I was happy to find my copy of "Charlie Chan: Cheeseburgers, Root Beer Floats and Murder" in the mail less than an hour ago. I eagerly began reading and have a few quick thoughts after reading the first chapter.
First, I caught either a chronologic error or the author may be purposefully bringing Charlie Chan up to a later decade. Charlie Chan is born in Hong Kong and his father, a police officer there, breaks up an opium smuggling gang's plans. As revenge, the elder Chan is shot and left for dead. The gang, a part of the T'ang, is out to get the entire Chan family who then relocates to Hawaii for safety, staying with little Charlie's uncle who settled there in 1912. (As we know, the Charlie Chan with whom we are familiar, would, by 1912, have been more than 30 years old!)
Next, and very sad am I to note this, there are multitudinous errors, either typographical (to be kind) or grammatical (misused apostrophes and words that should have been plural, so far), apparent in just the first, short chapter. Ouch!
My hope is that the story itself will carry the day, despite the typographical flaws (how were they missed???). I hate to come down too critically on an attempt at a new Charlie Chan tale, but, as Birmingham Brown might put it, "Facts is facts!"
Rush, I too received my copy a few days ago. After reading the first chapter: I was mortified! As you said, the numerous typos and the deviation from the original stories--definitely not a pastiche (when an author pics up and continues another author's character writing and storyline.)
I especially thought the immediate sexual references (to Chan's father's "you know what" and the future Mrs. Chans breasts) in the first two chapters were really out there?
Another thing is the covers, front & back. On my copy the .45 automatic that is suppose to be tucked into the stocking is in the air between her legs. The half that supposed to be tucked in the stocking, just disappears into thin air? And the book title on the back cover reads something different?
It almost appears, the author purposely veered off track as far as the story line goes. Also, it doesn't appear that he had it proofed or edited at all. This is nothing as eloquent as what Biggers penned, so far. I haven't got through chapter 4 and am deciding if I actually want to finish the book or just return it. So far I'm sad to say it's a disappointment.
You have echoed my feelings, exactly. It was sad to see how flawed this book has been thus far, with little hope on my part of things improving.
I am only about where you are in the book and I still want to see if at least the storyline is worth pursuing. As you note, there is not much connecting this Charlie Chan to the one created by Earl Der Biggers and developed in the film series. To me, it feels like we are meeting a Chan from an alternative universe.
It is another great sadness to me that too many writers today, not to mention Hollyweird, TV, and virtually all contemporary media and "entertainment," feel the requirement to appeal to the baser human nature. The immediate employment by the author of the sexual references that you noted reflects that. And those "multitudinous" graphic (not really typographical) errors! How could those not have been noticed by anyone even skimming through the material? I was even wondering if the proofreading was actually performed by some poorly designed computer program! Or, perhaps by someone not totally familiar with the English language, as we note the many words that should have been plural but mysteriously lack the all-important "s" at the end?
Something similar happened with a book about Charlie Chan movies that came out a number of years ago. I wonder if the small-scale, self-publishing entities tell their authors that they provide a proofing service, which, in the end, is woefully inadequate.
"Hope for the best, expect the worst." It seems we received the latter...
