A Bid for Fortune (1895) is the debut of the Victorian super-villain Dr Nikola, a man with worldwide interests, limitless resources and a spooky cat called Apollyon.
"Ask the Japanese, ask the Malays, the Hindoos, the Burmese, the coal porter in Port Said, the Buddhist priests of Ceylon; ask the King of Corea, the men up in Tibet, the Spanish priests in Manila or the Sultans of Borneo, the Ministers of Siam, or the French in Saigon. They'll all know Dr Nikola and his cat, and take my word for it, they fear him."
The premise is silly - a holy relic of the Himalayan Masters promising access to the Mysteries of the Ancients. it is of its time, the fin de siecle with its occult interests. In physical appearance Nikola is the personification of the aesthetic decadent. Boothby was an Australian living in London who produced more than 50 novels and yet was only 38 when he died. Dr Nikola is perhaps his most enduring character, an obvious forerunner of Ian Fleming's Dr No. Boothby was prolific but skillful. His narrative never falters but the plot twists are all properly planned and his characters fully rounded. He had travelled the world and it shows. The locations here, of which there are many, smack of authenticity and personal knowledge.
There are four further Nikola novels and I hope to read them all.
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