Charlie Chan: Five Complete Novels: The House Without a Key; The Chinese Parrot; Behind That Curtain; The Black Camel; Keeper of the Keys [Hardcover]

Earl Derr Biggers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 1988

Charlie Chan, the imperturbably ingenious detective with impressive powers of deduction, solves five bizarre mysteries.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 713 pages
• Publisher: Avenel Books; Omnibus edition (December 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517347075
• ISBN-13: 978-0517347072
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #137,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romance, historic settings, race relations, and murder, April 18, 2002

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Charlie Chan: Five Complete Novels: The House Without a Key; The Chinese Parrot; Behind That Curtain; The Black Camel; Keeper of the Keys (Hardcover)

Between 1925 and 1932, Earl Derr Biggers wrote six novels about Charley Chan, a fictional Chinese detective, who was to become a pop culture icon through his representation in Hollywood movies. It is said that the author based his character on a genuine Chinese detective in Honolulu named Chang Apana that he read about while vacationing in Honolulu. In a time when "white priviledge" was assumed, Detective Chan overcomes racial barriers as he pursues white murderers in a white society. The only other Chinese in evidence in these stories are servants and laborers. The novels take place in the Honolulu and California of post World War I America and the descriptions of these long-gone settings are wonderfully rich and rewarding. Each story not only tells how a puzzling murder is solved, but also has a sub-plot of young people finding true love. Romance, historic settings, race relations, and a murder mystery are all the earmarks of a Charley Chan novel. They are a joy to read and much better than the movies of the 1930s and 1940s. I am disappointed that the book has only five of the six Charley Chan novels. Included in this volume are: The House Without a Key (1925); The Chinese Parrot (1926); Behind That Curtain (1928); The Black Camel (1929); and, Keeper of the Keys (1932). The one novel left out is: Charlie Chan Carries On (1930). I hope that someday we will be able to buy all six in one volume with an introductory essay that gives some background on the author and discusses the influence of these novels.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3 excellent + 2 poor books = a very good bargain, September 27, 1998

By 

Ray King (Morgan Hill, Ca USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charlie Chan: Five Complete Novels: The House Without a Key; The Chinese Parrot; Behind That Curtain; The Black Camel; Keeper of the Keys (Hardcover)

This anthology of five novels written between 1925 and 1932 break cleanly into two groups. The first three books (House without a Key, Chinese Parrot, and Behind that Curtain) are clever, entertaining and quite enjoyable. That last two are contrived with the proverbial red herrings dragged everywhere to confuse the issue but not to add to the enjoyment. An interesting footnote to 'House without a Key' is its characters' comments that the beauty of Hawaii is being destroyed by the commercialism and tourists. This, in 1925.

My advice is read the first three books and stop at that point. You'll have gotten your money's worth and you'll avoid the bitter aftertaste the latter two books impart.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Undervalued writing, December 6, 2010

By 

Alan Buster (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Charlie Chan: Five Complete Novels: The House Without a Key; The Chinese Parrot; Behind That Curtain; The Black Camel; Keeper of the Keys (Hardcover)

These popular novels from the 20s and 30s rarely come to mind when people think of Charlie Chan. Naturally, they think of the movies. But most readers would agree that the novels are more exciting, bursting as they are with a sense of wonder and vitality. The author seems never to have gotten over the sense of marvel he experienced on first coming west, and then to Hawaii. And for fans of Charlie himself, there is more of him (and his family) in the novels than in the films--though little of the sidekick comic son. The films draw on exotic settings; the novels do too, but confine themselves to Hawaii, San Francisco and the rural wild west. To read them is to get a taste of what it might have been like to know Honolulu when it was still small and parochial, or San Francisco when it was just maturing from its brawling youth. Biggers has other interesting novels set in the eastern US, notably "Love Insurance" in St. Augustine, FL; and they are quite good as popular entertainment goes. But there is nothing in his work to match these five novels in which one can feel new worlds opening up for the writer. A pity he did not live to write more.