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Which book features a method of illustrating shadows not used in any other - one which is a little at odds with the clear line?

Book and method of illustration, please!

Are you meaning the grey shadows cast by people and vehicles etc in The Crab with the Golden Claws? These grey-wash type shadows feature particular prominently in the Moroccan port scenes, towards the latter stages of the book. I don't think these type of grey, realistic shadows feature in any of the other books (where either jet black shadows or, more commonly, no shadows at all are the stylistic rule), though I'm not entirely certain about that.

But in any case, of the other "not-quite-clear-line" shading techniques that Hergé occasionally uses - such as hatching, chiaroscuro or gradiated colour shading - I can't think of any that only features in one book. So the use of grey shadows in Crab is my best guess!

Spot on Balthazar! This style of shading wasn't used anywhere else as far as I know (although there's tonal variation in Sir Francis Haddock's coat during the night scenes on the Unicorn).

These are amongst the oldest colour pages in the series, and Hergé dropped this style of shading fairly soon afterward. You can see the pages in Crab that were reworked by Hergé in later years by their solid, brighter tones and lack of wash shadows.

Another point to you, and the next question is yours!