his miraculous gifts and powers, may not emerge alive! Black cloak swirling, twin forty-fives blazing, The Shadow must brave fiendish death-traps, gang attacks, and hidden enemies – and those are just the first few chapters. And for Shadow aficionados there is a real treat – for this is the book that reveals once and for all that The Shadow is NOT Lamont Cranston!

Genres: Mystery, Pulp, Crime, Fiction, Adventure, Action

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1931

About the author

Maxwell Grant was a pseudonym often used by Walter B. Gibson to write stories of "The Shadow".

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the earlier Shadow novels, from the October, 1931 issue of the pulp magazine, long before the radio dramas featuring Lamont Cranston as the alter-ego of the character were broadcast. Walter Gibson (writing as Maxwell Grant) did have some fun playing with the identity, as Lamont Cranston and Harry Vincent both cavort with the criminals, and Cranston confronts The Shadow to shatter preconceptions in one scene. The criminals are simple counterfeiters and drug dealers, a welcome relief from mad scientists and crazy dictators who want to take over the world. It's a typical pulp crime-fiction adventure, with Gibson's excellent pacing and descriptions. The last line of the book is one of the best known from entertainment from the last century: "The Shadow knows!"

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite in the series so far. The crooks are wisening up, the stakes getting higher, the action more tense, yet - for all the efforts of the criminal underworld - The Shadow remains as mysterious and unknowable as ever.

On the other hand, a simple counterfeiting plot feels a bit of a lackluster after oriental conspiracies and treasure hunts.

[Leothefox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hell yeah he does!

This book includes a returning villain and some returning goons, as well as more detail on Lamont Cranston and The Shadow. Harry Vincent gets to sneak around and endure misadventures and all that good stuff. This book also includes a mob hit and an action-packed opium den!

The proceedings are a little slow to start since things kick off with a pretty routine murder. However, that murder is well followed!

Again, I was reminded of the Fantomas series and the continuing characters in the underworld, some imposing, some more pathetic. Grant sandwiches things nicely so much of it remains confusing until The Shadow really begins assembling the puzzle.

The plot involves counterfeiting and a country mansion where someone may be in danger from a murderous conspiracy. We get all the secret passages and traps we've come to expect too.

[Rubén Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

La Sombra puede ser el protagonista más misterioso de la historia de la literatura, y es que no se sabe su verdadera identidad. Asume la que quiere y luego la deja. Con esta premisa, cabe esperar lo que ofrece esta novela. Giros inesperados y misterio a raudales, todo ello aderezado con escenas de acción.

Da gusto leer una novela corta y entretenida. Busca la sorpresa de las formas más rocambolescas. El autor no esconde su objetivo; es directo, nos enseña algo y más tarde nos lo explica, ya sea a través del diálogo o de la voz del narrador en tercera.

No hay unos personajes muy definidos, ni una prosa brillante, pero sí un luchador contra el crimen original. Recomendado para los amantes de las vueltas de tuerca y de las lecturas rápidas.

[Beorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun! I love these old stories!

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the things wrong with this book is explained by its origin. It is well known that the Shadow began as the host of the radio program Detective Story Hour and later the Blue Coal Radio Revue, but was not featured in the stories that were broadcast. It was when the public asked for "that Shadow magazine," meaning Detective Story, from which stories were adapted for broadcast, that publisher Street and Smith thought to exploit this opportunity by creating The Shadow magazine. This was before the radio show The Shadow.

The character was very different, and had to be. Unfortunately, it was felt necessary to explain his radio presence and identify this as the same character, so a few times in this book the Shadow goes to his radio room, presumably to host his two programs, and at other times has scripts written and has actors read lines in such a way that one of his minions will get a secret message. This is ridiculous for the character as conceived for The Shadow magazine.

Indeed, after two beautifully written chapters the story becomes pulpy slag with the entrance of the Shadow. Walter Gibson, writing under the name Maxwell Grant, pads with unnecessary scenes that he must justify later and has the bad habit of ending some paragraphs with unnecessary sentences. This book version became a chore for me to read.

