 | #014 "Hidden Death"
Vol. 3, No. 2 Published: 09/01/32 Submitted: 03/11/32 without a title Author: Walter Gibson Review date: Oct 18, 2002 |
HIDDEN DEATH was originally published in the September 1932 issue of The Shadow Magazine. It's the story that introduced Police Commissioner Ralph Weston to the series. As this story opens, Commissioner Weston has been recently appointed to the post, and is meeting his ace detective, Joe Cardona. Weston has decided that he wants to hear nothing about this mysterious character known as The Shadow!
Commissioner Weston believes that most of the stories about The Shadow are myths. And the few that have basis in fact are in actuality different random unidentified people. Figuring that a single person with all the amazing abilities attributed to The Shadow can only be regarded as an impossibility, he orders Cardona to avoid any further references to The Shadow. Unless, of course, Cardona can actually prove The Shadow exists.
A madman is on the loose, and it's up to Cardona to track him down. First killed is Silas Harshaw, an old inventor who is mysteriously shot through the heart in his apartment. The following day, a letter arrives at police headquarters saying: "IN MEMORY OF S.H. WHO DIED LAST NIGHT. HE WAS THE FIRST." Cardona knows that means he won't be the last.
There are more to die. Next is Louis Glenn, a man who is found dead in his taxi from unknown causes. Another letter is delivered to the police: "IN MEMORY OF L.G. WHO DIED LAST NIGHT. HE WAS THE SECOND."
Who is this fiend who kills seemingly at random? Why does he taunt the police with his dispicable crimes? How many more will die before he can be caught? What is the secret behind the delivery of the letters, right under the noses of the police? Lots of questions! But only one man - one super man - can find the answers. And that man - that master of the night - is The Shadow!
The Shadow is known to even Commissioner Weston as a radio announcer. Weston doesn't deny that his voice is heard over the radio every week. He just denies that there's any connection between the radio announcer and some unknown mysterious crime fighter. And in 1932, in actuality, The Shadow was merely a radio announcer. The radio broadcasts featuring the adventures of The Shadow were years yet in the future. At this point in time, The Shadow was just the name for the narrator of stories taken from Street and Smith's detective pulps. The pulp stories and the radio broadcasts recognized each others' existance and helped promote each other.
The Shadow appears in this story as himself for most of the time. He briefly appears as millionaire Lamont Cranston and also as the police station janitor Fritz. Remember, in these stories there were actually a Fritz and Lamont Cranston. The Shadow just dresses up in disguise and takes their place when he desires to use their personna. Also making brief appearances are Burbank and Harry Vincent. Commissioner Ralph Weston and Detective Joe Cardona play large parts in this story.
We all know from the many Shadow novels that The Shadow is the master of many languages. In this one, he effortlessly reads Turkish. Is anybody keeping track of all the languages he knows? There sure is a bunch!
In this story, we're told that The Shadow carries special master keys made of thin steel and painted black. That's so that when he's picking a lock to gain secret entry, no one will see any sign of him. His black cloak covers him in darkness. His slouch hat is pulled down so that nothing of his face can be seen. He wears black gloves so that his white hands won't show in the dark. And the master keys are black so that not even the slightest glint will penetrate the darkness.
The famous suction cups that allow The Shadow to cling to the sheer outside walls of buildings are used here for the second time. They were first mentioned in THE CRIME CULT two months earlier. They aren't described in detail, but it's good to see them in use again.
One of the key plot devices involves the hiding place of the dead inventor's secret plans. I won't tell you where they were hidden, but I will say that I wasn't surprised at all. I had seen the same idea used in the old Abbott and Costello movie, "Hold That Ghost." Since this story preceeds the movie by nine years, obviously Walter Gibson didn't steal the idea from the movie. Did Abbott and Costello steal the idea from Gibson? Or did they both steal it from some earlier source? I don't know...