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The house without a key by Earl Derr Biggers
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The house without a key (original 1925; edition 1974)

by Earl Derr Biggers

Series: Charlie Chan (1)

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4272858,366 (3.69)51
In The House Without a Key we are introduced to Chan, a corpulent father of nine, as he uses all his considerable faculties to solve the mystifying case of a murdered father and a missing jewel box.When John Winterslip is sent to Hawaii to retrieve his elderly Aunt Minerva, he fully expects to return home quickly. His Boston Brahmin roots, his successful investment business, and his family-approved fiancée are all luring him back home. Shortly after his arrival in Honolulu, however, his uncle, who was reputed to have consorted with pirates, is murdered. Detective Charlie Chan takes up the case.… (more)
Member:woodsonthird
Title:The house without a key
Authors:Earl Derr Biggers
Info:1974
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:3/30/19

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The House without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (1925)

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Showing 1-5 of 22 (next | show all)
You can almost feel the gentle trade winds of Hawaii during the 1920s in this classic novel by Earl Derr Biggers. Romantic and full of atmosphere, this is a most enjoyable read that was our first introduction to Charlie Chan. Biggers was always a great romance writer who simply incorporated mystery into his books to propel the story forward. This is never more evident than in The House Without a Key.

The story centers on young and proper John Quincy Winterslip of Boston, who has been sent to retrieve the elder Minerva Winterslip from the 'semi-barbaric' Pacific Islands of Hawaii. When his ship stops in San Francisco on its journey to the islands, however, John Quincy's idea of who he is begins to change. The possibility that there is a world outside of Boston and Beacon Hill, has begun to take shape in Quincy's soul. A mysterious errand in an exciting and mysterious San Francisco for the black sheep of the family, Dan Winterslip, who is also living in Hawaii, will kick off an adventure that will, in the end, turn John into a man.

A murder shortly before John's arrival will reveal old family secrets from a time when Hawaii was wild and dangerous, and a port for all the world. John Quincy does not understand the nostalgia Minerva and others feel for this time in Hawaii's history, but soon discovers for himself that romance is alive in those trade winds blowing the palms fronds. John will meet Carlota Egan, a girl who could not be further away from the fiancée awaiting him back in Boston. As John Quincy begins to help his lovely cousin Barbara and Minerva get to the bottom of the murder, Boston seems more and more like a distant memory.

Luckily for John, Hawaii's best police detective will become his friend while helping to unravel the clues. That detective, of course, is Charlie Chan. An Asian who has been in Hawaii many years, Chan navigates the mystery with little to go on, but with much wisdom and humor. The Charlie Chan of The House Without a Key is subtle and endearing. Chan may be Chinese, but his very American take on a piece of pie with which he is unhappy he is a hoot!

Biggers truly makes both his characters and the islands of Hawaii come alive in the first novel in which Charlie Chan appeared. His descriptions of Hawaii as seen through the eyes of the characters are both nostalgic, and filled with beauty. The House Without a Key is that rare novel which can be read with pleasure by those who love a good mystery, or those who love a light and atmospheric romance. If both are your cup of tea, this great classic is definitely for you. It is a great read during summer, when things are bright and cheery, or during winter, when you want a tropical escape. The writing style is of another era, of course, but all the lovelier for it. A true mystery classic. ( )
  Matt_Ransom | Oct 6, 2023 |
This novel from 1925 exceeded whatever expectations I might have had. The author takes his time introducing the reader to his characters and 1920's, briefly but well done San Francisco and then Honolulu, Hawaii. There's no rush. We meet people and follow them and see how we think they fit in to the puzzle. There is mystery from the very beginning. I thought the first quarter to perhaps a third of the way in was the best part of the novel. Did I guess whodunnit? No, I had considered the person only briefly.

The Detective Charlie Chan appears here. I wouldn't quite call him a major character but he plays a good part and I liked him more and more as the story went on.

Overall I liked this quite a bit. ( )
  RBeffa | Sep 6, 2020 |
This is old-fashioned stuff, but it has, for the most part, worn well: nobody ever complains about Agatha Christie, after all, and this is a typical example of her genre, without being, perhaps, a classic - but it's better than mediocre, I'd say.

Charlie Chan himself is, of course, the main draw - but I am afraid that it is with Mr Chan that I have the most difficulty. Chan enters, investigates and speaks: 'Here are written names of visitors who have enjoyed hospitality of the house. A guest book is, I believe, the term. You will find that one of the earlier pages has been ruthlessly torn out. When I make discovery the volume are lying open at that locality' (sic, sic and sic again).

Oh dear. ( )
  jtck121166 | Jun 9, 2020 |
The first of the Charlie Chan novels is more sophisticated than I had imagined. Yes, it performs all the tasks that its genre requires—and more. But, formally speaking, it's also interesting. At its beginning, the settings are described lushly, and the conversations and meetings within them accordingly are gently paced and well developed—all the better for the exposition of plot and characters, of course. Still, it's all reflective of the exotic tropical climate of Hawaii in which things are set. As things move along, however, not only does the speed of the plot increase; so does the formal narrative. Conversations become clipped. Scenes change abruptly—almost like a jump cut in a film. And conversations are compressed and sometimes signaled more than revealed. Until the climax, when all returns to the languid state at which things opened.

