(oversized pb; 1913; aka The
Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu. First book in the fourteen-book Fu-Manchu series)
From the back cover
“London, 1913—the era of Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and the Invisible Man. A time of shadows, secret societies, and dens filled with opium addicts. Into this world comes the most fantastic emissary of evil society has ever known. . . Dr. Fu-Manchu.”
Review
Mystery, which collects the magazine-published, ten-story series featuring the villainous Fu-Manchu, is a constant, febrile pulse-race work, told from the viewpoint of Dr. Petrie, who assists international detective Denis Nayland Smith in trying to catch the brilliant, devious villain.
Rohmer, channeling other “yellow peril” writers and mores of his time, wastes no time in setting his lead characters into the action, with an unexpected Smith rushing into Petrie’s late-night house. From there until its sequel-friendly ending, it’s a relentless footrace for Smith, Petrie, Scotland Yard’s Inspector Weymouth and others, all trying to catch Fu-Manchu before he and his henchmen commit more clever, strange and memorable murders and terrorist acts.
Mystery’s episodic tone, characterizations and action are hyperbolic, highlighted with racism (lots of “yellow peril” mentions), sexism (Kâramanéh, Fu-Manchu’s half-Chinese slave, is constantly helpless) and lust (Petrie drools over Kâramanéh). In our current age, this is especially egregious—it’d been long egregious back in Rohmer’s day as well—but if you can get past that (by understanding the context of Rohmer’s channeling/fictional chronicling of his time, while you, the reader, reject present-day racism), you may well enjoy this addictive, excellent, twisty and highly energetic detective story, with its wild, genius bad guy.
Followed by thirteen more books, the first of which is The Devil Doctor, published stateside in 1916 as The Return of Fu-Manchu.
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