[The Shadow 331] • Mark Of The Shadow

From May 1966, this is one in the series of eight new Shadow novels published by Belmont. All were written by Dennis Lynds under the 'Maxwell Grant' name. While Lynds is a veteran mystery writer (also known as William Arden and Michael Collins) with his own series of thrillers, and while he has also written a few Executioner books, some Michael Shayne, Nick Carter 'Spymaster' books and the 1974 CHARLIE CHAN RETURNS, his new adventures of the Shadow were not too exciting or satisfying.  MARK OF THE SHADOW seems to take forever to get going, and it's not until the very end that our hero (or the reader) sees any real action. Events are constantly restated and mulled over, there is a lot of unneeded detail on unimportant side-issues, and the usual cast of possible suspects isn't clearly presented. For most of the book, the Shadow is dealing with an odd series of murders in a California town, where a crime commission is gathering to wipe out the Mafia once and for all. (In just a few years, Mack Bolan would be coming along.) Another mysterious group seems to be involved, and toward the finale, the book abruptly swerves wildly into the mid-1960s world of exaggerated spy stories.  The Shadow finds himself confronting CYPHER, a worldwide network of assassins and mercenaries, who operate huge underground strongholds and wear snappy black uniforms. Lynds contributed a number of stories to THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. digest and he seems much more comfortable with the modern supersecret espionage material than with the cloaked avenger of the darkness. Actually, CYPHER itself is not a bad creation. Instead of being a vaguely *Evil* organization, it specializes in permanently removing people for a fee, 'Cypher' meaning 'nothing' is appropriate-- "CYPHER! Nothing! An organization of negation. An International Violence for Hire."  It's probably easiest for Shadow fans to enjoy this if they interpret it as a new incarnation. The pulp version and the old-time radio version were essentially different characters, in much the same way Ian Fleming's James Bond and the Bond in the movies are similar but not identical. This new Shadow has had his powers beefed up to the point where he can mentally take control of a roomful of gangsters, walk unseen past watchful sentries in a well-lit fortress and even open electronic locks by concentrating. The master of darkness has literal super-hearing (called just that) and night vision equal to infra-red goggles.  Yet he's still recognizably the classic character, with the aggressive beaklike nose and burning hypnotic eyes, black cloak and slouch hat. Several times he whips out his 45s and perforates some thugs with fatal punctures. He also does a lot of laughing but it's not described vividly and seems rather forced. Cranston has gray hair, a sign that he's meant to be the original Shadow still active. He has Margo Lane, Stanley and Burbank, and even Harry Vincent still working for him.  Probably the most interesting detail introduced in these books is the name of the Shadow's teacher in the secret arts-- the Master Chen T'a Tze, the only person to have known the crimefighter's true name. (It's clearly stated that Lamont Cranston is just one of the identities he uses in his campaign. "And it did not matter who he had been, what man he had been born. That man was gone. The Shadow was, now, only the Shadow....") In this book, our hero meets a woman who had studied under another disciple of the Master and who has as a result, many of the powers of the Shadow himself. Unfortunately, not much is done with the possibilities of two masters of darkness clashing.