A romance/thriller/crime/adventure story. Our hero is a down to earth everyman australian who inexplicably switches to a Holmes level detective whenever the plot calls for it, and gets involved in the nefarious plans of Dr. Nikola through a sequence of badly plotted coincidences.
Our villain Dr. Nikola is a proto-bond villain complete with cat and suffering the usual personality defects. Absurdly convoluted plan, check! Inability to dispatch enemies, check!
Don't get me wrong there are things to like here. Theres some humour here and there, also the writing overall is pretty good in the technical sense. However while you as a reader can never tell what will happen next it doesn't feel like the author knew either.
The plot just wanders around aimlessly before the writer just seems to give up and retreat with the remains of his dignity.
An interesting historical piece for Bond or mesmerist villain fans. ( )

Wanders a bit at the beginning, but once it gets to the point the story unwraps in a fast and furious manner. Even the evil ner-do-wells are complete gentlemen it seems. Thoroughly enjoyable. I'll have to read more. ( )

A cult classic in which the hero, Richard Hatteras embarks on a series of adventures in order to win the hand of his true love and ends up kidnapped, imprisoned, poisoned, and on a rescue mission to discover the secret intentions of one of the most queer characters in literature, Dr. Nikola.
An engrossing tale that lacks twists and surprises but will still have you turning page after page. ( )