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Grey face
The horrible grey face. It appeared in Limehouse; it appeared in Soho, and in the most fashionable quarters of London, and one night a woman dies in an evil district gasping "The Grey Face -- The Grey Face." While Douglas Carey is trying to clear up a gigantic plot, the face appears to him and his reason totters. The girl he loves begins to mistrust him and accuses him of horrible deeds. The Grey Face appears to her and she joins with her lover in an attempt to solve the sinister mystery. The climax is tremendous, incident having followed upon incident with such rapidity, that the expose of the whole fabric is exceptionally dramatic. A hair raising mystery story.
- GenresMystery
331 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1924
2 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Sax Rohmer
492 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 3, 2022
Rohmer is best known for his Fu Manchu novels now, perhaps a little unjustly, regarded with some distain for their cultural stereotyping.
But Rohmer wrote in other genres even if the plots stayed fairly much the same (evil criminal/organisation seeking to undermine the forces of good) and I this is one of what might be termed his occult romances.
I say ‘might’ because the plot revolves around a seemingly disparate series of events (government servants giving away secrets in their sleep, a jewel robbery, a suspicious death of a lovely woman all of which appear to involve some form of hypnotism.
We also have an obligatory/archetypal villain- in this case the mysterious, fabulously wealthy but sinister M. de Trepniak and his associate, the beautiful Madame Sabinov who live a highly decadent lifestyle and mingle with the highest of society.
So far, so familiar but whereas in the normal scheme of things we would have various rounds of ‘chase and escape’ (I have remarked before that Rohmer does a good ‘set piece’) this is a far slower affair with the emphasis on plot development and a (comparative) lack of ‘action’. This works to the books advantage as our protagonists, two doctors, one of whom has a decided interest in the occult, a government official and (of course!) another love interest attempt to piece together what is going on and why aided by various obscure books and manuscripts.
This book seems a more considered effort than many of his others and I am guessing it probably wasn’t written as a serial where each episode must be left as a cliffhanger. As is well known, Rohmer also had an interest in the occult and perhaps this meant he was more invested with the process as there are moments when the characters begin to talk about the ‘unknown’.
None of this matters because overall the novel is one of the best Rohmers I have read to date and I believe that if one had to choose which of his novels to help rescue (or at least attempt to revive) his reputation from the shallows in which it currently rests this and ‘The Green Eyes of Bast’ would be a definite contender. Definitely worth seeking out.
PS: I see Stark House Press has bunded these books together. I'm behind the curve. As usual....
But Rohmer wrote in other genres even if the plots stayed fairly much the same (evil criminal/organisation seeking to undermine the forces of good) and I this is one of what might be termed his occult romances.
I say ‘might’ because the plot revolves around a seemingly disparate series of events (government servants giving away secrets in their sleep, a jewel robbery, a suspicious death of a lovely woman all of which appear to involve some form of hypnotism.
We also have an obligatory/archetypal villain- in this case the mysterious, fabulously wealthy but sinister M. de Trepniak and his associate, the beautiful Madame Sabinov who live a highly decadent lifestyle and mingle with the highest of society.
So far, so familiar but whereas in the normal scheme of things we would have various rounds of ‘chase and escape’ (I have remarked before that Rohmer does a good ‘set piece’) this is a far slower affair with the emphasis on plot development and a (comparative) lack of ‘action’. This works to the books advantage as our protagonists, two doctors, one of whom has a decided interest in the occult, a government official and (of course!) another love interest attempt to piece together what is going on and why aided by various obscure books and manuscripts.
This book seems a more considered effort than many of his others and I am guessing it probably wasn’t written as a serial where each episode must be left as a cliffhanger. As is well known, Rohmer also had an interest in the occult and perhaps this meant he was more invested with the process as there are moments when the characters begin to talk about the ‘unknown’.
None of this matters because overall the novel is one of the best Rohmers I have read to date and I believe that if one had to choose which of his novels to help rescue (or at least attempt to revive) his reputation from the shallows in which it currently rests this and ‘The Green Eyes of Bast’ would be a definite contender. Definitely worth seeking out.
