Norgil the Magician / Maxwell Grant

Magic and mystery are so closely interwoven that it is hard to tell where one leaves off and the other begins,” writes Walter B. Gibson in an introduction written especially for this volume, and there is perhaps no one more qualified to make that statement. Under his own name, Gibson was recognized throughout the world as a prominent magician in his own right, as well as having been a leading authority on magic in addition to being a ghostwriter for Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston, two of the most renowned stage magicians of their generation.
Under the Street & Smith house name of Maxwell Grant, Walter Gibson created and wrote 282 of the 325 novellas about the most famous crimefighter to battle evil-doers in the pages of pulp magazines: The Shadow. He created one other character for the pulps, combining the two worlds of magic and crime for his unique detective – Norgil the Magician.
Each story employs a famous stage illusion as a plot device, and Norgil becomes a kind of solitary representation of several real-life magicians who made those tricks popular.

Eight of these long-lost stories are collected for the first time in this volume, including: Norgil – Magician Crime Busters Nov 1937, Ring of Death Crime Busters Jan 1938 , Murderer’s Throne Crime Busters Feb 1938 , The Second Double Crime Busters Mar 1938,Drinks on the House Crime Busters Apr 1938, Chinaman’s Chance Crime Busters May 1938, The Glass Box ,Crime Busters Jun 1938, Battle of Magic Mystery Mag. July 1940