This is especially unfortunate because Gibson introduces a brilliant story element in this one. After spending two books convincing us that the Shadow is really Lamont Cranston, he gives us a scene in which Cranston confronts the man impersonating him. That makes this a pivotal Shadow story, but it comes fairly early on in a bad book. That is a shame.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better Shadow novels, as it mixes a mystery with a caper story while juggling a decent sized cast.
Shadow gets a bit more focus and characterization then usual and there is a good amount of his cast of agents in on the action.
There's also an assortment of bad guys that all come across as interesting and/or sinister.

The story is split between the Shadow in the city, tangling with a big criminal network, while Harry (his Archie Godwin) at a country estate, trying to investigate a murder.

[Drunken_orangetree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very episodic, with characters and complications galore.

The Shadow is obviously an inspiration for Batman: a millionaire playboy fighting crime in disguise, by night. And Grant even describes the Shadow's penumbra as bat-like throughout.

My favorite part of the book is the complication around the Shadow's true identity. We learn that "Lamont Cranston" is itself a secret identity, an inconvenient fact for the real Cranston, but he gamely goes along with it.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it comes to pulp heroes there are 2 or 3 great standouts and the Shadow is one of those. The stories are fast paced and action filled. The mystery just adds to the excitement. With his army of agents to help the Shadow never lets you down for a great read. Highly recommended

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, Walter Gibson (AKA Maxwell Grant) delivers a solid pulp thriller. In the opening chapters, a mobster whacks a young man who's stumbled on a counterfeiting scheme, frames a drunken socialite for the deed, then knives a police detective who's figured it out. Looks like a job for the Shadow.
This is much more a hardboiled crime story than the wilder "Death Tower" which I read a few months back, with a lot of criminal low-lifes crawling around and several villains from the first two Shadow novels (this was #3) returning (surprisingly the mastermind escapes and never returns for a rematch). It has some plot holes — there are some duplicate counterfeit plates planted on a crook and we never learn who by — but overall this is excellent entertainment.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter B. Gibson finishes his original "trilogy" that introduced The Shadow with The Shadow Laughs! -- tying together several loose ends left over from the first two entries in a story highlighted by murders, mansions, and funny money.

[M.H. Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff!

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Walter B Gibson was the author. The Shadow enters the scene after the murder of a New York police detective by a counterfeit gang.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shadow goes against a gang of counterfeiters (who are not above murder) in this novel. It's very dark, gritty, and excellently paced. Excellent entry in the series.

[JW David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical Fiction that aged well.

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this series really established the genre in many ways. Crooks, secret passages, encoded messages, covert spy stuff. Pretty fun.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old fashioned pulp novel, pre WWII. Written in the style of the day. Good v. Evil with lots of mysteries.

[Raime · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun hero crime adventure with exciting scenes. The character of Shadow is way cooler than Batman.

[Frédéric Bonin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun adventure. The criminals are getting smarter, the stakes a bit higher and there is a nice thread between this novel and the previous one. Another fun short story read in less than a week.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another very good shadow story. This story starts out with a man named Henry Windsor who is talking to Frank Jarrow about Henry's brother, Blair. Apparently Henry is in danger, but before Frank can tell him everything someone shoots and kills him. It all makes it look like Henry was the one who killed him, though.

A Detective Griffith comes to investigate the scene of the murder. A small piece of paper is found that might be a clue. He figures out a lot of other things and appears to be a detective with keen powers of observation and analysis. Griffith is killed by a fake reporter, the murderer from ch. 1. Some background of Fellows is given. Fellows talks to Lamont Cranston and begins to doubt that he is the Shadow.

The Shadow investigates where the murder took place, then checks out the morgue and begins to put things together. The Shadow talks to the real Lamont Cranston and explains how he uses Cranston's identity, then persuades the real Cranston to leave for a trip to Europe the next day.

In one of the typical twisty things that happen in Shadow novels, the Shadow disguises himself as a crook (Reds) and talks to another crook (Spotter) who realizes the it's the Shadow he's talking to. A trap is set up to kill the Shadow, but the real Reds shows up and is killed instead.

