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"Red" Kerry #2
Yellow Shadows
What was "the whistling death?" That was the question that confronted Scotland Yard one night as the thick yellow fog rolled heavily into the mysterious room where Limehouse's richest Chinaman lay murdered. Nothing was further from the mind of Bernard Hope, sitting comfortably in his compartment of the 8:05 train from Blackwall, than thoughts of crime or death -- but when an exotically beautiful girl with an olive skin and slanting eyes stepped suddenly in, evidently badly frightened, and begged him for protection -- he found himself caught in a net that nearly cost him his life.
308 pages, Print on Demand (Paperback)
First published September 1, 1925
10 people want to read
About the author
Sax Rohmer
494 books124 followersAKA Arthur Sarsfield Ward (real name); Michael Furey.
Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (15 February 1883 - 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu.
Born in Birmingham to a working class family, Rohmer initially pursued a career as a civil servant before concentrating on writing full-time.
He worked as a poet, songwriter, and comedy sketch writer in Music Hall before creating the Sax Rohmer persona and pursuing a career writing weird fiction.
Like his contemporaries Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen, Rohmer claimed membership to one of the factions of the qabbalistic Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Rohmer also claimed ties to the Rosicrucians, but the validity of his claims has been questioned. His physician and family friend, Dr. R. Watson Councell may have been his only legitimate connection to such organizations. It is believed that Rohmer may have exaggerated his association in order to boost his literary reputation as an occult writer.
His first published work came in 1903, when the short story The Mysterious Mummy was sold to Pearson's Weekly. He gradually transitioned from writing for Music Hall performers to concentrating on short stories and serials for magazine publication. In 1909 he married Rose Elizabeth Knox.
He published his first novel Pause! anonymously in 1910. After penning Little Tich in 1911 (as ghostwriter for the Music Hall entertainer) he issued the first Fu Manchu novel, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu, was serialized from October 1912 - June 1913. It was an immediate success with its fast-paced story of Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie facing the worldwide conspiracy of the 'Yellow Peril'. The Fu Manchu stories, together with his more conventional detective series characters—Paul Harley, Gaston Max, Red Kerry, Morris Klaw, and The Crime Magnet—made Rohmer one of the most successful and well-paid authors of the 1920s and 1930s.
Rohmer also wrote several novels of supernatural horror, including Brood of the Witch-Queen. Rohmer was very poor at managing his wealth, however, and made several disastrous business decisions that hampered him throughout his career. His final success came with a series of novels featuring a female variation on Fu Manchu, Sumuru.
After World War II, the Rohmers moved to New York only returning to London shortly before his death. Rohmer died in 1959 due to an outbreak of influenza ("Asian Flu").
There were thirteen books in the Fu Manchu series in all (not counting the posthumous The Wrath of Fu Manchu. The Sumuru series consist of five books.
His wife published her own mystery novel, Bianca in Black in 1954 under the pen name, Elizabeth Sax Rohmer. Some editions of the book mistakenly credit her as Rohmer's daughter. Elizabeth Sax Rohmer and Cay Van Ash, her husband's former assistant, wrote a biography of the author, Master of Villainy, published in 1972.
Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (15 February 1883 - 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu.
Born in Birmingham to a working class family, Rohmer initially pursued a career as a civil servant before concentrating on writing full-time.
He worked as a poet, songwriter, and comedy sketch writer in Music Hall before creating the Sax Rohmer persona and pursuing a career writing weird fiction.
Like his contemporaries Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen, Rohmer claimed membership to one of the factions of the qabbalistic Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Rohmer also claimed ties to the Rosicrucians, but the validity of his claims has been questioned. His physician and family friend, Dr. R. Watson Councell may have been his only legitimate connection to such organizations. It is believed that Rohmer may have exaggerated his association in order to boost his literary reputation as an occult writer.
His first published work came in 1903, when the short story The Mysterious Mummy was sold to Pearson's Weekly. He gradually transitioned from writing for Music Hall performers to concentrating on short stories and serials for magazine publication. In 1909 he married Rose Elizabeth Knox.
He published his first novel Pause! anonymously in 1910. After penning Little Tich in 1911 (as ghostwriter for the Music Hall entertainer) he issued the first Fu Manchu novel, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu, was serialized from October 1912 - June 1913. It was an immediate success with its fast-paced story of Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie facing the worldwide conspiracy of the 'Yellow Peril'. The Fu Manchu stories, together with his more conventional detective series characters—Paul Harley, Gaston Max, Red Kerry, Morris Klaw, and The Crime Magnet—made Rohmer one of the most successful and well-paid authors of the 1920s and 1930s.
Rohmer also wrote several novels of supernatural horror, including Brood of the Witch-Queen. Rohmer was very poor at managing his wealth, however, and made several disastrous business decisions that hampered him throughout his career. His final success came with a series of novels featuring a female variation on Fu Manchu, Sumuru.
