From first to last, all of the Fu-books are episodic, though the early ones are explicitly cobbled together from stand-alone short stories that had appeared in serial magazines. RETURN therefore keeps the exact same structure as INSIDIOUS. Nayland Smith, accompanied by stalwart buddy Doctor Petrie, is either trying to find the doctor's current hideout in England or to prevent the fiend from assassinating someone, be it an influential voice in world politics or a simple traitor to the "Yellow Power" movement. Not until the third novel would the author dedicate the name "Si-Fan" to Fu's group. Still, in the second book Rohmer backs off on any associations between the Oriental evildoer and what was called "New China" in the first novel.
RETURN is not nearly as compelling as that first book, for Rohmer isn't really building on his villain's mythos to any great extent. Fu again puts the hit on several citizens, using various dacoit servants, exotic plants and animals, and even a "curse of the mummy" situation that conjures with the idea of a risen creature in wrappings (though it turns out to be just another dacoit). Some of these death-devices are reasonably clever, though there's nothing as wild as the fungus-room seen in INSIDIOUS.
Rohmer does follow up on the first novel's assertion that Fu is not the master of the Chinese movement. The real leader even shows up, "off-camera" as it were, though future novels will establish that over time the devil-doctor takes over the whole shooting-match. Rohmer continually spotlights Fu's immense genius and his sense of personal honor, though the author can't resist tossing in a barb at the "childishness" of the Chinese people. This putdown appears during the novel's most interesting sequence. Petrie, while looking for a missing Nayland Smith, stumbles across a literal rara avis: a white peacock loose in the city. Providentially, the doctor captures the bird and leaves it with an aide. He's then captured by Fu's fiends and imprisoned with Smith, but when he learns that the peacock is part of a Chinese ritual to honor the doctor, he's able to use the bird to buy freedom for himself and Smith.
The novel's biggest contribution to the Fu-mythos is the explicit statement that the doctor can brainwash people so thoroughly that they forget their old lives and become his servants, not always totally enslaved servants. Karameneh, Fu's Arab servant from the first book, illustrates the doctor's new propensity, for though she and Petrie have exchanged love-glances, the doctor expunges her memory, so that she does not remember Petrie, Smith, or even her own brother Aziz. Nevertheless, she senses her connection to Petrie, and even before that, she impulsively reveals to him that Fu hasn't exactly been a kind master, since she has lash-marks on her shoulder. Eventually, she does recover at least part of her memory toward the conclusion, though she disappears from Petrie's life once more, setting up her inevitable return in HAND OF FU MANCHU-- though Fu's own return seems more dubious, as he's last seen getting shot in the head by Karameneh, who chooses fidelity to her English lover over loyalty to her cruel master.
ADDENDUM: I should note how this novel stands in terms of phenomenality and mythicity. Though there's nothing as way out as killer fungi, Fu's ability to mind-wipe victims with his drugs-- sans any major side-effects-- would seem to fall into the "marvelous" category. However, unlike the first book, this one doesn't make the grade as "high-mythicity fiction."
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