A new book about the Charlie Chan novels and their author, Earl Derr Biggers, has been published, Making the Detective Story American: Biggers, Van Dine and Hammett and the Turning Point of the Genre, 1925-1930 by J.K. Van Dover. Unfortunately, despite being no less important than the other, much touted book from a commercial publisher, Van Dover's volume from a scholarly press has not received the notice it is due. So I wrote a review on amazon to help Van Dover's new book along; it is highly recommended. Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Detective-Story-American-1925-1930/dp/0786448954/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

Just bought it on Kindle. I will write a review, too, when I read it.

Dear Brian,

Thank you for the information on this book! From the title alone it seems to be a very interesting study and I would be very interested in getting a copy.

Sincerely,
Rush Glick