Joachim von Hartmann was born and raised in Buenos Aires by his loving German mother, inseparable from his identical twin. When Joachim moves to Paris with his mother in his late teens, his twin stays behind and enters a dark world. Meanwhile, Joachim begins training to be a butler, fascinated by the precision and intense demands and goes on to work in some of the grandest homes in England. His brother never reappears. Olivia White has given ten years...

In the year 2088, the doomsday clock inches towards midnight. The Command, synonymously the World Destroyer, is on the loose. Not even Lamont Cranston, the Shadow's alter ego, knows who he is, but the clock is ticking as people around the world drop dead by the day, with the attack at the World's Fair the most sinister yet. It's up The Shadow and his band of allies to stop the end of the world.