After World War II, the Rohmers moved to New York only returning to London shortly before his death. Rohmer died in 1959 due to an outbreak of influenza ("Asian Flu").
There were thirteen books in the Fu Manchu series in all (not counting the posthumous The Wrath of Fu Manchu. The Sumuru series consist of five books.
His wife published her own mystery novel, Bianca in Black in 1954 under the pen name, Elizabeth Sax Rohmer. Some editions of the book mistakenly credit her as Rohmer's daughter. Elizabeth Sax Rohmer and Cay Van Ash, her husband's former assistant, wrote a biography of the author, Master of Villainy, published in 1972.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 18, 2019
Just like every other Sax Rohmer book, this one starts with a beautiful exotic woman showing up out of nowhere and asking a perplexed man for help. This time he's alone on a train when she shows up, and before the night is over the man is accused of a murder in Limehouse, the Chinatown district of London. It doesn't help matters that he actually knows the dead man, can't provide an alibi, and is carrying a briefcase filled with incriminating evidence. Luckily for him he knows the best barrister in town, who also happens to be related to the Commissioner of Police. Luckily for the police, the case has come to the attention of Detective Red Kerry, the unstoppable bulldog of the CID.
Rohmer makes the atmosphere of London an integral part of the story, with the perpetual yellow fog being a character all its own. The strange silence of Limehouse, the interaction between Kerry and his subordinates, the anachronisms of the period all add to the overall zeitgeist of the tale. Much of the story takes place not just in one house, but in one room of that house. As always the time period adds amusement: a character inherits a house and decides not only to have a telephone added but also an indoor bathroom. And we must all remember to light the boiler well ahead of time if we intend to take a bath with hot water.
The mystery itself is indecipherable. There are numerous red herrings, characters who look like each other, coincidences that require a willing suspension of disbelief. Like many Rohmer tales the ending is abrupt. There are so many false leads that it looks like Rohmer himself forgot about some of them. But if you give up on trying to beat Red Kerry to the culprit and just go along for the ride it's really quite fun. Read it while you can; it's written in the 1920's so it won't survive the coming Bonfire of the Vanities. And whatever did become of that suitcase?
Rohmer makes the atmosphere of London an integral part of the story, with the perpetual yellow fog being a character all its own. The strange silence of Limehouse, the interaction between Kerry and his subordinates, the anachronisms of the period all add to the overall zeitgeist of the tale. Much of the story takes place not just in one house, but in one room of that house. As always the time period adds amusement: a character inherits a house and decides not only to have a telephone added but also an indoor bathroom. And we must all remember to light the boiler well ahead of time if we intend to take a bath with hot water.
The mystery itself is indecipherable. There are numerous red herrings, characters who look like each other, coincidences that require a willing suspension of disbelief. Like many Rohmer tales the ending is abrupt. There are so many false leads that it looks like Rohmer himself forgot about some of them. But if you give up on trying to beat Red Kerry to the culprit and just go along for the ride it's really quite fun. Read it while you can; it's written in the 1920's so it won't survive the coming Bonfire of the Vanities. And whatever did become of that suitcase?
January 31, 2025
I have a soft spot for these dated thrillers and I'm very forgiving of the authors' misogyny and casual racism where it reflects the prevalent attitudes of the time. Sax Rohmer, the creator of Fu Manchu and the "Yellow Peril", rather than just reflect contemporary attitudes, may have helped to create and perpetuate the popular feeling about devious, evil, exotic, cruel Asians. With the title of this book, "Yellow Shadows", and the title of Chapter One "Slanting Eyes" it is clear where things are heading. It is only the beautiful, slender Asian girl's plea for help that enlists our unsuspecting hero's support, no doubt helped by the accompanying kiss, full of Eastern Promise.
April 2, 2018
Another. one of those Sax Rohmer books that starts well, but soon loses focus and gets lost in too many characters.
February 23, 2016
I really like the character Inspector Kerry, from 'Dope' and this later book. there are a bunch of similarities between the books, some parallel characters. Rohmer is always cutting between multiple lines of pursuit, there's the police and also some dashing civilian friend helping out the nominal protagonists. Kerry is suspicious or exasperated about these latter (Seton Pasha in the earlier book, Cosmo Potter here) in varying ways as the story goes. that provides a lot of the fun. the parallel-action structure also is used to have a chapter or two that just seem to pad things out and postpone the eventual revelations.
by Rohmer's racist standards, this is one with as much respect as revulsion toward the hyper-exoticized Chinese. don't mean to make that a compliment.
by Rohmer's racist standards, this is one with as much respect as revulsion toward the hyper-exoticized Chinese. don't mean to make that a compliment.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews