Sax Rohmer's the Trail of Fu Manchu [Paperback]

S. Rohmer (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Zebra (June 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821716190
• ISBN-13: 978-0821716199
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A FUN BUT FLAWED FU, March 20, 2002

By 

s.ferber (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sax Rohmer's the Trail of Fu Manchu (Paperback)

This book, the seventh of 14 in Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu series, finds the good Dr. in pretty desperate straits following the events of book #6, "The Bride of Fu Manchu." In this installment, he is a hunted man, cut off from his funds, the bulk of his Si-Fan associates, and the elixir vitae that is preserving his life. This book is something of a radical departure from the previous six in that there is no first-person narrator, but at the same time hearkens back to the tone of the first three volumes in the series, in that the action takes place in the Surrey and Limehouse regions of London. Nayland Smith, Dr. Petrie and Alan Sterling are all back, as are Fleurette and Fah Lo Suee. This book introduces the character of Inspector Gallaho from Scotland Yard, as cool and tough an ally as any bunch of Fu fighters could hope for. The story this time concerns Fu Manchu's kidnapping of Fleurette Petrie away from her father. There is also a wonderful side plot in which it is discovered that Fu has been making his own gold, alchemist style, in an abandoned tunnel under the Thames River. The raiding of this factory takes up fully 1/4 of the book, and is a very well done and suspenseful set piece. Multiple narrative strands converge here in bravura manner; a first-person narrative could not have allowed for these wonderful scenes. One of the long-standing characters in the series meets an end here, and it is a shocking moment when it comes. There are, however, several instances of inconsistency and fuzziness in the book that prevent me from giving it a top grade. For instance, in one scene Smith and Co. visit the doctor who bought Petrie's practice many years before. His name is Dr. Norton. However, in book #3, "The Hand of Fu Manchu," we were told that this man's name was Dr. Murray! Inconsistencies like this can drive an alert reader crazy! There is also no reason why there had to be two completely unrelated characters named Preston in the current novel; it only leads to reader confusion. Also, and this is a small but annoying thing, Rohmer uses words like "settee" and "divan" interchangeably in the same scene, so we never know which he is talking about. But these are quibbles. Minor cavils aside, this is a very suspenseful and memorable entry in the Fu saga.