We thought we’d take another trip through the sinister brain of Sax Rohmer. His phantasmal criminal mastermind Sumuru, aka the Madonna, intrigued us in 1950’s Nude in Mink. In 1951’s sequel Sumuru (you see a Gold Medal edition above with Barye Phillips cover art) she’s fled London for New York City, where she’s once again orchestrating a global reordering that requires the downfall of men from positions of power. This time Rohmer’s protagonists are special agent Drake Roscoe and newspaperman Tony McKeigh, though the first book’s Mark Donovan and Claudette Duquesne—now married—also put in an appearance, and come to believe Sumuru wants to abduct their toddler daughter for eventual indoctrination into the evil Order.
But it’s mainly Roscoe and McKeigh’s show, as the cat-and-mousing crisscrosses Manhattan, and detours to Fort Lauderdale, before Sumuru once again—no spoiler here since the series went five books—gives her pursuers the slip and leaves them angry, baffled, a bit admiring of her brilliance, but frightened too. We love how they call Sumuru “a greater menace than the atom bomb.” There’s a good lesson there—Rohmer thinks it’s better for men to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. That’s a catchy line. Wonder who said that? Doesn’t matter. Global peace is not an aspiration if men can’t run the show. We don’t think Rohmer meant for these books to be an indictment of the patriarchy, but if you squint they read that way. We managed to get the first three books of this series, so we’ll get around to the next entry later.
