Road of Crime / Crooks Go Straight

The Shadow - Sanctum Reprints #11

by Maxwell Grant, Will Murray (Contributor)

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
The Master Sleuth returns in two classic Pulp Adventures!
Road of Crime: An ex-con attempts to reform his life with some unseen help from The Shadow.
Crooks Go Straight: A series of robberies casts suspicion on two supposedly reformed criminals. Has one returned to a life of crime?

Genres: Pulp

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2007

About the author

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

Reviews

[J.L. Rallios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two exciting Shadow adventures! In the realm of literary criticism, these stories wouldn't rate high at all, of course, but for escapist fun and for those who love pulp fiction they're wonderful. "Road of Crime" is the best of the two since it was more unique for a Shadow story and not as predictable as "Crooks Go Straight," although the latter had plenty of action and daring-do from The Shadow that the former lacked.

[Keller Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two novellas in this book. The first is better than the second. They start off slow but build up to a action packed end. What is interesting to me about these stories is that the Shadow while being there does not really take the lead role, all the supporting characters take the lead. Makes it for an interesting story.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

While all of the reprints of Walter Gibson's Shadow novels that I've read have been very enjoyable, this one deserves special praise. Road of Crime breaks with the usual formula. Instead of detailing the crimes of a supervillain and the Shadow's quest to stop them, Gibson tells the story of a man in a small town, seeking to redeem himself from his past. It's almost a quiet, domestic drama, with the Shadow almost completely absent, and an emphasis on character over action that this series doesn't normally feature. If the Internet had existed back in 1933, the Shadow message boards would have been ablaze with comments about how Walter Gibson had lost the plot, and must be replaced. However, despite the change in tone, it fits perfectly in with the series' themes about the Shadow working to prevent crime, and his use of former thieves and criminals to achieve that goal. It's a great book, and a great Shadow story, and I'm glad series editor Anthony Tollin saw fit to include it at this point in his reprints.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the first book, which is Road of Crime. One of Gibson's proxy hero stories -- except this one is told from the viewpoint of a criminal, gentleman crook Graham Wellerton. A good story, one of the early Shadow novels from 1933.