CIRCLE OF DEATH

4 stars out of 5

I'll go on record as saying this one is about as implausible as they come, but it didn't take long before I jettisoned my "Awww, c'mon, you can't be serious" attitude and enjoyed the heck out of it. It doesn't hurt, of course, that I'm old enough to have been a huge fan of "The Shadow" radio broadcasts, which ran from 1937 to 1954 (never mind where I fit into that timeline). This book is the second in the series featuring The Shadow's alter ego, Lamont Cranston; it's a first for me, but it won't be the last.

The year is 2088; a lot has happened since those old radio shows came to a halt. The Shadow, needless to say, didn't; in fact, it seems he's been rather active for way longer than we ever suspected. These days, he lives as Lamont Cranston in New York with his wife, Margo Lane (remember her??), his "youngest living descendent" Maddy and Maddy's grandmother Jessica; the city is just starting to recover after devastation caused by a baddie named Shiwan Khan before The Shadow brought him down. Margo has a few powers of her own, honed from years earlier, and Maddy, well, is a prodigy. The world, it seems, is divided into two major sections, with each "ruled" by a leader. As part of New York's recovery, the city is hosting a World's Fair - a blatant attempt at boosting goodwill and good feelings amid an overall atmosphere of despair.

But the powers-that-be are so consumed with maintaining a feel-good atmosphere that they sweep some nasty incidents under the rug - incidents that don't go unnoticed by Lamont and Margo nor, when they hit "home," Maddy - a headstrong girl who's just beginning to grow into awareness of her heritage and capabilities. Beyond that, it appears there's a ne'er-do-well who seems to be trying to destroy the world as it exists - known only as Command - and it's up to Lamont to put the kabosh on his mission (encouraged by the President of the Americas). To do that, Lamont calls in the troops - descendants of his trusted colleagues from the past, like Jericho, Moe, Burbank, Hawkeye and Tapper.

From this point on, you're on your own; I won't spill the beans except to say that there's fodder left for the next adventure (but really, who knows what lurks?). I'm already salivating; meantime, I'll thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for letting me read and review a pre-release copy of this one. 

Circle of Death by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (Grand Central Publishing, July 2023); 368 pp.