I've been trying to read more public domain/free to read books and Double Z was the first audiobook in a long line of free audiobook I'm trying. I've read a good amount of modern detective stories, so I decided to try my hand at noir. For the most part, I enjoyed Double Z. Walter Gibson used the idea of killing your darlings to the fullest extent. Opening the book with an endearing intrepid reporter seeking to find the truth by tracking down leads on his own, only for him to be murdered, and that murder to be used as the catalyst for the events that take place in the novel was ingenious and set the pace for the rest of the novel. Though it was written in 1975, the style was meant to mimic the older radio drama it was based on, and it contained a lot of racism because of that. The idea of the Shadow as a crime fighting figure outside the law, willing to work in the grey areas to get the job done felt like a grittier batman story. I enjoyed the twists and turns, but I think I'll stick mostly to newer books inspired by noir tropes in the future in order to avoid the aforementioned racism and other bigotry that was previously considered socially acceptable.