Writer – Denny O’Neil
Artist – E.R. Cruz

Harry and Shrevvy are on their way home when they notice something suspicious and Harry being Harry, cannot let it go. As fate would have it, the Crouch Gang is in the middle of something and while the Shadow’s agents try to stop whatever it is, Shrevvy ends up getting seriously hurt. This all leads to their boss, The Shadow himself, to step in and take care of things, admitting that the Crouch Gang should have been dealt with long ago. An investigation soon takes place with a son on the outs who gets a bullet for his trouble while being questioned and it is learned that Papa Crouch and his son Ox were let out of prison early, though by who is unknown. All of this leads to a confrontation between The Shadow and the Crouch Gang and it goes a little unexpectedly. Author Denny O’Neil would usually have The Shadow leave at least one or two of the villains alive for the police to deal with and to close up whatever case all nice and neat. That does not happen here, though things do get tied up quite succinctly as everyone dies. There is one person though who lives just long enough to spill the beans as it were, to giveaway the whole operation and rat out the one man who was actually responsible for everything. That person tries to make a quick getaway but The Shadow is on his trail and death comes with him. O’Neil writes a quick-paced tale, one that continues off of the last book with the events about Shrevvy and avid readers will notice that this is one of the first times in the title’s history that an event from a previous book has carried over. Given that the last issue had a different writer and put a few things in motion, it is good to see O’Neil resolve them in this book when he could have just left them and moved on with a fresh start. The story itself, while nothing exceptional scenario-wise, was written quite well and featured all of the elements that make The Shadow’s adventures great. It continues to prove that O’Neil has a solid grasp of what makes the hero work and what readers would like to see. Joining him on the book is E.R. Cruz whose artwork is some of the best the title has seen but a far departure from the previous artists who have graced its pages. Altogether, these things make for a very good issue of a title that has seen far more ups than downs.

3.5 out of 5