Before he makes an attempt at reading the new “Shadow” novel by James Patterson, Brian Leno selected one of the original pulp era sagas to compare it against.
“Pretty close to being done with Gray Fist, one of the earlier The Shadow novels. Taking my time.”
I heard that the new book opens with a scene set in 1937, and some reviewers thought it was exciting. And I realized that I probably could read most of it on the Look Inside feature on Amazon.
Yep.
The banter between Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane is painful, straight out of a romance novel (a multitude of readers LOVE romance novels, but I’m not one of them). Then some speedy driving after a plot development. Then the narrative jumps to the future with a high school kid, and I skimmed that stuff in a minute or two until I ran out of the Look Inside.
Guess I’m clear of any interest, my morbid curiosity more than satisfied. If Leno barely makes it a couple of pages in, I won’t blame him.
But the real Shadow he’s enjoying, as usual.
“I like the way he’s always laughing about things,” Brian tells me.
“No one can hear him but he still cracks himself up.
“Kind of a psycho.
“Cool.”