Birdie Crull and Issac Coffran talk. Crull is the one who killed Windsor and Griffith.

Spotter meets a crook involved in counterfeit money. The Shadow is there watching them. The Shadow is disguised as a burglar. A federal agent shows up, but the real crook gets the drop on him and destroys the phoney bills that could have been used as evidence. The Shadow saves the agent, but other agents chase him, thinking he's a crook.

Harry Vincent misses two messages from the Shadow delivered in radio programs. He ends up captured by someone.

Spotter meets Tiger Bronson an underworld overlord. Later, the Shadow searches Bronson's rooms. Bronson wants to set a trap using Spotter at Loo Look's opium den. The Shadow shows up and there's a furious battle. Tiger Bronson meets his end.

Harry Vincent gets beat up (he seems to spend a lot of his time getting beaten up). He ends up meeting someone named Issac Coffran who is an archenemy of The Shadow!. Harry ends up being tortured in an iron-maiden type of device.The situation gets a lot worse for Harry and a would-be rescuer, but the Shadow shows up in time to save them.

The crooks get away, but then decide they need to return to kill the Shadow and make sure the other two men are dead so there would be no one would could testify against them. There's a lot of furious action towards the end, with the criminals paying the price for their crimes.

[Iain · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one held my interest less than usual. It was more of the same for these early stories—a Harry Vincent adventure with The Shadow as deus ex machina as needed (though in this one he seemed notably absent several times when needed)—but the first 2/3rds of the story moved pretty slowly. Decent enough action toward the end.

One thing that really stood out to me: Wow the lives of rich white men in the 30s were boring as hell! Harry just goes to visit a bunch of strangers on a weak pretense of a mutual friend, knowing that the host tends to just invite whoever to stay a while. As a result there's a handful of youngish to middle-aged dudes just hanging out in a mansion in the countryside, playing pool, playing cards, playing more pool, sometimes listening to the radio in the evening. As much as I like an introverted night of quiet, the thought of such a boring existence being shared with several near strangers gave me an anxious and restless feeling just reading about it. I think my distaste for the setting of much of this story partly led to my unenthusiastic response to the story as a whole.

I can't get over how Gibson used "automatic" and "revolver" interchangeably in these early stories, sometimes in the same paragraph when referring to the same guns. For a modern audience this complete lack of familiarity with his subject is maddening when it's so frequent and consistent.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the third in the series of Shadow pulp novels reissued in the late '60s, and since it was originally published in October, 1931, I presume it may have been the third such novel written. At any rate, it's a classic pulp tale, filled with murder, mystery, technical prowess (oh, there is wireless equipment that nobody understood), secret codes, underworld bars, opium dens, counterfeit bills, incompetent FBI agents, super-competent secret service agents, the muddled damsel in distress abilities of number one Shadow agent Harry Vincent, torturous traps, and not one, not two, but three surprise get the drops on everybody climaxes. I can't help loving these books, even as I realize the absurdity of them - it's all in the breathless quality of the rapidly written prose, the constant shifting of points of view, the certainty that all evil men behave the same way, and the superhuman if simultaneously overly complicated methods of the Shadow himself.

[Glenn White · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a pulp fan and I'm nostalgic about The Shadow, so I enjoyed it. I admire the author for writing these at the rate of two novels a month! Considering how fast they were turned out, the stories are amazingly lucid. I generally read about one Shadow novel a month. (They don't take long.) Dated but fun.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of sameness to the early Shadow books at least but I still enjoyed it. Listened to this one also on my Kindle, which is sure helping my commute time and letting me feel like I'm getting 'something' accomplished while I'm sitting in traffic.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satisfying if a little stiff -- but hell, it's a pulp novel from a time when the author was producing two per month.

[Jeff Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot itself was a typical pulp line, but it did contribute some elements of the Shadow legend, most notably the explanation of the Lamont Cranston alter ego.

[Ronald]

read some time in 1985

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun Shadow adventure.