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Transcript

Welcome to Mystery Books Podcast where you’ll discover new mystery books and authors. I’m USA Today bestselling mystery author Sara Rosett. I’m also a bookworm who specialties in the mystery genre. I love sharing my favorite mystery discoveries  from classic golden age novels to contemporary cozies. This is Season two, Episode seven, and it’s all about The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers. The House Without a Key was published in 1925. And its book one of the Charlie Chan series.

Book Blurb

Here is the blurb: Hawaii, early 1920s. John Quincy Winterslip has always done the proper thing, but then he’s sent to the exotic outpost of Hawaii to fetch back his aunt, who has been lingering in Honolulu visiting a cousin, the black sheep of the family.When John Quincy departs the steamer in Hololulu, he learns the black sheep cousin was murdered the prior evening. The polite and poetic police detective Charlie Chan is on the case. Soon John Quincy finds himself behaving in an unsuitable way–keeping evidence from the police, questioning suspects, and dodging bullets.

So that is the introduction from the reissue of this book. I’m working with McGuffin Publishing to bring out some classic Golden Age novels that have been overlooked or forgotten. And this one, I don’t think, has been forgotten because Charlie Chan the movies have kept him in the public consciousness, I would say. But I don’t know that the books about Charlie Chan are very well known. I hadn’t read this one, and I don’t think I’ve actually seen any of the movies. If I have, I don’t remember them.

This book, it really surprised me, and I think part of the reason it surprised me was the main character was very different than I expected. It actually isn’t centered on Charlie Chan. The novel doesn’t focus on his storyline. He’s a major player in it, but he’s not the protagonist. So that surprised me. And then also just the tone of it is very light and fun, and I always like that in a book.

The first line of the book is: “Miss Minerva Winterslip was a Bostonian in good standing, and long past the romantic age.”

The story opens with John Quincy’s aunt, and she’s one of my favorite characters. She’s very no nonsense, and she’s one of several very strong women in this story. I think that’s part of the reason I enjoyed this is the women in this story are not weak and wimpy. They’re strong and they know exactly what they want. And they are actually much more self aware than John Quincy when the book begins.

So I want to read you a little bit about Miss Minerva Winterslip. She’s trying to explain why she’s still in Hawaii to another friend, not to John Quincy. But she says, “I came over to Honolulu for six weeks, and I’ve been wondering these Islands for about ten months.” “As long as that?” Her friend asked. She nodded. “I can’t explain it. Every day I make a solemn vow. I’ll start to pack my trunks… tomorrow.”

Hawaii in this book is very romantic and beautiful, and Miss Winterslip doesn’t want to leave. And the Islands to have a magic to them, a beautiful place that people want to stay. But not John Quincy. He arrives. He’s on a mission. He’s going to get his aunt and get back to his fiance Agnus in Boston. But then his black sheep uncle is killed right before he arrives. Even despite that fact, he feels that he’s going to just round up his aunt and leave the police to solve the murder.

Minerva Winterslip has other ideas. Minerva says. “I’m going to stay here and do all that I can to help run down the murderer. And so are you.” “Pardon me? I am not.” That’s John Quincy speaking. Minerva says. “Don’t contradict. I intend you shall take an active part in the investigation. The police are rather informal in a small place like this. They’ll welcome your help.” “My help? I’m no Detective.”

Right off the bat, we’ve got Miss Minerva. She knows what she wants to do, and John Quincy is a reluctant sleuth. He does end up helping the police, but he is definitely not– that’s not his first goal or plan when he gets there.

Story Behind The Story

So I’ll give you a couple of fun facts about the story before we go on to the themes and tropes. Earl Derr Biggers was born in Ohio. After attending Harvard, he worked as a newspaper columnist and a novelist. And his first book was The Seven Keys to Baldpate, and it was published in 1913 and later adapted as a play. Biggers and his wife visited Hawaii in the early 1920s, and while he was there, he had the idea for a murder mystery set in Hawaii. But it was years later when he read an article about a Chinese-American Detective who worked for the Honolulu Police Department. From reading that article, he came up with the idea for Charlie Chan.

