Books with author Earl Derr Biggers

The fifth of the Earl Derr Biggers Charlie Chan books books involves the Honolulu detective in a case of murder that stretches around the world, as members of a tour group are dying, one by one. Charlie's old friend Chief Inspector Duff from Scotland Yard comes to his rescue in this book. Duff is investigating the murder of Hugh Morris Drake, a sweet old man strangled in London's famous and exclusive hotel, Broome's. Drake is with a tour group encircling the globe. While Duff's ship is docked in Honolulu, the detective is shot and wounded by his quarry; though he survives, he is unable to continue with the cruise, and Chan takes his place on the ship to San Francisco, where finally the mystery is solved.

The death of Hollywood actress Shelah Fane in her Waikiki beach house brings Charlie Chan of the Honolulu police to seek the identity of the killer. The story behind her murder is linked with the three-year-old murder of another Hollywood actor and also connected with an enigmatic psychic named Tarneverro. Through the confusion of alibis, false clues, and bizarre characters, Chan moves with the utmost calm – until the classic "gathering of suspects" climax, when his form of justice hits with shattering force. This is the fourth of Earl Derr Biggers' books in the Charlie Chan series. It is also the first book in which we meet Chan's family. Well, his wife and four of his eleven children to be specific. Where the other seven kids have gone is never mentioned.

"Death is the black camel that kneels unbidden at every gate." This is what Charlie Chan tells the guests of the unfortunate Shelah Fane, a glamorous Hollywood movie star who has been murdered while on location beach side in Honolulu. Here the detective confronts his most perplexing case of his long and illustrious career. Chan is aided by a mysterious fortune teller named Tarneverro the Great. It appears that Miss Fane had summoned Tarneverro to Honolulu as she strongly believes in his mystical powers. A number of bystanders do not have alibis in this case, and it takes every bit of Chan's considerable powers to untangle this intricate web of deception and murder.

In this last written adventure, the plot unfolds with an intriguing scenario. Wealthy and hospitible Dudley Ward gathers together Charlie Chan along with Ellen's three later husbands to his large house on Lake Tahoe. After hearing his former wife, Ellen Landini, may have been pregnant when she left him, Dudley Ward is determined to find his son. There are four ex-husbands, including Ward, all of them angry with Landini, who is about to marry a fifth husband, also present, with his sister, at this bizarre gathering. Landini herself arrives on the scene to complete the madness, and is promptly murdered. Her servants, entourage and husbands all come under suspicion. "Keeper of the Keys" was the final book written by Earl Derr Biggers before his passing a year later.

In the 6th and final book in the mystery series featuring the Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan, we find our hero in Lake Tahoe, California. Chan has been invited as a house guest. He meets a glamorous Out of Printera singer, Ellen Landini, and she is murdered by a gunshot during a party. Her servants and four of her ex-husbands are suspects in the case, all with weak alibis. It is up to Chan to solve the murder. The clues are cryptic and misleading by nature: the singer's own revolver, two scarves, two cigarette boxes with mismatched lids, and the actions of a little dog named Trouble. Part of the solution to the mystery involves an elderly Chinese servant named Ah Sing--the keeper of the keys. Chan solves the case in his usual understated, spectacular fashion.