Not as racist as the first book, "The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu" (a.k.a, "The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu"). And, frankly, the novel suffers because of it. "The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu" reminds you of that really racist elderly relative that you only see on holidays and is always belting out racial slurs because he or she was raised during a time when the concept of political correctness didn't exist (i.e., The concept of white people looking down on minorities is as natural as eating or breathing). They're so ridiculous that not only do you forgive them for it, but you find them to be kind of fun to be around.

As for the story line, "The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu" isn't really all that different from its predecessor. Two wealthy Brits, Dr. Petrie and Nayland Smith, with the privilege to carry guns and shoot whomever they please, try to bring the evil Dr. Fu-Manchu to justice. They both repeatedly narrowly escape assassins, one of them tries to bed Fu-Manchu's Arab slave girl, an opium den burns down, and, in the end, Fu-Manchu is presumed dead.