Sax Rohmer Books in Order

The first Fu Manchu novel throws Dr Petrie into Nayland Smith's hunt for a criminal genius behind a chain of bizarre deaths. London feels close, dark, and already half conquered.

Rohmer's one major nonfiction book surveys magic, occult history, famous magicians, and old beliefs about hidden powers. It is a useful guide to the ideas that echo through so much of his fiction.

Rohmer's first novel pits the authorities against Severac Bablon, a gentleman super-criminal whose schemes reach into finance, politics, and society. It already shows his love of oversized villains.

Gaston Max and Inspector Dunbar go after Mr King, a hidden mastermind threatening London's rich and careless. It is a sharp blend of society thriller, criminal conspiracy, and disguise-driven detection.

A run of lively adventures follows Captain O'Hagan through danger, bluff, and military-style mischief. The tone is lighter than Rohmer's darker thrillers, but the storytelling still moves fast.

Fu Manchu, thought defeated, comes back with new assassins, strange diseases, and colder plans than before. Nayland Smith and Dr Petrie must move fast or lose an innocent family to his schemes.

Smith and Petrie believe Fu Manchu is dead, then uncover the broader conspiracy of the Si-Fan. The novel expands the series from one villain into a whole secret world of power.

Robert and Dr Bruce Cairn come to suspect Antony Ferrara of black magic after a chain of eerie deaths and Egyptian horrors. It is one of Rohmer's strongest straight supernatural novels.

A twelve-story collection set in Egypt, mixing crime, folklore, treasure, and the supernatural. Abu Tabah and other mysterious figures give the book a strong recurring pull.

A gifted writer, Paul Mario, struggles with friendship, love, and artistic purpose in the shadow of war. This is a quieter, more reflective Rohmer novel, but still full of mood.

A young woman's ruin pulls Red Kerry into the drug traffic and criminal underworld of Chinatown. Rohmer makes the city feel close, dirty, and full of doors best left shut.

A string of linked deaths marked by a golden scorpion draws Dr Keppel Stuart into Gaston Max's latest case. The mystery grows stranger as London seems to fill with unseen enemies.

The theft of a holy relic unleashes murder, terror, and pursuit from the Near East to London. Cavanagh is swept into a chase involving assassins, thieves, and fanatic guardians.

Paul Harley investigates a bat-wing omen and a supposed Obeah threat at an isolated house. Fear, old grudges, and murder turn the case into one of Rohmer's best eerie mysteries.

Moris Klaw and his daughter Isis tackle uncanny cases by mixing dreams, intuition, and sharp observation. The stories sit in that excellent Rohmer space between explanation and mystery.

A corpse in a crate, an Egyptian cat idol, and eerie sightings draw Addison and Inspector Gatton into a baffling case. Rohmer mixes murder mystery with an excellent dose of ancient menace.

A gruesome riverside murder leads Paul Harley toward a hidden trafficking ring and an enemy who nearly escapes cleanly. The story is short, ugly, and very effective.

A client dies in Paul Harley's office, leaving only the words Fire-Tongue and Nicol Brinn behind. Those fragments open into an international plot with deep roots and a great deal of danger.

One of Rohmer's best-known shorter pieces, this story mixes performance, obsession, and danger around the unforgettable figure of Tcheriapin. It is atmospheric and sharply built.

A London detective pursues a baffling chain of crimes linked by the recurring image of a dreadful grey face. The result is haunting, urban, and a little uncanny even when it stays rational.

A super-criminal plot reaches for control of the United States, using networks, gadgets, and sheer audacity. It is Rohmer in full pulp mode, large, paranoid, and impossible to miss.

In Madeira, Major O'Shea and the headstrong Nanette are pulled into romance and a dangerous anti-imperial conspiracy. The book blends holiday glamour, pursuit, and rising political threat.

Barry Cumberland follows a mysterious woman from New York to Egypt, where an expedition seeks a princess who may not be dead at all. Rohmer turns romance and archaeology into a slow, eerie adventure.

Brian Woodville has only days to stop a secret master whose inventions could destroy the world and rebuild it on his terms. Rohmer pushes the Gaston Max line toward full mad-science thriller.

With Fu Manchu thought gone, his daughter Fah Lo Suee moves to seize control of the Si-Fan. Tombs, tunnels, divided loyalties, and hidden identities keep the pressure high.

A race for powerful relics sends the action from Persia and Cairo back to London. Fu Manchu turns archaeology, legend, and political unrest into one more grand design.

A smiling schemer sits at the center of this late Rohmer thriller, where shifting identities, polite lies, and sudden danger keep everyone off balance. The mood is sly and uneasy from the start.

A strange outbreak on the Riviera brings Dr Petrie, Nayland Smith, and botanist Alan Sterling into Fu Manchu's orbit again. At the center is Fleurette, whose beauty and mystery make the case even more dangerous.

When Fleurette is taken, Alan Sterling and Nayland Smith are forced back onto Fu Manchu's trail. The pursuit turns into another breathless mix of kidnapping, pursuit, and hidden lairs.

An investigator faces murder and a hidden Egyptian secret with unsettling modern power. The book feels half crime novel, half uncanny scientific warning.

Fu Manchu turns his attention to American politics, vanished candidates, and spectacular acts of violence. Nayland Smith must work with federal allies before the doctor reshapes power in plain sight.

Secret service intrigue, romance, and an international drug ring pull the story from drawing rooms into real danger. Rohmer keeps the suspense moving while the net tightens.

Reporter Bart Kerrigan joins Nayland Smith as Fu Manchu launches another vast international scheme. The novel keeps widening its reach, from secret murders to threats that feel almost world-historical.

