/"The House Without a Key/" is a 1925 novel by Earl Derr Biggers, the first of the Charlie Chan mysteries. The novel is set in 1920s Hawaii and introduces the reader to the look and feel of the islands from the perspective of white and non-white residents, describing the social class structures and customs of the time.
The novel deals with the murder of a former member of Boston society who has lived in Hawaii for several years. The main character is the victim's nephew, John Quincy Winterslip, a young Boston bond trader, who has come to the islands to try to convince his aunt Minerva, whose vacation lasted several months, to return to Boston. The novel follows John Quincy as he himself falls under the spell of the islands, meets a beautiful young woman, breaks off his engagement to his Bostonian fiancée Agatha and decides, while the murder is being solved, to move in San Francisco. In the meantime, he is introduced to many levels of Hawaiian society and helps Detective Charlie Chan solve the mystery.
The novel's denouement is almost identical to that of Erle Stanley Gardner's final Perry Mason novel, /"The Case of Murder Postponed/" (1970).
/"The House Without a Key/" was made into a film twice, under the title "The House Without a Key/" in 1926 and under the title "Charlie Chan's Greatest Case/" in 1933. In 1942, it was adapted for the stage by Jean Lee Latham and played in Chicago.
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: [Allreaders](http://allreaders.com/book-review-summary/the-house-without-key-28637).
More: The House Without a Key, Earl Derr Biggers, Charlie Chan
murder mystery, hawaii society, boston
bond trader, island life, detective
solving the mystery, Hawaiian society, crime
detective novel, murder investigation, 1920s Hawaii
00:00:00 The house without a key. I: Weather in Kona
00:32:24 II: The top hat
00:44:51 III: Midnight on Russian Hill
01:14:32 IV: A friend of Tim
01:35:49 V: The Blood of Winterslips
01:54:13 VI: Beyond the bamboo curtain
02:07:26 VII: Enter Charlie Chan
02:33:52 VIII: Steamboat Day
02:56:50 IX: At the reef and the palm tree
03:21:49 X: A diary torn by anger
03:46:56 XI: The Jewel Tree
04:19:43 XII: Tom Brade the Blackbird
04:41:59 XIII: Luggage in room nineteen
05:05:08 XIV: What Kaohla took away
05:30:40 XV: The man from India
06:04:44 XVI: The Return of Captain Cope
06:31:43 XVII: Nightlife in Honolulu
06:51:34 XVIII: A cable from the continent
07:17:48 IX: “Goodbye, Pete! »
07:52:46 XX: Lau Ho's story
08:16:59 XXI: The stone walls are collapsing
08:45:05 XXII: Light passes through
09:17:39 XXIII: Moonlight at the crossroads
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