"Checkmate!" That was the last word uttered to Charlie Chan and Prefect of Police Claude DeBevre by a dying reporter. It is the second murder in 24 hours at the Transcontinental Chess Tournament, and Chan has been summoned from a peaceful vacation to help solve the crime before international scandal ruins the tournament's good name.

A FICTION HOUSE REPRINT: Not one, but two murders committed in two locked rooms of the luxurious Hotel Frontenac in Paris! It challenged all of Charlie Chan's ingenuity. He sought to unravel the tangle of calumny, hate and twisted ambitions, with his only clue a whispered word from the halting lips of a dying reporter. Based on the character created by Earl Derr Biggers.

Charlie Chan, visiting San Francisco to make a speech, finds himself swept into one of his most puzzling--and dangerous--cases! A cult known as the Golden Horde is running a spiritual retreat, helping the disturbed and the depressed find inner peace. Benny Chan, who worked for the Golden Horde, is dead . . . but the priceless treasure he carried has been recovered. Benny's sister is searching for the truth, and Chan agrees to help her. The rarest of scrolls from the days of Ghengis Khan, shadowy villains, and an ancient organization with ties to modern organized crime are just the start. For this case will take Chan across the Pacific in search of answers . . . and to the edges of the human psyche!

This book provides an introduction to 24 iconic figures, real and fictional, that have shaped the detective/mystery genre of popular literature. Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to Superheroes is an insightful look at one of our most popular and diverse fictional genres, providing a guided tour of mystery and crime writing by focusing on two dozen of the field's most enduring creations and creators. Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection spans the history of the detective story with series of critical entries on the field's most evocative names, from the originator of the form, Edgar Allan Poe, to its first popular running character, Sherlock Holmes; from the Golden Age of Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Charlie Chan—in fiction and films—to small screen heroes, such as Columbo and Jessica Fletcher. Also included are other accomplished practitioners of the craft of mystery/crime storytelling, including Agatha Christie, Tony Hillerman, and Alfred Hitchcock.

This is an encyclopedic work, arranged by broad categories and then by original authors, of literary pastiches in which fictional characters have reappeared in new works after the deaths of the authors that created them. It includes book series that have continued under a deceased writer's real or pen name, undisguised offshoots issued under the new writer's name, posthumous collaborations in which a deceased author's unfinished manuscript is completed by another writer, unauthorized pastiches, and "biographies" of literary characters. The authors and works are entered under the following categories: Action and Adventure, Classics (18th Century and Earlier), Classics (19th Century), Classics (20th Century), Crime and Mystery, Espionage, Fantasy and Horror, Humor, Juveniles (19th Century), Juveniles (20th Century), Poets, Pulps, Romances, Science Fiction and Westerns. Each original author entry includes a short biography, a list of original works, and information on the pastiches based on the author's characters.

The House Without a Key is the classic novel in which Charlie Chan makes his debut as Inspector of the Honolulu Police Department. Earl Derr Biggers brings Honolulu to life with deft descriptions of the landscape and of its hybrid ethnic communities. With the creation of Detective Chan, Biggers also shatters stereotypes and is ahead of his time in highlighting the positive aspects of Chinese-Hawaiian culture, just as his skillful rendering of San Francisco is noteworthy of its modernity and keen sense of place.