Chan is the antithesis of the stereotypical Chinaman that at this time when this book was published. The mysterious Chinaman was a frequent villain in the literature of the time, and Chan is completely different from the stereotype. He appears well after the novel is underway. The story does center on John Quincy and the Winterslips. John Quincy is a Watson to Chan, and it gives us a glimpse of the detective at work. So it’s the same type of format where you’ve got Watson narrating what Sherlock is doing. So you’ve got John Quincy watching Charlie Chan and not quite understanding everything that’s going on. But Chan is portrayed as a knowledgeable detective, and he’s the one who’s always a step ahead.

And one of the criticisms of this depiction of Chan is about his broken English. But I really enjoyed Chan’s verbal style; I thought it was poetic. And it had a lot of humor; it often made me smile. For example, he summarized one witness interview. He says, “Story are now completely extracted, like aching tooth.” And that just makes me think that it encapsulates exactly what happened with a little twist of humor.

And Chan is a fully rounded character. He’s got a backstory. He’s got a family. He’s portrayed as smart and intelligent and being more perceptive than some of the other detectives on the case. He’s the one who’s really seeing what’s going on.

Themes and Tropes

All right, let’s talk about themes. I would say the major theme of this book is a Coming of Age theme for John Quincy. He goes through a huge transition in this book. Charlie Chan is the flat arc charter; he doesn’t change that much. But John Quincy goes through a huge growth arc in this story. So there is that theme.

And then there’s also the theme of Letting Go of Expectations and Living a Wide and Adventurous Life. And there’s something about the setting of Hawaii that that’s portrayed as somewhere where unexpected things can happen. Romantic things can happen. You kind of get out of the rut that you’re in there. It’s portrayed as a place there are adventures are possible.

So going along with this theme of letting go of expectations and living, living fully, I think, would be one of the themes. Early on, John Quincy is on his way to Hawaii, and he stops in San Francisco. He meets with another relative from the family. And the relative is this older man who takes out to dinner and they’re talking. And he asked him some questions. And basically he’s trying to get a handle on who John Quincy is. He’s talking about the Winterslip family, and he’s talking about how things have changed. And he says, “Winterslips were the stuff of which pioneers were made. They didn’t cling to the apron strings of civilization. They got up some fine warning and nonchalantly strolled off beyond their horizon. They lived. But you’re of another generation. You can’t understand.”

And, of course, this offends John Quincy. He disagrees with him. So his relative asks him these questions. “Have you ever forgot to go to bed because of some utterly silly reason? Because, for example, you were young and the moon was shining on the beach, lapped by Southern seas. Have you ever lied like a gentleman to protect a woman not worth the trouble? Ever made love to the wrong girl?”

“Of course not,” said John Quincy stiffly.

“Ever run for your life through crooked streets in a rowdy corner of a strange town? Ever fought with a ship’s officer, the old fashioned kind with fists like flying hams? Ever gone out on a manhunt? And when you got your quarry cornered, leaped on him with no weapon but your bare hands? Have you ever…”

“The type of person you described,” John Quincy cut in, “Is hardly admirable.”

“Probably not,” Roger agreed. “And yet those are the incidents from my own past, my boy.” He regarded John Quincy sadly. “Yes, I must have been wrong about you. A Puritan survival after all.”

So that’s kind of the contrast set up in this book is John Quincy, who arrives in Hawaii, is very straight-laced. He’s not adventurous at all. By the end of the book– it’s very interesting– he will have experienced most of these things, had most of these adventures. And his life will have changed quite a bit. Basically, this is a story of the stodgy Winterslips thawing out in Hawaii. I enjoyed that theme.

All right, let’s talk about tropes. The first trope we’ve already discussed it a little bit is the trope of the Ingenue, and this innocent, naive person. And that is John Quincy, and so that’s a twist on that trope. Normally it’s a young woman who’s completely naive, but this is a young man who’s naive. And so that gives it a freshness that you don’t usually see.

