Discovering Fu Manchu

Yesterday I stumbled upon news that Strange Attractor’s latest book, Lord of Strange Deaths, a collection of critical essays about Sax Rohmer is currently being prepped for a mid-September release (after some long delays it seems) and suitably intrigued I sought out The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu, Rohmer’s 1913 novel which introduced the world to the fiendish Chinese bogeyman. It feels a bit premature to post about this – I’m only a third of the way into the book, but I’m enjoying it immensely although I wouldn’t recommend it as bedtime reading. Long after lights out, my mind was racing with diabolical plots, inventive assassination methods and breakneck Feuillade-style action. One pleasing side-effect of discovering Rohmer is that I'm now curious to check out a box set of Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films that has been languishing on my shelf for much too long... My kindle copy of The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu comes under the alternative title The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, is professionally formatted and is prefaced by some introductory notes – well worth a buck from Amazon. Elsewhere a selection of Sax Rohmer novels are available in various formats from the free archive at Project Gutenberg