Never a Veiled Threat
By Sax Rohmer
Titan Books, $9.95, 288 pages
Fu Manchu really gets around. Hoping to use a prophecy to his advantage, Fu Manchu seeks to find The Mask of Fu-Manchu, or more accurately, “The Mask of the Veiled Prophet.” By doing so, he hopes to create religious unrest and take over the Middle East for the Si Fan. Denis Nayland Smith and his band oppose this take-over, but with the odds so greatly against them, failure seems imminent.
For pulp fiction buffs this is a fast, fun read, with plenty of nice little places to rest along the way. Surprisingly, for a book of this age, the characters are well developed, making conversations easy to follow. There is a lot of exposition, but it is covered rather nicely and in such a way as to speed the plot along, rather than stall it when someone starts talking. And the battle between Smith and Fu Manchu, for the future of the Middle East, reads like a chess-match, making for a vey entertaining clash. For those who love some great suspense-filled pulp, this makes an excellent summer read.
Reviewed by Jamais Jochim
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