Shadow: The Master of Darkness Books In Order

Publication Order of Shadow: The Master of Darkness Books

Shadow: The Master of Darkness is a series of pulp fiction novels by Maxwell Grant. Maxwell Grant is the pseudonym of Walter Gibson, an American professional magician and author. Under the name Maxwell Grant, he wrote more than 10,000 words per day and had more than 300 novel-length stories in the series. The reason for this is that there was a lot of demand for the character during the 1930s and the 1940s, the heyday of the Shadow character. Gibson has authored more than 100 works in tons of genres from games, magic, hypnotism, psychic phenomena, yoga, true crime, rope knots, true crime, and mysteries. He has also worked as a ghost author for novels on spiritualism and magic by the likes of Joseph Dunninger, Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone Sr., and Howard Thurston. He also wrote “Blackstone, the Magic Detective” the comic book that was a fiction version of Harry Blackstone.

Gibson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1897 to Alfred and May Morrell Gibson. He then went to Colgate University before he got a job working for newspapers writing crossword puzzles and reporting in Philadelphia. Some of the papers that he worked on include “The Evening Ledger” and the “North American.” In 1928, Macfadden approached him to edit “True Strange” stories which he did for while under the pseudonym Walter Scofield. In 1931 he wrote some crime stories which he submitted to Detective Story Magazine. The publishers at Street & Smith loved the stories and asked him to write the first adventure for them which became “The Shadow.” At this point he was just a mysterious narrator and voice on the “Detective Stories” radio drama. He went on to create everything about the character and also the other characters he interacts with including Lamont Cranston the wealthy playboy and sometimes alter ego.

“The Shadow” by Maxwell Grant first started out as serialized dramas that were then made into pulp fiction. The lead character The Shadow has been in everything from feature films, comic strips, video games, comic books, serials, and television. Once the Shadow moved from a radio show character into a comic character, he became a pop culture icon and was a major influence for comic book superheroes including the likes of Batman. The first of The Shadow series was launched in 1931 as a monthly before it became a bimonthly issue that ran for nearly two decades before it was retired in 1949. The Shadow was a world-famous aviator named Kent Allard, who everyone thought was dead. His last flight in South America has gone down and no one had heard from his since. However, the man that had been given up for dead was still alive and had relocated to New York and took on the name “The Shadow.” He was now one of the best crime fighters the city ever had. It can be confusing reading the pulps given that Lamont Craston often appears in the pulp fiction as a rich business whose identity Kent Allard loves to take on as an alter ego whenever the man is out of town. In other media, Lamont Cranston is not an alter ego but a separate character. Over the years, there were 325 issues of The Shadow starring Kent Allard as the lead written by Walter Gibson under his pseudonym Maxwell Grant.

“The Living Shadow” the first novel of The Shadow: The Master of Darkness series is not the typical superhero or hero story. There is no hint of the identity of The Shadow who is rarely seen. He is a mysterious figure and mastermind lurking in the shadows. In this story, the lead is Harry Vincent who is The Shadow’s best-known agent. Through the eyes of the agent we learn that the Shadow is a shadowy presence and crime fighter that is fed information by numerous agents. The Shadow saves Vincent from his attempt at suicide and then recruits him as one of his most trusted agents. The Shadow is a master of disguise a mystery to all and some kind of “Fantomas” that acts in person or for the most part through agents. The Shadow seems to know everything though no one knows him. Cloaked in mystery and darkness he is a legend to those that have had to feel his unforgiving hand. He blurs the lines and works with one step outside the law though the police can never match his effectiveness at fighting crime. He works alongside an invisible network of crime fighters who have pledged their lives and loyalty to him to eliminate crime in the city.

“In The Eyes of the Shadow” the second novel of the series, The Shadow continues to showcase his exceptional ability at disguising himself. The basic plot of the novel is that a Russian prince was determined to pay six men in gratitude for helping him escape the Bolshevik Revolution. But as they wait to start enjoying their good fortune someone is picking them off one by one before they can receive their share. One of the six is Bruce Duncan who has been living in Japan and is now back hoping to live in the house left to him by his uncle. Bruce had been placed in charge of divvying up the money by the prince but before he can do his job, critical information he needs goes missing. Enter Lamont Cranston a radioman and millionaire that never seems to be in the same place as The Shadow. Harry Vincent and the wealthy heir Bruce Duncan take center stage in the story. The Shadow and his friend have to go against colorful henchmen as well as a torture chamber and a death trap.

“The Red Menace” shifts gears and tells the story of The Shadow and his friends as they go up against a bunch of tough as nails Commies led by The Red Envoy, a red masked leader. Harry Vincent has to go to the Metrolite Hotel and shadow the mysterious man. Lamont Cranston makes another appearance and is very active in the investigation though he takes up his character of The Shadow in a range of disguises. Bruce Duncan returns as well as the Russian jewels from the second novel of the series. The Red Envoy and his gang of communist spies are targeting Czarist loyalists and will kill them if they can find them. The crafty communists are threatening the American government’s interests by also targeting an American inventor. The plots gets a lot of twists and turn with friends and enemies in each camp. The politics make the novel something of a relic though the lustful and conniving Commies make for intriguing characters.