The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers

I hesitated to read this series because the movies were so racist and I just didn’t want to read the books. However, an episode of the Classic Mystery Podcast where the author explicitly stated that the books were actually written to try and counteract the racist Chinese characters of other books. This didn’t end up being the first book I read in the Charlie Chan series (series purists shudder here) but the other one I read wasn’t horrible so I decided to start at the beginning and see how it went. 

We don’t actually see Charlie Chan until we are already well into the book. Instead, the Winterslip family is the focus. Minerva Winterslip has been traveling for too long (according to her New England family) so they’ve sent her “puritanical” nephew, James, to Hawaii to come and gather her. This, of course, was back when traveling to Hawaii meant going by boat.

Minerva has been staying with her cousin Dan and, while she gets along with him well enough, the reader gets hints that he might not be an altogether “good guy.” For instance, he hasn’t spoken to his brother for over 30 years. He’s also seeing a woman he’s not really going to marry (not so bad these days). And another cousin hints to James that Dan has a dark past and that his money might not all be from legitimate means. Then, Dan is murdered and there is not an immediate reason why which means that the police, and Charlie Chan, are called in to investigate. 

It did take me a REALLY long time to get into the book. Not sure why as it was an enjoyable read and the mystery, while a little unbelievable in places, was fairly clued.

Four stars

This book came out in 1925

Followed by The Chinese Parrot

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own