Book review/recommendation

 The House Without A Key 

by Earl Derr Biggers

 

     This is the first of six Charlie Chan mysteries. I thought I read these several years ago.

     But if so, my memory is one more concern to deal with because all of this story was new to me.  A special thanks to Carole for letting me know the book was only .99 cents in the kindle store. At that price it was worth a re-read anyway.

Most of you have probably heard of Charlie Chan. Perhaps you've watched the old movies they made loosely based on Bigger's detective hero. For lovers of very old classics the movies are fun. 

But in my opinion this book is timeless. The introduction of Charlie takes place in Hawaii, where he is a respected detective on the local police force. Keeping in mind this book was written in the very early 1900s, it almost seems ahead of its time when it comes to Charlie. That might be explained by the fact the author based Charlie Chan on an actual Chinese detective.

I loved the glimpse into a Hawaii of about a hundred years ago.  There is excellent character development, a good share of humor, and a very good mystery plot. The reader just needs to keep in mind this is a time with a mindset and culture that has disappeared.  You are really stepping into the past, where human nature is the same, but the scenarios are gone for good. 

Earl Biggers received fame in his lifetime, but sadly it was a short life time. He died before the age of 50 of heart disease.

As I print this post, The House Without a Key is still .99 in the kindle store. I downloaded the second book in the series, The Chinese Parrot, for under $2.00. (I don't remember that one either.) But this series is just recently being made available in e-book format, and the later ones are only coming up in soft and hard cover editions. I was able to download the cover of The House Without a Key as you see it here, but there was no google link available for posting direct access from here to view it on Amazon except at a much higher price.