Fifty Candles
by Earl Derr Biggers
50 candles start at the courthouse in Honolulu, move to China, then cover San Francisco with fog. Many of the elements used in Charlie Chan's series are present: Chinese characters (both sinister and compassionate), the Honolulu legal system, the cunning detective (in this case, lawyer Mark Drew, not a police officer), and a confusing murder complete with red herring and many other suspects. While Fifty Candles is a murder mystery, it is also a novel with romantic elements, sometimes at the forefront. For the most part, however, this is a book that will delight many fans of Biggers when tracing the origins of Charlie Chan.
