The Third Round

The Third Round by H. C. McNeile

Originally published in 1924, this is the third of ten novels about the character Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond that were written by H. C. McNeile under the Pseudonym of Sapper. It is also the third of four of these novels that features his arch enemy Carl Peterson. The others being Bulldog Drummond (1920), The Black Gang (1922), and The Final Count (1926). While the characters make reference to their earlier encounters, there is no need to have read the previous two novels to enjoy or understand this one. After serving in World War I Bulldog Drummond finds that as a demobilised officer he finds peace incredibly tedious and would welcome diversion, as long as it is exciting.
In The Third Round the excitement starts when his wartime buddy Algernon Longworth comes to see Drummond because he is worried about his future father-in-law Professor Goodman, a chemist who has discovered an inexpensive method to make large diamonds that are indistinguishable from the mined gems. When the head of the international diamond syndicate hears about the discovery and that Dr. Goodman plans to present his findings to the Royal Society at their next meeting, he offers Goodman a quarter million pounds to suppress the information, which Goodman refuses to do. Hearing this, Drummond begins to worry for the Professor's life as the information could disrupt the entire diamond industry and fortunes would be lost. When the diamond syndicate fails to persuade Goodman, they agree to pay Peterson a half million pounds to prevent Goodman from making his discovery public. Peterson agrees to help, but sees the secret formula as something he could turn into a multi-million pound fortune if he possessed it. The excitement that Drummond needs is present throughout the rest of the story.
H. C. McNeile was a Captain in the Royal engineers or, as they were commonly known, The Sappers, who were combat engineers working on the front lines during World Was I. During the was he wrote war-themed stories under the pseudonym Sapper. After the was ended this once "unremittingly hearty man" suffered from delicate health, having been gassed and hospitalized several times during his 32 months on the front lines in France. He died at the age of 49 from terminal throat or lung cancer that could be traced back to his wartime service and the gas attacks he endured.
McNeile's Drummond is an Englishman that is typified by a "flamboyantly aggressive patriotism" towards England which is characterized by an opposition to those who challenge its stability or morality. Even his nickname, Bulldog, is symbolic of England. His English gentlemen friends, which McNeile calls "the Breed", fight a conspiracy of foreigners threatening England's stability. Most of the foreigners in the Bulldog Drummond series are villains or morally weak. While McNeile was very popular while he was alive and considered just an upstanding Tory who was proud of his country, after World War II critics start seeing signs of fascism in his writings as well as heavy handed xenophobia and anti-Semitism. In this novel this weak moral character is most obvious in the German chemist Professor Scheidstrun and his wife, who are bent to the will of Carl Peterson.