"The Golden Vulture"

 Here it is folks.  The oddity that is The Golden Vulture.  Why an oddity?  Well, it is the only adventure of The Shadow that was penned by none other than Lest Dent, aka Kenneth Robeson, the man known for Doc Savage.  Although Gibson thoroughly reworked Dent's manuscript he kept a lot of what Doc fans are familiar with.  And that is what bothers me.  It's not a bad novel at all, it's just not The Shadow.  At least not as I identify with him.  I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, I love the idea of Doc Savage.  Who wouldn't?  He's the Superman we can all become if we just apply ourselves.  The American dream... just work hard enough and you can have it all.  But in the hands of Dent he just has always seemed written for the eternal twelve year old.  And I got some of that feeling when I read this one.  I admit, it's been a loooooong time since I read it and I do intend to read it again, just to see if I had already prejudiced myself against Dent touching my hero.  But right now I am still jaded to this novel.