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Title: Nikola 1: A Bid for Fortune
Author: Guy Boothby
Publisher: Winterbourne Publishing
ISBN (digital): 978-0-9807497-2-4
Category: Classic
Tags: classics, gothic, Australia

Introducing Dr Nikola

He was tall and slim, but exquisitely formed, and plainly the possessor of enormous strength. His head, if only from a phrenological point of view, was a magnificent one, crowned with a wealth of jet black hair. His eyes were dark as night, and glittered like those of a snake. His complexion was of a
decidedly olive hue…

Nikola had thrown himself into the business of the chess game, heart and soul. He half sat, half crouched over the board, reminding me more of a hawk hovering over a poultry yard than anything else I can liken him to. His eyes were riveted first on the men before him and then on his opponent–his long fingers twitched and twined over each move, and seemed as if they would never release their hold.

Not once did he speak, but his attitude was more expressive than any words. The effect on the little man, his companion, was overwhelming. He was quite unable to do anything, but sat huddled up in his chair as if terrified by his demoniacal companion.

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 Dr Nikola, villain, gentleman, and occult adventurer.

Title: Nikola 2: Dr Nikola Returns
Author: Guy Boothby
Publisher: Winterbourne Publishing
ISBN (digital): 978-0-9807497-3-1
Category: Classic
Tags: classics, gothic, Australia

Dr Nikola takes on China

“I have tracked it clue by clue, carefully and laboriously, with varying success for eight long years, and at last I am in the position to say that I believe I have my thumb upon the key-note. If I can press it down and obtain the result I want, I can put myself in possession of information the magnitude of which the world—I mean the European world, of course—has not the slightest conception. I am a courageous man, but I will confess that the prospect of what I am about to attempt almost frightens me. It is neither more nor less than to penetrate, with the help of certain Chinese secret societies, into the most extraordinary seat of learning that you or any other men ever heard of, and when there to beg, borrow, or steal the marvellous secrets they possess. I cannot go alone, for a hundred reasons, therefore I must find a man to accompany me; that man must be one in a thousand, and he must also necessarily be a consummate Chinese scholar. He must be plucky beyond the average, he must be capable of disguising himself so that his nationality shall never for a moment be suspected, and he must go fully convinced in his own mind that he will never return. If he is prepared to undertake so much I am prepared to be generous. I will pay him £5,000 down before we start and £5,000 when we return, if return we do. What do you say to that?”.

Wilfred Bruce is out of money and luck in Shanghai. When he’s offered a lucrative job by a man with a very poor reputation, he sees no choice but to accept. It will take him on journey deep into the secrets of China and Tibet, up to his neck in adventures and the supernatural by the side of Dr Nikola.

Title: Nikola 3: The Lust of Hate
Author: Guy Boothby
Publisher: Winterbourne Publishing
ISBN (digital): 978-0-9807497-4-8
Category: Classic
Tags: classics, gothic, Australia

Dr Nikola leads a man to murder

“He must not live as long. Oh, if I could only meet him face to face and repay him for his treachery!”

“And why not? What is there to prevent you? You can walk to his house any morning and ask to see him. If you give the butler a fictitious name and a tip he will admit you. Then, when you get into the library, you can state your grievance and, having done so, shoot him dead.”

I uttered a little involuntary cry of anger. Deeply as I hated the man, it was not possible for me seriously to contemplate murdering him in cold blood. Besides—no, no; such a scheme could not be thought of for a moment.

“You don’t like the idea?” said Nikola, with that easy nonchalance which characterised him. “Well, I don’t wonder at it; it’s bizarre, to say the least of it. You would probably be caught and hanged, and hanging is an inartistic termination to the career of even an unsuccessful man. Besides, in that case, you would have lost your money and your life; he only his life, so that the balance would still be in his favour. No; what you want is something a little more subtle, a little more artistic. You want a scheme that will enable you to put him out of the way, and, at the same time, one that will place you in possession of the money that is really yours. Therefore it must be done without any esclandre. Now I don’t doubt you would be surprised if I were to tell you that in the event of his death you would find yourself his sole heir.”

“His sole heir?” I cried. “You must be mad to say such a thing.”

“With due respect, no more mad than you are,” said this extraordinary man.

Gilbert Pennethorne has been deeply wronged by a man who has stolen a fortune from him. Following him from Australia to England, he nurses hatred in his heart, dreaming of taking vengeance. But only when Dr Nikola puts the means into his hands can he take action against his enemy. Now he is a hunted and haunted man, seeking redemption and a new life, cursing the day he ever met the mysterious doctor.