A murder trail in blackout London leads Nayland Smith and Bart Kerrigan across the Atlantic and on to Haiti. At the end of it may be Fu Manchu's hidden island stronghold.

Gaston Max returns for a later case built on murder, blackmail, and carefully staged deception. The pace is leaner here, but the danger still arrives wrapped in style.

These stories follow Mohammed Ibrahim Brian Baruk, soldier and agent, through wartime cases involving spies, stolen papers, and murder. It is an energetic collection with Egypt at the heart of it.

In the early Cold War, Fu Manchu goes after Morris Craig's devastating energy weapon. The chase pulls the old conflict into a new era of science, espionage, and global dread.

Storm Kennedy tries to protect a troubled heiress after a murder at a wild party house turns him into a suspect himself. Rohmer handles it as a fast, tightly wound traditional mystery.

Sumuru makes her first full entrance, launching a sleek and dangerous conspiracy run through beauty, discipline, and fear. The book reads like postwar pulp espionage with a supervillain at the center.

Published under the name Michael Furey, this unusual late novel turns toward theology and the supernatural as its mystery deepens into something stranger. It is unlike most of Rohmer's better-known thrillers.

Sumuru's network grows wider as she recruits, manipulates, and punishes in pursuit of power. The story doubles down on secret orders, psychological control, and elegant menace.

The Sumuru saga stretches into the Caribbean, where ritual, fire, and brainwashing become part of her expanding design. Rohmer keeps the tone lurid, fast, and just a little feverish.

Sumuru returns with another polished and ruthless scheme, forcing her pursuers back into a deadly cat-and-mouse game. The glamour is still there, but so is the cruelty.

Inspector Ryder investigates seemingly motiveless killings in Florida, where the obvious answer may be far too simple. Rohmer builds the case out of murder, blackmail, and a hint of the monstrous.

After years of silence, Fu Manchu returns to throw London, Cairo, and New York back into confusion and fear. The old hunt starts again, with new faces caught in his shadow.

Rohmer's final Fu Manchu novel sends a fugitive into Chinese political intrigue just as the Devil Doctor resurfaces with plans of his own. The stakes are global, but the mood stays tense and personal.

A strange inheritance, an isolated house, and an air of old dread drive this early Rohmer mystery. It is less a puzzle than a steady gathering of unease.

A posthumous collection of later Fu Manchu tales, shorter pieces that keep the Devil Doctor dangerous, elusive, and strangely modern. It is a good way to sample Rohmer's late-period villainy in smaller doses.

This collection moves between Britain, the Middle East, and Asia, mixing mystery, adventure, and uncanny touches. It is a good sampler of Rohmer's range outside his biggest series.

This later edition of Rohmer's occult nonfiction explores magical traditions, famous occult figures, and long-standing claims about the paranormal. It shows the research interest behind his eerie fiction.

A Christmas-season case pulls Red Kerry back into Chinatown when a severed queue, a stolen gem, and old grudges collide. It is a good example of Rohmer's underworld storytelling at short length.

Fatal poisonings among the Limehouse underworld lead police toward old Huang Chow and the daughter he wants to protect. The story is compact, moody, and full of secret grief.

A severed queue, a hidden jewel, and the undercurrents of Chinatown drive this brisk mystery. Rohmer turns one odd object into a whole chain of danger and pursuit.

What starts with the deliberate smashing of a white hat opens into espionage, disappearance, and hidden motives. Paul Harley has to work out why such a foolish act mattered so much.

Red Kerry follows a murderous trail through Limehouse, where hidden passages, kidnappers, and a shadowy enemy keep turning the case sideways. It is one of Rohmer's darker urban thrillers.

These stories lean more openly into hauntings, strange relics, and half-explained terrors. It is one of the best places to see Rohmer working in a more purely weird mode.

Rohmer ghostwrites the life of the music hall star Little Tich, tracing stage work, comic craft, and the grind behind a famous act. It is an early glimpse of Rohmer before his thriller career took over.

One of Rohmer's earliest stories, this brief mystery uses Egyptian trappings and a startling disguise to build its surprise. You can already see his future taste for the bizarre.

A short uncanny tale in which a house seems haunted not by ghosts, but by living fire. Rohmer gets a lot of unease out of a very simple, strange idea.

A classic early weird tale about an ancient Egyptian couch and the possibility that suggestion may not explain everything. Rohmer builds the whole piece on atmosphere and uncertainty.

In Cairo, disguise, espionage, and magic blur together as the narrator chases a case that tests his skepticism. The setting does a lot of the work here, hot, crowded, and dangerous.

Another collection of Moris Klaw stories, full of relics, locked rooms, strange impressions, and crimes that feel almost supernatural. It deepens the odd appeal of Rohmer's dream detective.

Harley of the Foreign Office is called to a quiet English house where a hidden Eastern menace, known as the Listening Death, may already be at work. The story is brief, tense, and wonderfully strange.

Ten Chinatown stories bring together Red Kerry, Paul Harley, and other Rohmer investigators amid crime, secret dealing, and danger by the river. The whole collection has a strong, shadowy pull.

This later collection showcases Rohmer's favorite territory, London's East End, Egypt, and the wider world of hidden threats between them. Expect short pieces rich in atmosphere and menace.

Inspector Gilligan closes in on Sumuru as stolen relics, missing patients, and the hunt for the Seal of Solomon begin to overlap. It is a late Rohmer thriller with real bite.

This volume gathers early Moris Klaw stories, following the dream detective through crimes that seem to hover between logic and the occult. It is a strong entry point for Rohmer's strangest sleuth.