Dragon's Blood

A green German clerk, twenty-two and untried, boards a mail-boat bound for China with nothing but a company letter and stars in his eyes. Rudolph Hackh's journey to the remote village of Stink-Chau becomes a crucible as he navigates exotic ports, cultural collision, and his own romantic heart. He meets Maurice Heywood, an indefatigable English companion who introduces him to both the beauties and dangers of this alien land. But it's Miss Forrester, a woman traveling alone, who sets Rudolph's pulse racing, forcing him to confront who he is when far from everything familiar. As the dragon-shaped mountain looms overhead and the title's crimson resin hints at violence to come, Rudolph must choose between the man he was and the man he might become. Rideout wrote in 1909 with an unstinting eye for the textures of empire: the romance is earnest, the adventure visceral, the East-West encounter neither sanitized nor sensationalized. For readers who want old-school adventure that doesn't flinch.