The first of many, many Shadow novels. On the Brooklyn Bridge, a young man contemplates suicide. Just as he's about to jump, a car pulls alongside and a mysterious black-cloaked man snatches him from the jaws of death. The would-be suicide, Harry Vincent, becomes the latest agent of the man in black, The Shadow, and spearheads the investigation into a jewel-fencing racket.
- Distressed Dude: Harry is captured twice in this novel by the villains. Hopefully he got used to it, because Harry being taken captive virtually becomes a-once-in-every-story occurrence for him.
- Interrupted Suicide/Starts with a Suicide The very first scene in the novel is Harry Vincent about to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge, before The Shadow yanks him into a car and gives him an entirely new life.
- Yellowface: Diamond Bert Farwell is the actual main villain, using a Chinese persona to fence hot jewels.
- This was a case of Real Life Writes the Plot/
Executive Meddling. Originally Gibson had no Chinese subplot in mind with the story, but Street and Smith pulled an old cover illustration from 1919 out to cut cost, one that showed a cowering Chinese man being menaced by a shadowy figure holding a knife. Gibson, either on his own initiative or by editorial request, wrote the Chinatown angle into the story to match the supplied cover.
- This was a case of Real Life Writes the Plot/
- Yellow Peril: Subverted — while a number of Chinese characters serve as mooks, the Big Bad and his Dragon are both Caucasian.