Another trope in this that the Victim is the Black Sheep of the family. That’s very common in mysteries. Usually– often, I should say– often the victim is a black sheep, somebody who is not very nice and also probably on the wrong side of the law. If not the dark side, the shady side. And this cousin was certainly on the shady side of the law.

Then you have the trope of the Exotic Setting. Hawaii is, the beauty of Hawaii is mentioned many times, and the descriptions are beautiful and makes you want to go on a trip and go visit Hawaii.

Another trope in this book is the Clever Detective who is always a few steps ahead of everyone else. And that’s Charlie Chan. And we’ve talked about that a little bit. But I do want to read you one passage. So this describes Chan’s philosophy of investigation. He says, “Fingerprints and other mechanics good in books. In real life, not so much. My experience tell me to think deep about human people. Human passions back of murder: what? Always hate, revenge, need to make silent the slain one. Greed for money, maybe. Steady human people at all times.”

So it’s very similar to Poirot and Miss Marple. They’re not as interested in the forensic evidence, but more about the people and what’s going on there. And so that’s very common. The clever detective as a trope who’s using psychological analysis to figure out what the motivation for the murder was and who might have done it because of that.

And then we have a trope; it’s not really a Love Triangle. John Quincy has his fiance he left in Boston, who’s expecting him back shortly. He has Carlota, a girl he met on the way to Hawaii, and she’s someone he’s very attracted to. And she’s in a bit of trouble, so he’s motivated to help her and her family. Because they get involved in this investigation, and there’s some suspicion thrown on their family. And then there’s his cousin Barbara, who is grieving because of the death in the family. So there’s quite a bit going on. And then there’s John Quincy in the middle of it all, so it’s like a rectangle, not a triangle. So he’s torn between his duty to his fiance, his attraction to Carlata. There’s a quite in-depth romantic subplot going on in this story.

Adaptation

So the adaption of this: The House Without a Key was made into a film in 1926. And there would eventually be nearly 50 films featuring Charlie Chan, including several foreign language films. And Chan, the character of Chan, also appeared in radio and television shows, as well as comics and games. So this book just kicked off like a whole industry almost related to Charlie Chan.

All right. So if you enjoy Coming of Age stories mixed in with your mysteries, if you like exotic settings, if you like a light “who done it?” And this one has all the clues, all the red herrings in a very good, twisty mystery. If you like all that, then this story will appeal to you.

Quotes

I always like to end with a quote. And so I’m going to read off one of the things that made me laugh when I read this book. It’s not related to the mystery, but I just found it quite entertaining.

So in the beginning of the novel, Miss Minerva is talking to someone about Hawaii. And she had visited Hawaii when she was a young woman in the ’80s. And the person she is talking to says, “The ’80s,” he sighed. “Hawaii was Hawaii then. Unspoiled.”

And for a moment when I was reading that, I did this mental double-take was like, “The ’80s?” And then I realized this book came out in the 1920s, so she’s talking about the 1880s. And I just thought it was funny that even then, people who were in Hawaii were thinking, “Oh, it’s all spoiled now. There’s too many cars. It’s too modern. The romance and beautiful, unspoiled-ness of the island is gone now.” I just thought that was hilarious, and it made me laugh. As much as things change, they stay the same, too. People have the same complaints now about travel that they had in the early 1920s.

All right. So what’s your favorite book set in Hawaii? I’d love to know. It doesn’t have to be a mystery. Just tell me which book or series that you enjoy most is set in Hawaii.

You can find me on Instagram @SaraRosett (no “h” on Sara and no “e” on Rosett) or you can leave a comment on the show notes for this episode, which will be at sararosett.com/Key. I hope this podcast has let you revisit a favorite book or perhaps helped you discover a new author to try.  If you’ve enjoyed this podcast,  I hope you’ll tell a fellow mystery reader. Thanks for listening and see you next time!