Sapper (1888–1937)

Imagine a hybrid between Bertie Wooster and Doc Savage, with a little Lord Peter Wimsey thrown in. That would be Bulldog Drummond, English adventure hero of the 1920s. Although numerous Drummond books were published, this particular volume describes Drummond’s four encounters with his archnemesis, Carl Peterson.


Drummond is a WWI veteran who has all the attributes necessary; large, expert at boxing and judo, a crack shot, and able to stalk and hide in complete silence. He’s upper class, show more with more than adequate financial resources, a faithful valet and a faithful housekeeper, and a coterie of loyal compatriots with similar backgrounds. As befits a villain, Carl Peterson is ruthless, has his own flock of loyal minions, is a master of disguise, and is accompanied by the languid femme fatale Irma. In the first two novels, (Bulldog Drummond and The Black Gang), Peterson is attempting to afflict England with a Communist revolution (Peterson is not himself a Communist but is planning to control things for his personal profit). Drummond, of course, thwarts him, with the considerable advantage as not being hindered by legal technicalities. These two novels are virulently anti-Semitic; this is toned down somewhat for the next two (The Third Round and The Final Count), in which Peterson becomes less of a political agitator and more of a mad scientist, kidnapping first a chemist who has invented an inexpensive process for making diamonds and then another chemist who has devised a lethal war gas.


Drummond is not portrayed as particularly intelligent, especially compared to Peterson; however Peterson displays the stereotypical failing of evil masterminds everywhere in that he never wants to kill Drummond outright but always captures him so he can inflict various heinous tortures before finishing him off. Needless to say, Drummond always escapes. Peterson also has the Fu-Manchu-like habit of using wildlife as guards and assassins; thus Drummond has to confront a gorilla, a cobra, and a pair of giant spiders (and once, a pygmy with a blowgun). The villains never just shoot their victims in the head; they always have to get overly fancy.


Given that these were originally intended as adolescent entertainment there is rather more violence and racism (and rather less sex) than you would find nowadays. Mostly of historical interest. I note Drummond (as “Hugo Drummond”) turns up in one of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels, working for MI5 and assisted by Emma Peel (as Emma Knight) and James Bond (as Jimmy Bond) in an attempt to capture Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain before they can escape with the stolen Black Dossier. show less

This book was an absolute delight to read. Hugh Drummond is such a well written character. He is like a cross between Bertie Wooster and Sherlock Holmes with the added twist of being a veteran of the recently ended World War 1, where he was the captain of his regiment for the previous four years.
The plot pitted our hero (Drummond) against the villain, Le Comte de Guy (aka 'Carl Peterson') and his beautiful daughter Irma, who have masterminded a plan – together with a group of German and show more Russian revolutionaries – to take over Britain.
Drummond gathers together some of his friends – ex-soldiers from his regiment - to take on the villain, along with the lovely Phyllis, whose father is being forced to help Le Comte de Guy/Carl Peterson.
Classic good vs evil with an intelligently written plot and two well rounded characters in the form of Hugh Drummond and Le Comte de Guy/Carl Peterson.
If I had to make one criticism it would be the ‘romance’ between Drummond and Phyllis seems to come out of nowhere, they spend less than a day together and suddenly they’re in love and want to get married. Likewise, the characters of Irma and Phyllis are almost wasted. Irma is mysterious all the way through the book and such questions as ‘what was her motivation for involving herself in the plot?’ And ‘was she really Carl Peterson’s daughter?’ are never answered. Phyllis also seemed to exist mainly to keep the plot moving along. She never popped up unless she needed help or rescuing.
If the characters of Irma and Phyllis had been as well drawn as the two male leads, this would have been a five star read. show less

So, for some reason, I decided to take up Bulldog Drummond again, and I have to say, it's rapidly become tedious. The first was silly and improbable. The second was good enough that it tempted me to try the third. This one was tedious and I kept wishing it were over. It wasn't horrible, just not very good. Were I able to give s and -s, this would most definitely be ***-, or more likely, ** .

Anyway, Bulldog Drummond finds himself locking horns with the world's master criminal, Carl Peterson, show more aka Comte du Guy, aka all kinds of other names.

In this book, a famous, elderly chemist, Professor Goodman, discovers a chemical method for creating perfect diamonds in his laboratory. The head of the diamond syndicate has dinner with him, sees the amazing diamond pendant his daughter is wearing—the daughter is betrothed to one of Bulldog Drummond's buddies—and becomes worried about the possible consequences. The professor, it seems, has created a diamond worth some 5,000 pounds for a mere fiver (they don't count labor time as part of the cost). So, the diamond syndicate, once they figure out that they can't buy the old guy off, hires master criminal, Carl Peterson, to see that that Prof. Goodman can't present his results to the next meeting of the Royal Society. Peterson could, of course, just kill the guy, but then his secret would die with him. Much better, Peterson thinks, would be to know the secret himself before he kills the old guy. So, we have Peterson abducting the old chemist; blowing up his laboratory in spectacular fashion; almost killing Drummond multiple times; Drummond trying to save the old chemist; almost killing Peterson multiple times; car and boat chases, and so forth. But in the end, Drummond escapes death and Peterson escapes Drummond, presumably so they can lock horns again in the next book in the series.

I'm not sure I'll go on with this series. This book got incredibly silly and tedious. It might be fun, however, were we elderly chemists considered worthwhile in any reasonable sense of the word. I'd likely suppress some of my research for a million or so pounds (or perhaps even a hottie red head!). But then, there's little commercial value in metastable nitrogen, so I'll likely just molder along for a few more years, continuing to amount to very little. show less

Definitely dated, and often silly (not to mention occasionally offensive), still, this book has its occasional charms. Not the least of which is giving one an insight as to what the British (and American) book-buying public wanted in the mid-1920s. The blurb on the jacket of the edition I have says the book is an action-packed thriller "set in the 1920s," which is a bit misleading, when you consider when it was written.