The Black Camel

The Black Camel (1929) is the fourth of the Charlie Chan novels by Earl Derr Biggers.

It tells the story of a Hollywood star (Shelah Fane), who is stopping in Hawaii after she finished shooting a film on location in Tahiti. She is murdered in the pavilion of her renter house in Waikiki during her stay. The story behind her murder is linked with the three-year-old murder of another Hollywood actor and also connected with an enigmatic psychic named Tarneverro. Chan, in his position as a detective with the Honolulu Police Department, investigates amid public clamor demanding that the murderer be found and punished immediately.

The Black Camel was adapted into a film of the same name based on the book and released in 1931. This was the second of a series of sixteen Chan films to feature Warner Oland as the sleuth.

Earl Derr Biggers (1884 – 1933) was an American novelist and playwright. He is remembered primarily for his novels, especially those featuring the Chinese American detective Charlie Chan, from which popular films were made in the United States and China.

The popularity of Charlie Chan extended even to China, where audiences in Shanghai appreciated the Hollywood films. Chinese companies made films starring this fictional character.

The Charlie Chan series:

The House Without a Key (1925)

The Chinese Parrot (1926)

Behind That Curtain (1928)

The Black Camel (1929)

Charlie Chan Carries On (1930)

Keeper of the Keys (1932)