THE SHADOW: A Quarter of Eight and The Freak Show Murders

by Welter Gibson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 1978

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"" And he's back to tell you about it in these two novels selected from the 283(!) novel-length pulps which featured the brooding chuckler over a 15-year period from the Thirties to the Fifties. Unlike the famed Orson Welles radio program, The Shadow in print has no recourse to invisibility--he has only his hypnotically scintillating fire-opal ring with which to cloud men's minds. And novel readers will also discover that The Shadow is not Lamont Cranston! Lamont Cranston is a real millionaire who allows The Shadow to assume his identity on occasion; The Shadow is actually Kent Allard, an aviator who disappeared in a flight over the Guatemalan jungle and was worshipped as a bird god by the Xinca Indians during his ""lost years."" The first novel herein, A Quarter of Eight, is a blend of history and legend as the sibilant switcher slips through the dark alleys of Vichy-dominated Martinique while trying to unriddle the clue of the broken piece-of-eight pirate coin, which leads--hatch--to hidden treasure. The Freak Show Murders draws upon Gibson's early days as a magician with a traveling carnival. This time the nimble nemesis fights The Harlequin, who inhabits a freak show that features the Inseparable Siamese Twins, Damon and Pythias. Or are they really a weird double-genius of murder? Disarming lads, actually. . . . Watch out, boys, the weed of crime bears bitter fruit!

Pub Date: April 7, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION