Rohmer, born Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward, who wrote also as Michael Furey, was a prolific English mystery writer, best known for the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu and his opponents Denis Nayland Smith, Dr. Petrie, named after the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, and the beautiful Karamaneh, the source of Petrie's daydreams. Gaston Max, Sax Rohmer's rather dapper French detective, and the greatest criminal investigator in Europe, makes his third appearance in The Day the World Ended. This story is closer to mainstream science fiction than any other Sax Rohmer work. It begins as a seemingly supernatural tale of vampires and strange men dressed in armor roaming castle walls. Max makes a late appearance: only to reveal that he has been present all along-in disguise. The seemingly supernatural is then revealed as the work of a strange scientist who is attempting to use his scientific achievements (including a death ray) to conquer the world.