The Fu Manchu Omnibus: The Island of Fu Manchu/The Wrath of Fu Manchu

ISLAND OF FU MANCHU is the final classic Fu Manchu novel. It follows on directly from THE DRUMS OF FU MANCHU and mixes World War II espionage action with voodoo zombies. As happens many times in Sax Rohmer novels, the sub-plot involving the Panama Canal seems to have predicted future events. Reading a book featuring Hitler and Mussolini when both men controlled military might that could have changed the course of the world is particularly rivetting. The action is fast-paced and the dialogue is crisp. The characterizations are excellent. Fu Manchu remains the most complex literary villain ever created. Bart Kerrigan remains Rohmer's last great narrator/protagonist in the Conan Doyle fashion. Long-time readers will delight in learning more of the Ericksen Ray (which Rohmer introduced in THE GOLDEN SCORPION [1918]). Fah lo Suee, the devious daughter of Fu Manchu, returns in a new guise--Voodoo Queen Mamaloi in a sub-plot Rohmer would later borrow for VIRGIN IN FLAMES (1952). ISLAND OF FU MANCHU reads like the best INDIANA JONES adventure with a flair for the mystery genre that is second only to the immortal Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The novella THE WRATH OF FU MANCHU and the short stories read like works-in-progress. Written in the 1950's, they pick up where 1948's SHADOW OF FU MANCHU left off. Communism has destroyed Fu Manchu's idealized China. As in Rohmer's World War II-era books, Fu Manchu is desperate to remove Fascists and Communists from power as they threaten his own plans for domination. Rohmer had been writing Fu Manchu stories for over forty years by this point. These shorter works are chiefly noteworthy for the final series appearances of Fah lo Suee and Dr. Petrie.