Kings of Crime

 

cover art by George Rozen

Kings of Crime was originally published in the December 1932 issue of The Shadow Magazine. This one takes the Shadow out of the Big Apple to Seaview City--an obvious expy for Atlantic City. Four "Kings of Crime" are planning to bring crime to the resort town--gambling, drugs, blackmail and kidnapping.

It's a great Shadow novels in several ways. First, there are several superb action scenes--most notably a gunfight between the Shadow and a gang of thugs in a pitch-dark hotel room. At the climax, the Shadow makes judicious use of a sniper rifle and a rifle-grenade to ensure the bad guys come to a... well, an explosive end.

The other strong feature of the novel is some nuanced characteriztions, particular the redemption arc of one of the Kings. Throughout his career, the Shadow went up against some pretty ruthless and bloodthirsty villains and most of them are six feet under by time any one Shadow novel ends. But in this case, one of the Kings of Crime swerves away from this. His part of the crime empire is foiled by the Shadow early on and the guy is sent to prison. But he now worries about his family--who didn't know he was a crook and are now destitute. His fellow crooks were supposed to look after them, but they've pretty much thrown the family to the wolves. 

The captured crook breaks out with a vague plan to take vengeance on the other Kings of Crime, but circumstances lead him to continue to examine his life. In a realistic, step-by-step transformation, he ends up being allied with the Shadow, helping destroy crime that he now hates and perfectly willing to return to jail and pay for his own crimes afterwards.

There's a lot of honestly-earned emotion in his character arc. In a world where bad guys are much more likely to take a .45 from one of the Shadow's blazing automatics, it's nice to see someone change his ways.

cover art by Jim Steranko

He's not the only cool supporting character. Seaview City's police chief is a great guy. In the end, he needs the Shadow to figure out who the bad guys actually are, but he's honest and courageous, bringing the police force to the front lines when necessary. He's a pretty cool guy. 

Finally, there's a good mystery at the heart of the story. There's an "Ace" who is the brains behind the four kings. His true identity is a secret through most of the story. An astute reader will guess he's a member of the town council, but which one? The book's third person narrator refers to the police chief has having an honest heart, so its not him. But that leaves a quartet of other suspects.

 The answer to this might catch a few readers by surprise--though readers familar with Walter Gibson's plot twists have a fair chance of guessing correctly.

So--a strong story; a nice change-of-location from the usual streets of New York City; a few fantastic action scenes; and some strong secondary characters. Kings of Crime is yet another wonderful Shadow adventure.