Meet Charlie Chan. The House without a Key The novel deals with the murder of a Boston socialite in Hawai?i. The story revolves around the victim's nephew John Quincy Winterslip, a bond trader, who came to the islands to try to convince his aunt Minerva, to return to Boston but soon falls under the spell of the islands himself and is of some assistance to Detective Charlie Chan in solving the mystery. The Chinese Parrot The story concerns a valuable string of pearls which is purchased by a wealthy and eccentric financier. The son of the jeweller is assigned to shepherd the transfer of the pearls to the financier's vacation home in a desert area of California and Charlie Chan also travels from Hawaii to California with the pearls. But with two mysterious deaths, first of a Chinese-speaking parrot and then of the household's Chinese man-of-all-work, Charlie Chan has a mystery to solve. Behind That Curtain Fifteen years ago, a London solicitor was killed in circumstances in which the only clue was a pair of Chinese slippers, which he apparently donned just before his death. Sir Frederic Bruce has been following the trail of the killer ever since. Just when it seems he might finally solve the murder case, Inspector Bruce is killed—and was last seen wearing a pair of Chinese slippers, which have vanished. It is left to Chan to solve the case and tie up all loose ends.