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Synopsis
Richard Hatteras, on holiday in Sydney, rescues a lovely young woman in distress, the start of a series of events that sees him falling in love and becoming ever more entangled in the machinations of the shadowy Doctor Nikola, villain, gentleman, and occult adventurer, who will stop at nothing to steal his prize. Boothby's Nikola may be the world's first modern super villain: he is a master of hypnotism and mind control, a telepathic adept, and an astral projectionist. He can cause ordinary men to see images in pools of liquid, and prophesy into the future. It's said that he knows the hour, moment, and method of his own demise.Boothby was a prolific Australian novelist and writer, noted for sensational fiction in variety magazines around the end of the nineteenth century. He lived mainly in England and is best known for such works as the Dr Nikola series; about an occultist criminal mastermind who is a Victorian forerunner to Fu Manchu, and Pharos, the Egyptian. Rudyard Kipling was his friend and mentor and his books were remembered with affection by George Orwell.
Is A Bid for Fortune; or, Dr. Nikola's Vendetta appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 14 and up.
A Victorian adventure featuring hypnotism, mind control, and occult villainy; contains peril, kidnapping, and a menacing antagonist but no graphic violence or sexual content.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, mild sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include kidnapping, captivity and manipulation.
Publisher ages reflect reading level; our rating reflects content maturity — they can differ.
Who'll love this
A gripping Victorian thriller where a dashing hero must outsmart one of fiction's first supervillains — a mysterious occult mastermind who bends minds and sees the future.