Customer Reviews

The Hand of Fu-Manchu: Being a New Phase in the Activities of Fu-Manchu, the Evil Doctor

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This book is a classic must -read type book. Well written in that style only Sax Rohmer can do - and his story is one of his best. Read it, love it!!!!

Found in my eBook mystery anthology, this bit of relatively light pleasure is about 95 years old. Intrepid Scotland Yard man Nayland Smith works with storyteller Dr. Petrie to battle the threat of the evil Chinese group Si -Fan and its most potent member, the titular Fu Manchu. Forgive me for spoilers, but in spite of the perception that Fu Manchu had been mortally wounded, it proves to not be the case. The timing of the book, after Sherlock Holmes, but well before James Bond (and Indiana Jones, and Ludlum and, and, and...) shows in the book. The obvious comparison of Smith and Dr. Petrie to Holmes and Dr. Watson seems unavoidable, although there's little of Holmes-style deductive reasoning here. The latter spy characters may, if anything, show more, with the nemesis of foreign evil and myriad bad guys (and girls) clever enough to greatly challenge our heroes (with weapons, hypnosis, scary critters, and more). Largely set in the hidden little corners of bustling London, there are harrowing narrow escapes and moments of serendipitous good luck, as well as the requisite setbacks. The stereotyping of `Easterners' is ugly by today's standards, but in the context of the time of writing, maybe at least understandable - the fears of the unknown. While this was the first of three Fu Manchus in my anthology, it is apparently the third or so of some dozen Fu Manchus. When in the mood for more good fun, or as a break from heavier reading, I will surely return to Rohmer and the series, probably researching first to see which one comes first. I'd recommend it. It's good writing, but also wonderful intrigue and characters and setting.

Not as good as the first two Fu-Manchu books, perhaps partly due to a fair lack of Fu-Manchu.

He does have some excuse though, being shot in the head at the end of the last book, and hence assumed dead by our ertswhile heroes.

It seems he is not, though, just in a bad way, and as such, abducts a top surgeon, and Petrie to assist. Or, at least his crew does, he is having problems just sitting up and talking with a bullet in his head.

They set their sights on the Si-Fan organisation, the overlords of the good Doctor, and perhaps a mystery woman in charge.

Fu-Manchu is in a bit of trouble with them himself, it seems.

I will not address here the patent racism inherent to the plot and characters in the Fu-Manchu stories. For this discussion, see the reviews of the first volume, The Insidious Dr Fu-Manchu. I speak only to the quality of this 2001 New Millennium Library edition of the third volume, The Hand of Fu-Manchu.

The publisher has obviously relied upon computer spell-checking, not human proof-reading. I cannot count the number of instances where the letter R is replaced by the letter N, producing legitimate but inappropriate words. For example: "he looked left and Night", "we raced down the marble staiNs", "she lifted the veil from heN face", "he produced a paiN of handcuffs".

Also, the two cryptograms featured in the plot are not accurately reproduced, as compared with the 1962 Pyramid edition. Specifically, all of the letters are in normal script, when several should be in italics.

Admittedly, these points are merely annoyances. If you enjoyed the melodramatic first two volumes, this third is an excellent sequel.