(pb; 1981: movie tie-in)
From the back cover
“They call her the Dragon Queen, a woman of impenetrable mystery and unknown powers. . . Then someone makes the fatal mistake of putting her in jail for murder.
“Years later, San Francisco is paralyzed by a wave of the most bizarre killings ever documented, each more unspeakable than the last, each devoid of clues─at least to Western eyes.
“There is one man alone who
stands a chance of outsmarting the elusive killer─Charlie Chan, detective
supreme, Oriental genius. On him rests the fate of a city steadily being wiped
out by the curse of the dragon queen.”
Review
This cartoonish, slapstick-silly movie tie-in murder mystery is a mostly fun and frenetic read, sometimes satiric, sometimes bizarre (beyond its cinematic-splashy murderer)─e.g., the recurring brick through Lee Jr.’s office window gag which continues long after it wears out its welcome.
Those who lack a sense of humor regarding changing social norms and era-related context, or are intensely racially political, may want to skip this one, beyond the questionable nature of its yellow-face casting. Chan, who speaks like a fortune cookie (the book explicitly says so) is not made fun of─though he makes fun of himself─and other Asian characters speak like normal American characters. Charlie is not high art, nor does it pretend to be; Avallone deftly moves through the story with masterful pacing, while maintaining sufficient character development and skewering-racial-stereotypes lightness.
Film buffs might enjoy the action-climactic tip of the hat to actor Warner Oland’s many Chan films, as well as those looking for a silly, if somewhat outdated, hourlong read that eschews racial politics for an innocent silliness, and a good reveal of a could’ve-been-almost-anyone killer.
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Its source/counterpart film was released stateside in February 1981. Clive Donner directed it, from a screenplay by Jerry Sherlock, Stan Burns, and David Axlerod.
Peter Ustinov played Charlie Chan. Lee Grant played Mrs. Lupowitz. Angie Dickinson played Dragon Queen. Richard Hatch played Lee Chan Jr. Brian Keith played “Police Chief.”
Roddy McDowall played Gillespie. Rachel Roberts played Mrs. Danger. Michelle Pfeiffer played Cordelia. Paul Ryan played Masten. Johnny Sekka played Stefan.
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