Windows To The World

                                

THE HOUSE WITHOUT A  KEY

By Earl Derr Biggers

It is June in the early 1920's in Honolulu, Hawaii and the locals are awaiting the  College boat as the Matsonia is named since it's births are filled with boys and girls who have gone to the mainland from Hawaii to study and have not been home for nine months. Another ship, the President Tyler is carrying another load of passengers in the same direction. Among them is young John Quincy Winterlip of the staid banking Boston boring Winterslips, with family in Hawaii and San Francisco. He has been sent to bring his wayward aunt Minerva home.  He meets for the first time his lovely cousin Barbara Winterslip on board and her devoted admirer who is her father's lawyer.

The Royal Palace

 By the time they arrive in Honolulu they find that Barbara's father Dan has been murdered.. The assailant was unseen except of a view a watch with an illuminated dial  distinctive for a blurry numeral two. Those were the days in Hawaii when there was no need to lock a door. It was still for many a land of the lotus eaters, a paradise. As Minerva explained to John Quincy on his first day when he was deciding what to do (aside from helping in solving the case of course), first you sit and think about what you want to do, then you just sit and think and then you just sit. That is why you come to the islands and they get a grip on you and you find it very hard to leave.

Pearl Harbor 1920's

John Quincy did not really have to worry, the best detective in Honolulu, or in Hawaii for that matter was on the case, named Charlie Chan. He was Chinese America, very astute, not particularly enamoured of physical evidence believing the answered were more to be found in the personalities and their lives.

Hawaii was changing, many already considered it ruined, as Dan Winterslip had exclaimed "That damned mechanical civilization!" Another fellow who worked on the docks said" Goodbye to the day of the Hawaiian stevedores who wore leis on their hats and had ukuleles in their hands." 

John Quincy drove around Honolulu enjoying such sites as the Royal Palace. The entire city was gearing up for the visit of the American fleet during which parties galore were planned and the sailors were to be feted in lavish style. This was an annual event looked forward to by all.






 Biggers slips in a smattering of red herrings as almost all the characters have their 15 seconds in the center ring, but all the clues are their as is the case in the the fair play golden age type mystery.  I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I slipped easily in the era, into place taunted by kona winds and eased by the trades, and into the story because the people were real and the plot plausible. There was a  touch of nostalgia for a place I have never been and a time that never really existed, but then that is why I read books.