The Quest of the Sacred Slipper

The year is 1913. Journalist Cavanagh boards the S.S. Mandalay at Port Said, chasing a story he doesn't yet understand. What he finds is a web of ancient menace and modern murder. A mysterious fellow passenger carries a secret: the Sacred Slipper, a relic once worn by the Prophet Mohammed, now coveted by the Hashishin, the legendary Assassin cult of the Old Man of the Mountain. Those who possess the slipper hold terrible power. Those who seek it will kill to possess it. Cavanagh is drawn into a quest spanning from the fog-shrouded decks of a steamship to the shadowed alleys of the East, pursued by the enigmatic Hassan of Aleppo and his fanatical followers. With each revelation, the danger deepens, supernatural curses, cryptic clues, bodies piling in the wake of the sacred relic. Sax Rohmer, creator of Dr. Fu Manchu, delivers pulp adventure at its most extravagantly atmospheric. The novel is very much a product of its era, its orientalist lens and colonial assumptions are inseparable from its storytelling, but for readers who can navigate its dated perspectives, it offers pure adrenaline: shadows, secrets, and a man in over his head.