The House Without a Key

A Charlie Chan Mystery

By: Earl Derr Biggers

Narrated by: John Rayburn

The sublime beauty of Hawaii nearly a century ago is captured in this first book featuring the fictional Honolulu police detective, Charlie Chan. Author Biggers was staying at a hotel on Waikiki Beach in the 1920s when he was inspired to write the book. The Chan role at first was relatively minor, and he didn’t say anything until several chapters had gone by. However, the concept caught on when the literary public wanted more of him. That prompted five subsequent books as the character became more prominent.

Altogether, Chan developed into a personality that fascinated mystery fans of all eras. In addition to the print episodes, more than four dozen successful movies eventually followed in the 1930s and 1940s. The overall idea is a pleasure to hear, as we invite you now to listen to this novel that established a completely new pattern for mysteries.

Public Domain (P)2021 by John D. Rayburn

Good Story, Terrible Recording

I enjoyed the story, it’s a good murder mystery and you’ll probably enjoy it if you like Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes stories. The audio quality was awful, the volume fluctuated all over the place, there were random pauses from what I assume was editing, and the narrator was sometimes difficult to understand. The narrator does have a monotone but I thought it was kind of relaxing, helped put my newborn to sleep when I listened to this book on speaker in the middle of the night.

Fascinating introduction to Charlie Chan!

I have loved the Charlie Chan films for 50 years. when I was a teenager I tried to read the books that inspired the series but found them uninteresting. All these years later I decided to give them another try. This, the first entry in the literary series, is much better than I remember. The narration is well-done. overall, I am quite happy that I gave this first volume another chance.

Recorded in a tin bucket

I have been a fan of the Charlie Chan stories and movies for decades now and have never encountered such an unenjoyable version of a Chan story. The narrator's voice is monotonous and doesn't vary in the slightest, I've heard text-to speech audio with more life to it. The audio quality is distant and tinny, like the narrator was talking on the other side of the room with the microphone stuck in a metal bucket. Avoid this recording and read the original, or use a text-to-speech program to hear a more lively reading.

absolutely horrible narrator

I don't know who this person was that was reading this story but he actually gave me a headache too bad I would have loved to learned about Charlie Chan's early beginnings