PS: I see Stark House Press has bunded these books together. I'm behind the curve. As usual....
December 9, 2024
I haven’t read a Sax Rohmer book in the last fifty years, but I remembered that I liked him. His writing is fluid and he writes terrific thrillers.
In this one we have only eight characters. Four are on the protagonist side and four are antagonistic. The book starts off in a hurry, like a shell fired from a cannon. By the third page you are wrapped up in a mystery.
Douglas Carey awakens at his desk and can remember nothing that had transpired in the last several hours. Just as he wakes he sees a haunting grey face a death mask, leering at him. Carey is not yet aware that this uncanny situation is happening throughout London, mostly centered on Chinatown. Carey takes his experience to a psychologist, Sir Provost Hope, in hopes of enlightenment. Sir Hope is the father of Jasmine, Carey’s fiancée. We also have a friend of Carey, Muir Torrington, who becomes heavily involved in the case.
It seems that there is a relatively new face in town—M. Trepniak. He is a sort of magician. He has unusual powers as well as an enormous amount of money. We quickly spot him as the villain. He has three associates, an Eurasian beauty named Madame Sabinov, a roughian and bodyguard, Teak, and a mad scientist, Doctor Weissler.
We learn, as the case develops, that there is a plot to take over the world.
This is a wonderful, old-school thriller that is worth your time.
In this one we have only eight characters. Four are on the protagonist side and four are antagonistic. The book starts off in a hurry, like a shell fired from a cannon. By the third page you are wrapped up in a mystery.
Douglas Carey awakens at his desk and can remember nothing that had transpired in the last several hours. Just as he wakes he sees a haunting grey face a death mask, leering at him. Carey is not yet aware that this uncanny situation is happening throughout London, mostly centered on Chinatown. Carey takes his experience to a psychologist, Sir Provost Hope, in hopes of enlightenment. Sir Hope is the father of Jasmine, Carey’s fiancée. We also have a friend of Carey, Muir Torrington, who becomes heavily involved in the case.
It seems that there is a relatively new face in town—M. Trepniak. He is a sort of magician. He has unusual powers as well as an enormous amount of money. We quickly spot him as the villain. He has three associates, an Eurasian beauty named Madame Sabinov, a roughian and bodyguard, Teak, and a mad scientist, Doctor Weissler.
We learn, as the case develops, that there is a plot to take over the world.
This is a wonderful, old-school thriller that is worth your time.
July 18, 2020
Douglas Carey is a freelance investigator for His Majesty's government and he has discovered a strange connection between some seemingly unconnected crimes. Yet when he tries to write up a report he finds the report missing along with several hours of his memory. Not just that, but he finds that this is the third time this has happened, and each time he has nothing but the memory of a strange grey face in its place. He connects these strange occurrences to the appearance of a strange Russian who has taken London society by storm, Anton de Trepniak, along with the alluring and equally mysterious beauty Madame Sabinov.
This is the story of a conspiracy for world domination, yet how this is to be achieved or even who is involved remains a mystery until the very end. Not the kind of mystery that the reader is likely to solve, with many seemingly unelated incidents, including a murder, placed sporadically throughout. Flashbacks reveal some clues, but not to the investigators, and everyone is subject to odd bouts of memory loss and weird behavior, all coming with more visions of the grey face and sometimes an ape-man. Interesting, but not Rohmer's best work by far.
This is the story of a conspiracy for world domination, yet how this is to be achieved or even who is involved remains a mystery until the very end. Not the kind of mystery that the reader is likely to solve, with many seemingly unelated incidents, including a murder, placed sporadically throughout. Flashbacks reveal some clues, but not to the investigators, and everyone is subject to odd bouts of memory loss and weird behavior, all coming with more visions of the grey face and sometimes an ape-man. Interesting, but not Rohmer's best work by far.
February 15, 2018
More a book of mysticism..not really a "mystery"...extremely well written. I prefer the books with many many short chapters. One of his better books.
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June 14, 2016read some time in 1985
April 6, 2017
One of Rohmer's strangest and consequentially best books. The plot is rather convoluted, but it makes for an highly entertaining read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews