Fifty Candles (Expanded Edition): By the Creator of Charlie Chan

Earl Derr Biggers

Mar 2013 · Wildside Press LLC

About this ebook

Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933) is best remembered as the creator of Chinese detective Charlie Chan.Biggers had always been interested in mystery fiction, but his interest in Hawaii clearly stems from a 1919 vacation in Honolulu. While there, he read a newspaper article on a Chinese detective named Chang Apana. Apana would become the model for Charlie Chan in Biggers' 1925 novel, "The House Without a Key," and there quickly followed five more Charlie Chan novels. Fifty Candles -- first published just two years after that 1919 vacation -- shows how Hawaii, China, and murder had already begun to come together in Biggers' imagination. The story starts in a courthouse in Honolulu, moves to China, then to fog-shrouded San Francisco. Many of the elements used in the Charlie Chan series are present: Chinese characters (both sinister and sympathetic), the Honolulu legal system, a shrewd detective (in this case, the lawyer Mark Drew rather than a policemen), and a baffling murder complete with red herrings and plenty of suspects. This special edition includes John Betancourt's introduction from the 2001 paperback edition, plus a bonus short story, "The Way to the Island" -- a long-lost Earl Derr Biggers tale!

About the author

EARL DERR BIGGERSwas born in Warren, Ohio in 1884. He graduated from Harvard University in 1907, and lived for many years in California. He wrote six novels featuring detective Charlie Chan, who became a staple of the movies. He died in Pasadena, CA in 1933.