Not a bad novel, then. I understand that Earl Derr Biggers vacationed in Hawaii shortly after World War I, and this was the inspiration for the book. If so, Biggers likely dug a little more deeply than the islands' paradisaical surface appearance. His story is filled with allusions to the South Seas of the 1880s and blackbirding, piracy, shipwrecks, and acts of mutiny. This is the stuff of Louis Becke, the prolific novelist (and trader and journalist) of 19th century South Seas adventure stories. Becke provided the grist for the mill of South Seas writing. Everyone that followed in his wake would owe some measure of their knowledge to Becke. I'm guessing Biggers did, too. As well, Biggers was probably familiar with more writers contemporary to his era, such as Frederick O'Brien, whose influential first book, White Shadows in the South Seas, appeared in 1919, just as Biggers was making his way to Hawaii. The movie version of O'Brien's book was a major feature of 1928, three years after Biggers published The House Without a Key. O'Brien's book was a lament for the lost culture and innocence of Polynesia, which he believed was corrupted through the arrival of White people. More than a wisp of this blows through Biggers' novel as well. And, of course, there are Jack London's Hawaii stories, based on his visits to the islands in 1907 and 1915. These dealt with everything from the plight of lepers to the social divisions between the colonizers of Hawaii and its natives, something else that features in Biggers' first Charlie Chan novel.

This is the setting for The House Without a Key. Throw in the contemporaneous topics of prohibition and the presence of frustrated flappers, and you have a novel that fits its decade, the 1920s, perfectly. This is a wonderful snapshot of Hawaii before World War II.

Not to be forgotten, of course, is the character of Charlie Chan himself. Biggers made something of a breakthrough with Chan, representing him as an exceedingly competent professional who has the respect of everyone around him. This includes the new friend he makes, John Quincy Winterslip, the young Boston Brahmin come to fetch his spinster aunt back to the proper society of New England. The novel thus not only recognizes a merger of social classes but one of race as well. For Biggers, while often succumbing to Chinese and Asian stereotypes of his time (“Chinaman” and “Jap” and the use of broken English), nonetheless raises his hero to a position of authority. Biggers makes mention of Hawaii being the real melting pot. Although that clearly isn't true in the broadest sense in the novel, there is the beginnings of it.

Finally, while I describe Chan as the hero of the novel, he is actually a secondary character not introduced until a quarter of the way through the book. Winterslip is the protagonist. But the interaction between Chan and Winterslip is the engine that drives the story.

Biggers died young, aged 48, in 1933. There are only six books in the Charlie Chan series. A pity. ( )
  PaulCornelius | Apr 12, 2020 |
While I was rummaging around at Gutenberg/Australia, looking for Philo Vance books, I discovered that they also had Charley Chan. I remembered seeing some old Charley Chan movies with my dad when I was a kid. So, I figured I should check it out. Also, the author's middle name was an entry in a crossword puzzle I did. I'd never heard of him before. So, even more reason to check out Charley Chan. This is the first of what eventually was a series of six or seven books (and something like 30 movies). I thought the book was quite good, much better than the Philo Vance book I'd read shortly before tackling this.

A very proper Bostonian travels to Hawaii to try to retrieve his aunt from "Lotus Land". Just as he arrives, his rich, black-sheep uncle is murdered. The aunt and young man try to involve themselves in solving the mystery so as to keep all hints of scandal, and thus taints on the family name, out of the press. The police, of course, think they have a part in the investigation. The chief of police has a very able assistant, Charlie Chan, and Charlie and the proper Bostonian work together (mostly) and eventually come up with a solution and nab the murderer just as he is about to escape. Interestingly, like the Philo Vance book I read just prior to this, some of the police methods would be illegal today. It seems we had little concern for the Fourth Amendment in those days. Of course what with NSA spying and stop and frisk (but only of dark-skinned people, of course), we don't seem to have much interest in the Fourth Amendment these days either.

I have some reservations about liking this book because is does show the racism inherent in our past (and not very well expunged from our present, only less overtly expressed these days). Charlie Chan is given to flowery expressions which involve some rather extensive vocabulary, but rather awful and childish grammar constructions. But, against that racist characterization of the inability of "orientals" to speak correctly, Chan is painted as good and clever person. So the implied racism isn't complete. Elsewhere in the book, we have a young woman who is shunned by society because her mother was half Portugese. WTF?

But despite the flaws, the story was very engaging and I found it rather fun to read about the way "Proper Bostonians" thought and behaved some half century or more before I became (sort of) one of them. While I live on Beacon Street, and did so when I first came to Boston to live during grad school, neither of my two Beacon Streets were the "real" Beacon Street of the "true-blue" Bostonians. Nope, I've always been stranded out in the periphery, sans cash and connections. Perhaps I should move to Hawaii where, it seems, everyone can (or could a hundred years ago) mingle and love life in peace and harmony with all peoples. Or something like that. ( )
  lgpiper | Jun 21, 2019 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Biggers, Earl Derrprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Stasio, MarilynIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Miss Minerva Winterslip was a Bostonian in good standing, and long past the romantic age.
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After further discussion it was settled that he was to have the upper berth, the old man the lower, and the boy the couch. The Reverend Mr. Upton seemed disappointed. He had played the role of martyr so long he resented seeing any one else in the part.
As I say, I'm not sorry I talked. I can look any man in the eye again and tell him to go to..." He glanced at Miss Minerva. "Madam, I will not name the precise locality."
He has been sitting here looking at me more in sorrow than in anger for the better part of an hour, and I've made up my mind to one thing. I shall have no more secrets from the police.
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In The House Without a Key we are introduced to Chan, a corpulent father of nine, as he uses all his considerable faculties to solve the mystifying case of a murdered father and a missing jewel box.When John Winterslip is sent to Hawaii to retrieve his elderly Aunt Minerva, he fully expects to return home quickly. His Boston Brahmin roots, his successful investment business, and his family-approved fiancée are all luring him back home. Shortly after his arrival in Honolulu, however, his uncle, who was reputed to have consorted with pirates, is murdered. Detective Charlie Chan takes up the case.

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