Given the sheer amount of Charlie Chan movies that were made (nearly 50), it’s easy to forget Earl Derr Biggers only wrote six novels about his Asian police detective. Academy Chicago is in the process of reissuing all half-dozen — long out-of-print this year, starting with Chan’s 1925 debut, THE HOUSE WITHOUT A KEY.
The mystery concerns one Dan Winterslip, a well-to-do man who lives in a spacious mansion on Waikiki Beach, estranged from his brother. One day, he makes an odd request of his young Bostonian nephew John Quincy Winterslip: Go to Uncle Dan’s pad in San Francisco, retrieve a box, don’t open it, and throw it overboard on your way over here. Oh, and when you get here, please take your Aunt Minerva with you when you leave.
John Quincy hasn’t arrived long before Dan is discovered dead, having been stabbed through the start. Minerva thinks she may have seen the killer in the shadows, glimpsing the glowing face of his wristwatch with a faded line for 2 o’clock.
Enter Chan — finally, on page 69 of 286 — who doesn’t have many clues to go on, but the watch (with “numeral two undistinct”), a button and a page ripped from a guestbook. The fact that Dan wasn’t exactly well-liked, having stepped on many toes while climbing the social ladder, expands the list of suspects.
With help from Capt. Hallett, Chan begins his methodical investigation, speaking in sentences that often forego a subject completely and/or opt for understood verbs (“Humbly begging pardon” and “Something go click”), yet he’s not even the true star of the tale. This is John Quincy’s story all the way.
And unfortunately, not a very compelling one. Having never read Chan (or Biggers) before, It’s interesting to approach it from a curiosity standpoint, but his enduring appeal somewhat baffles me, especially at first, when the opening chapters are so messy in establishing the characters, one could forgive the frustrated newbie reader for going no further than the initial chapter.
This novel is very much of its era, in morals, politics and dialogue; one can expect those may not hold up, but the mystery should, yet I’m afraid it doesn’t, being not all that clever. I’m not sure you’ll have a “bully time,” as the wealthy Winterslips are apt to say, but I am sure it’ll make you want to go to Hawaii, based upon Biggers’ lush descriptions.
As for the ongoing criticism that Biggers’ bread-and-butter portrayal is racist, I neither see it nor buy it. Clearly, Chan is the smartest guy in the room. Just because he speaks the way he does doesn’t make him a stereotype. I know some Asians who do speak like that, and I also know some who don’t. But you know what? Even Asians’ worst English is infinitely greater than my Chinese. —Rod Lott
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I have read the first three Chan novels and enjoyed each of them. The stories “hold up” because they take you back to a different era. Biggers is good at putting the reader in the location of the story. This first novel is certainly not the best of the Chan canon, but just as certainly not a bad novel.
I agree with ray’s statement. the Chan books, like the Mr. Moto books paint a very vivid picture of a time and place. And House is perhaps the weakest both books and mysteries get better in later installments. Keeper of the Keys and The Black Camel are excellent.
I wrote this review knowing I was going to be in the minority. Hey, at least it wasn’t Nero Wolfe!
I’m happy to a knowledge the weakness of this entry. Just give the later ones a try as they do improve and are really good books.