Fascimile edition of original.
by Earl Derr Bigger
The Winterslips
The Police
Inspector _______
There have always been two kinds of Winterslips. The Puritan, stay-at-home kind - those who live in Boston, go to Harvard, become stockbrokers, marry the right kind of women and live the sedate life. Then there are those with a gypsy strain, those who ‘yearn towards the lazy latitudes.’ One such Winterslip sailed out of Boston Harbor as a whaler, amassed a huge fortune, and became one of the richest men in Hawaii. In 1880 he lost his fortune, which caused one of his two sons, Dan, to take ship to search for his own fortune...as a blackbirder. It took him only one trip to do it…for the captain of his ship died, and Dan Winterslip took the man’s treasure chest for his own, returning to Hawaii a very wealthy man.
In 1925, Dan Winterslip is still a wealthy man. But he has his problems. His brother Amos, though born in Hawaii, is a Puritan through and through, and hates his more adventurous, and more wealthy, brother with a passion. The woman he loves is called The Widow of Waikiki, for it is believed she drove her previous husband to his death. And he has, rather foolishly, kept the box, with the initials of the late Captain, from which he had taken his fortune. It’s in the house he maintains in San Francisco, to be sure, but of a sudden it must be destroyed, and quickly.
Meanwhile, Puritan Winterslip John Quincy has been sent, all protesting, to Hawaii, in order to bring back his aunt, Miss Minerva Winterslip, who ten months ago had gone out there for six weeks. He travels by train from Boston to San Francisco, where he is met by cousin Roger, and delegated with the task of taking the box from Dan’s house and tossing it overboard once he gets out to sea. Unfortunately, he is attacked in the darkness by a shadow figure and the box stolen. The next day, he sets sail for Hawaii, accompanied by his beautiful cousin Barbara, who has just graduated from college on the mainland, and her very good friend, and Dan Winterslip’s lawyer, Harry Jameson. On the journey, John Quincy finds out more about the unsavory past of Dan Winterslip than he wants to know…but it is still a shock to find out that, while the boat lay off shore, waiting to dock the next morning, Dan Winterslip had been murdered, stabbed through the heart. John Quincy, at first prodded by Minerva, and later by his own sense of duty, decides to help with the police investigation.
The police officer in charge of the case is a Chinese, Charlie Chan, ‘the best detective on the force,’ according to Amos Winterslip. Chan ‘was very fat indeed, yet he walked with the light dainty step of a woman. His cheeks were as chubby as a baby’s, his skin ivory tinted, his black hair close-cropped, his amber eyes slanting.’
Although the snobbish (but not offensive with it) Winterslip is startled to find a Chinese detective, he quickly learns that Charlie Chan is extremely intelligent and capable in his job. For his part, Chan has no objection to Winterslip helping out in the case, accepting his aid and discoveries, though he never shares with John Quincy his own deductions.
The House Without A Key marks the debut performance of Chinese detective Charlie Chan. Although he is, even here, a memorable character, with his Oriental politeness, stilted speech, and sense of humor and price, the story is very much the story of John Quincy Winterslip (told from his point of view) and how he matures and grows in the course of the case. The Hawaii of 1925 is vividly invoked, the class and caste structures of the American aristocracy of the rich is brought to life. The title refers to the fact that life is so safe (in the wealthier neighborhoods, anyway) that there are no need for keys, for the doors of Dan Winterslip’s house are never locked.
It is by no means a fair-play novel, although verbal clues to the killer’s identity are sprinkled sparingly through the book…John Quincy does not act as Chan’s Watson (and vice versa) so many of Chan’s clues that he possessed, and the deductions he made from them, are not told to Winterslip, or us, until the denouement. Yet John Quincy does solve the murder on his own, getting to the same conclusion by a roundabout and more violent route. The ending is bittersweet, indeed the book itself, with its evocation of a lost time and lost culture, is bittersweet and memorable.
Miss Minerva Winterslip
Dan Winterslip
Amos Winterslip
John Quincy Winterslip
Barbara Winterslip
Interested Parties
aRLENE cOMPTON, 'The Widow of Waikiki'
Harry Jennison
Carlota Egan
Peter Egan
Thomas McBrade
Charlie Chan
This review copyright
May 24, 2000.
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