Title: Nikola 4: Dr Nikola’s Experiment
Author: Guy Boothby
Publisher: Winterbourne Publishing
ISBN (digital): 978-0-9807497-5-5
Category: Classic
Tags: classics, gothic, Australia

A cruel and unusual experiment is taking place…

“What a doubting world it is, to be sure! The same world which ridiculed the notion that there could be anything in vaccination, in the steam engine, in chloroform, the telegraph, the telephone, or the phonograph. For how many years has it scoffed at the power of hypnotism! How many of our cleverest scientists fifty years ago could have foretold the discovery of argon, or the possibility of being able to telegraph without the aid of wires? And because the little world of to-day knows these things and has survived the wonder of them, it is convinced it has attained the end of wisdom. The folly of it! To-night I have shown you something for which less than a hundred years ago I should have been stoned as a wizard. At my death the secret will be given to the world, and the world, when it has recovered from its astonishment, will say, ‘How very simple! Why did no one discover it before?’ I tell you, gentlemen,” Nikola continued, rising and standing before the fireplace, “that we three, to-night, are standing on the threshold of a discovery which will shake the world to its foundations.”

When he had moved, Kelleran and I had also pushed back our chairs from the table, and were now watching him as if turned to stone. The sacred fire of enthusiasm, which I thought had left me for ever, was once more kindling in my breast, and I hung upon his words as if I were afraid I might lose even a breath that escaped his lips. As for Nikola himself, his usually pallid face was aglow with excitement.

“The story is as old as the hills,” he began. “Ever since the days when our first parents trod the earth there have been men who have aimed at discovering a means of lengthening the span of life. From the very infancy of science, the wisest and cleverest have devoted their lives to the study of the human body, in the hope of mastering its secret. Assisting in the search for that particular something which was to revolutionise the world, we find Zosimus the Theban, the Jewess Maria, the Arabian Geber, Hermes Trismegistus, Linnaeus, Berzelius, Cuvier, Raymond Lully, Paracelsus, Roger Bacon, De Lisle, Albertus Magnus, and even Dr. Price. Each in his turn quarried in the mountain of Wisdom, and died having failed to discover the hidden treasure for which he sought. And why? Because, egotistical as it may seem on my part to say so, they did not seek in the right place. They commenced at the wrong point, and worked from it in the wrong direction. But if they failed to find what they wanted, they at least rendered good service to those who were to follow after, for from every failure something new was learned. For my part I have studied the subject in every form, in every detail. For more years than I can tell you, I have lived for it, dreamed of it, fought for it, and overcome obstacles of the very existence of which no man could dream. The work of my predecessors is known to me; I have studied their writings, and tested their experiments to the last particular. All the knowledge that modern science has accumulated I have acquired. The magic of the East I have explored and tested to the uttermost. Three years ago I visited Thibet under extraordinary circumstances. There, in a certain place, inaccessible to the ordinary man, and at the risk of my own life and that of the brave man who accompanied me, I obtained the information which was destined to prove the coping-stone of the great discovery I have since made. Only two things were wanting then to complete the whole and to enable me to get to work. One of these I had just found in St. Petersburg when I first met you, Kelleran; the other I discovered three weeks ago. It has been a long and tedious search, but such labour only makes success the sweeter. The machinery is now prepared; all that remains is to fit the various parts together. In six months’ time, if all goes well, I will have a man walking upon this earth who, under certain conditions, shall live a thousand years.”

Dr Nikola has invited Douglas Ingleby to help him in a mysterious experiment. Unemployed and undeniably curious, Ingleby agrees to follow Nikola to a remote castle to assist him in caring for an old man on the edge of death while Nikola seeks to perform a miracle. But will Ingleby’s loyalty to Nikola hold out against the pleas of the old man’s lovely granddaughter, will the experiment produce the desired result, and what is he going to do about the sinister Chinaman hunting him?

Title: Nikola 5: Farewell, Nikola!
Author: Guy Boothby
Publisher: Winterbourne Publishing
ISBN (digital): 978-0-9807497-6-2
Category: Classic
Tags: classics, gothic, Australia

The last adventure of Doctor Nikola

“Where he is now hiding I am the only man who knows. I have tracked him to his lair, and I am waiting—waiting— waiting—for the moment to arrive when the innocent blood that has so long cried to Heaven will be avenged. Let him look to himself when that day arrives. For as there is a God above us, he will be punished as man was never punished before.”

Farewell, Nikola! is the fifth and final book in Guy Boothby’s series about the mysterious and lonely Doctor Nikola. It sees the return of the hero from the first book, Richard Hatteras, who is holidaying in Venice with his wife and her young friend when they meet someone he never expected — or wanted — to see again — Dr Nikola! Drawn despite himself to the doctor, Hatteras becomes embroiled in Nikola’s long-laid trap to bring down justice upon his unsuspecting victim’s head.

Where to buy
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(Australian dollars) in digital (epub) format.