What one reviewer at amazon said about The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu:
Insidious, he certainly is. Yes, he certainly is insidious. And to think he's a doctor, as well!
Fu Manchu is an outdated, appallingly politically-incorrect criminal mastermind who, in this intro to the author's famous series, basically goes on a killing spree to eliminate anyone even remotely threatening his plans for world domination. This simple plot device creates a fast-moving romp, but it does mean that brave and noble protagonist Nayland Smith, teamed with Petrie, the story's narrator, is mostly on defense throughout. If they are not trying to prevent a murder, then they are trying to solve a murder that has been done in some exotic way dreamed up by the elusive Fu. There are scads of locked-room or related scenarios popping up like done toast all through the story, and the reader is usually trying, along with Smith and Petrie, to figure out what poisonous creature got loosed in a dead fellow's study, or what trained killer, human or beast, made those weird marks out on the windowsill, three floors up.
Meanwhile, Fu Manchu is thankfully not one of those megalomaniacs who blindly trusts his lackeys to do all the dirty work; the big man himself is occasionally "on site" meaning the heroes can try to put the grab on him before he pulls a vanishing act. He is adept at slipping away, though, and has a knack for disguise. But the best parts of the book are arguably when Fu Manchu is directly confronting the heroes, sometimes when he's got them helpless.
So the book is essentially a frenzied cat-and-mouse game, not much slower than air whooshing out of a bellows. The better to tempt you on to the next installment, I suppose. For sex appeal, there is the good-guys' help on the inside: beautiful and exotic Karamaneh, she of the curves, who emerges from disguise, or the shadows, just long enough to intoxicate our narrator with her charms, and pass along snippets of info that keep Smith and Petrie on her master's trail. But--can she be trusted, or is Fu Manchu's hold on her too great? Once it becomes clear just how the evil genius keeps her in thrall, naturally our noble do-gooders seek to set her free.
This plot twist, among others, speeds us to our conclusion, where finally our staunch defenders of the free (that means British) world manage to go, definitively, on the offensive. A shame their own sense of honour, even in the face of a master villain, keeps them from fighting dirty, while said villain has no such qualms. The lesson: don't get stuck in such a position where you have promised Fu Manchu you'll put your gun down, because if you're an English Gentleman, you'll have to keep that oath (or feel just terrible about yourself later that night...assuming you survived after putting your gun down and hoping Fu's henchman will drop his knife).
Lots of thrills, a world famous villain, loads of politically incorrect descriptions of various races, murders and deathtraps, opium and assassination. It's all here, waiting to be breezed through before you have time to really pick at it.
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