Earl Derr Biggers

This novel is a murder mystery starring Charlie Chan, the Chinese detective from Honolulu. It is set on the shores of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada during early spring - for the first time Charlie Chan sees a snowy landscape! Charlie Chan is a house guest when Ellen Landini, a famous opera singer, is murdered. The suspects include her three former husbands, her present cast-off husband, her current intended and his sister, an ex-boyfriend and his jealous wife, and the first husband's loyal Chinese servant - all of whom were present in the house at the time.

Geo. M. Cohan's Grand Opera House, Cohan & Harris, managers, Harry J. Ridings, business manager, Cohan & Harris present the mystery farce in two acts with prologue and epilogue "Seven Keys to Baldpate," by Geo. M. Cohan, founded on the story of that name by Earl Derr Biggers.

This is a mystery story set in the South California desert. Charlie Chan, the Chinese detective from Honolulu, is entrusted with the safe delivery of a string of pearls to a millionaire's isolated desert ranch. Suspecting all is not well at the ranch, he disguises himself as a servant to investigate the mystery. Other characters include the jeweler's son who accompanies Charlie, a pretty location-finder connected with the movies, the millionaire's secretary, a jaded newspaperman and a mild-mannered naturalist.

Behind That Curtain, published in 1928, finds Charlie Chan in San Francisco preparing to return to Honolulu after a working holiday. He meets a Sir Frederic Bruce from Scotland Yard, who is following the trail of a woman who disappeared fifteen years before. The two attend a dinner party together—where Sir Frederic is murdered. Chan is then pressed to delay his return to Hawaii to assist in the murder investigation. Before Charlie can find the murderer, he must find the missing woman. Because the previous Chan novel, The Chinese Parrot, was so well received, Earl Derr Biggers was paid an impressive $25,000 for a serialized version of Behind That Curtain by The Saturday Evening Post The novel was adapted for film in 1929.

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

Published in 1925, The House Without a Key introduces the kindly detective Charlie Chan, conceived by Earl Derr Biggers as a counter to the “Yellow Peril” stereotypes common in the era’s society. John Quincy Winterslip, having been sent by his family to convince his aunt to return to Boston, arrives in Honolulu to find that a rich family member with a shady past has been murdered. Detective Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police Department recruits John to aid in the investigation. As he works to uncover the murderer, John learns about Chinese culture—and true love.