I Read Books: Dr Nikola

Dr Nikola

Dr Nikola, having got hold of China Pete’s stick at the end of A Bid For Fortune, now puts it to use. Having recruited a companion, Wilfred Bruce, he explains his plan to him. There are three leaders of a mysterious monastery in Tibet that have secrets of medicine undreamed of, so that Nikola might raise the dead or achieve immortality – or at least perform feats of surgery thought impossible. The stick is a stolen identification for one of high priests. One has died and a replacement will travel there; Nikola will impersonate him and Bruce will be his secretary.

They’re going to disguise themselves as Chinese in case that isn’t clear, and frankly that’s nowhere near the most racist part of the book.

It’s a fun adventure and Dr Nikola, a lying, cheating, stealing man, still has some honour and respect and above all loyalty for Bruce, the narrator of the novel. However bringing Nikola closer to the centre of the story as the employer of the protagonist is less successful than the first book.

Read This: For a later Victorian villain having dangerous adventures in China
Don’t Read This: If the ambiguity of their actions is too dark in these modern times