Great Scott, it's THE YELLOW CLAW!
From 1916, this appeared as a six part serial in DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE, from October to December. To be honest, I picked up Sax Rohmer's THE YELLOW CLAW expecting a full-blown Fu Manchu-type mastermind by that name. After all, I remembered a comic book from the 1950s with the same title, and that particular villain might as well have been one of Fu Manchu's proteges striking out on his own. That Yellow Claw was really demoniacal, too, with pointed ears and lemon-yellow skin and an ex-Nazi henchman, as well as a beautiful niece who kept screwing up his schemes because of her love for the Chinese-American FBI agent Jimmy Woo.
But no. This is a different story, although set very much in the same world where Fu Manchu moves. Here we're dealing with the enigmatic "Mr King" heading his vast international ring of de luxe opium dens, headquartered in Limehouse, staffed with the same eclectic assortment of Chinese and Greeks and Arabs and the inevitable gorgeous Eurasian vixen that the old Devil Doctor himself always assembled. (You have to give Rohmer's villains credit for being equal opportunity masterminds.)
From the very first chapter, Rohmer is telling his story in an elegant, old-fashioned style that is very enjoyable in its way, even compared to the hellbent, breakneck speed of the pulp novels I usually read. There is a lot of the author speaking directly to the reader-- "let us return to see what Soames has been up to on that morning"-- which gives a rather comfortable feeling of listening to someone telling a story, rather than just jumping into a fictional universe.
First, we meet Henry Leroux, an author sitting up late at night in his dressing gown, scratching with his pen as he tries to create a new story for his detective hero "Martin Zeda, Criminal Scientist". Abruptly there's a pounding on the door and in bursts a gorgeous, terrified woman scantily clad in civet furs ("Leroux suppressed a gasp. He had a caught a glimpse of a bare ankle!" Whoa.) Some mysterious assailant is pursuing her and she turns to Leroux for protection....
You HAVE to love this scene. Here's Sax Rohmer sitting up, trying to write a book about his new detective, and he puts down exactly what he must have wished would have happened in his own den. Oh, well. In any case, the rollercoaster ride has started. Right away, there are mysterious murders, long-nailed hands reaching through windows, unfaithful wives and hints of dope rings, Scotland Yard inspectors going "harumph!' through their mustaches and so forth.
This is the book that introduces Rohmer's French detective Gaston Max, and, although he doesn't really come on stage for the first sixty pages, he really takes over once he gets started. Max is a world-famous criminologist and a master of disguise (like Sherlock Holmes, he keeps a cubbyhole full of make-up gear and outfits where he can assume diffferent identities). In his investigations, he appears in different guises and there is an interesting moment where he sees a magazine photo of himself and Rohmer remarks that not even Max himself could be sure which was the true appearance anymore.
Although he's not as bad as Jules de Grandin, he does have the same irritating mannerism of throwing at least one French word or phrase into everything he says, presumably to remind the reader of his origins. (Worse than that is a sophisticated lady who insists on breaking up every single sentence with little ellipses. You simply...must want to...slap her silly face! for speaking in... that dreadful manner.) But you have to give Gaston Max credit, he's brave enough to infiltrate an actual opium den where he knows murders have been committed, posing as a smoker, with no radio to call for help or any weapons. (As an aside, the way Rohmer describes the effects of 1916 opium, that must have been some heavy stuff.) Max has got nerve and as the situation gets more tense and the action picks up, he shows real heroic determination.
If anything, the book disappoints a bit as 'Mr King' remains a bit TOO elusive and mysterious, and the ending is unsatisfying. Twice someone is killed by a pair of powerful, long-taloned hands 'the color of old ivory' and when a traitor comes face to face with Mr King, he's literally paralyzed at the sight. I don't think for a moment this villain is actually Fu Manchu himself working under a different name, but there seems to be an underlying connection somewhere. Reportedly, somewhere in the sequel, THE GOLDEN SCORPION. Fu Manchu clearly makes an appearance (although not named specifically), so that book has to be next on my stack.