The Silent Death

The Shadow Pulp #27

by Maxwell Grant, Walter B. Gibson

Genres: Pulp

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

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

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can you not love a novel whose mad scientist villain has a name like Folcroft Urlich? This is very pulpish stuff in which The Shadow must stop an evil genius who enjoys developing new ways to kill. It would have made a great movie in its day, possibly with Bela Lugosi as Urlich.

[Mh430 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is by no means a bad Walter Gibson novel, it just pales by comparison to the many excellent Shadow tales from his first few years of recorded adventures. Yes, our hero is extremely competent in this one, and yes, the starring villain is a kill-crazy scientific inventor with a band of underworld thugs at his command. But that's not a particularly original threat for a Shadow adventure. The book does offer a unique murder delivery scheme, and there's some interesting interactions between agents Cliff Marsland and Clyde Burke. And this story is still superior to nearly all of the 1940s Shadow tales so I consider it worthy of the time investment to read it.

[Nathan Shumate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, I suppose, for a crank-'em-out pulp novel from a man ("Maxwell Grant," aka Walter Gibson) who wrote 24 Shadow novels a year single-handedly. Which is to say, bad but predictably so. Who has time to revise or invent when there's no time for the fingers to pause on the typewriter?

It probably wouldn't be so bad is Gibson had trusted his readers a little more; as it is, it seems like 30% of the text is repetitions, redundancies, and overexplanations of what has just happened and the significance thereof. On the other hand, if it weren't for such extra verbiage, none of these Shadow adventures would be legitimately "novel-length."

[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

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another evil genius. Great cover, even though there was no babe in a giant test-tube to be found anywhere in the story.