The Golden Scorpion: A perilous ride with twists and turns galore! Paperback – September 3, 2010

If you are looking for an old fashioned 1920's murder mystery series, then this is a book for you! Sax Rohmer's "The Golden Scorpion" is one of his best mysteries, which even includes his great Fu Manchu series as well. The old-fashioned style in "The Golden Scorpion" can be a bit distracting until you get used to it, and for some people, the racial stereotyping can be upsetting to many modern readers (this is especially true of the Fu Manchu series). However, the book, its style, and even the stereotyping is a product of the time and place in which it was written. This novel starts fast and continues building suspense and mystery until the dramatic conclusion. Sax Rohmer's "The Golden Scorpion" (free for Kindles) contains all of the mysterious elements of the classical mystery: dark nights, a lonely house, Scotland Yard, an uncanny wailing, the shadow of a cowled man, and a monstrous shadow, moon-cast, which had lain across the carpet of the lawn. Strange happenings abound such as "... a needle-like ray of blue light shot across the lawn from beyond the hedge and-- but for that nervous start-- must have struck fully upon the back of Stuart's skull. Instead, it shone past his head, which it missed only by inches..." which of course, melted his phone! Overall, it is a very exciting story and introduces us to Rohmer's French detective, Gaston Max.

I'm only giving this one three stars. Overall, if I had never read any of the Fu Manchu stories, I might go a little higher, but, having read something of Fu Manchu, I recognize the story as being largely a reprise of some of those previous works. Not a bad story, but, the plot is definitely a retread. Not one of Sax Rohmer's better efforts in my opinion. There is just something missing from this tale that I can't nail down. And unfortunately, it is for that lack of that indefinable something, that I only rate this one as average.For free on Kindle, you can't quibble about the price.

Other reviewers have done a good job of reviewing the story itself, so I just have a few comments on the Kindle transfer. It's pretty dreadful. I've read a goodly number of free Kindle books now and am used to the usual errors, but this book actually repeats about 10 pages in the middle. I've never seen that before. In addition to that, there are many more spelling/word errors than the average free Kindle book.If you don't mind the errors and the 10 pages repeated then this is a good (free) read, but if you're distracted by these things I'd recommend buying a hardcopy of this book.

This is an early story by Sax Rohmer, with the French detective. I think it predates Fu Manchu stories by a few years. The writing is simple, with an easy plot line to follow. It misses the complexity of the Fu Manchu stories. A good beginning for what was to come.

A little different, in a good way. Rohmer at his best!

This is the first book by this author that I have read. I thoughly enjoyed this book and plan to purchase the rest of Rohmer's works in the ebook format. It is an exciting, well-written story with enough plot twists to keep me interested, and has just enough lurid touches to make it a very readable atmospheric mystery from the early twentieth century.Kudos to whomever transferred it to Kindle format!

Decent novel in the vein of Talbot Mundy. This is not a masterpiece but a good adventure which gives some insight into the culture of the setting.

Great scary fun. A bit unreal but that,s part of the fun. Love the oriental aspect. Slow at the beginning but becomes riveting. Great read.

Another excellent novel from the pen of Sax rohmer. How he does it every time is baffling. Every one of his books is a wonder of suspence and excitement.

I recommend this book to many of my friends. It has every thing in it , to keep you from putting it down, Suspence, love, religionwork ethics in a different era