Behind That Curtain

Behind That Curtain
The third Charlie Chan mystery finds the Honolulu detective in San Francisco, attending a banquet honoring his police work. During the same evening, Sir Frederic Bruce, a retired Scotland Yard inspector, announces he is about to solve a twenty-year-old murder case involving a vanished woman and a mysterious disappearance in India. Hours later, Bruce is found dead—shot behind the curtain of his hotel room. Chan, who was present at the event, becomes central to the investigation. Working with local police and American journalist Hugh Drake, he unravels a web of old secrets, hidden identities, and international intrigue. The case spans continents and decades, leading to an unexpected revelation about revenge and deception. Blending humor, cultural insight, and methodical deduction, Behind That Curtain shows Chan at his most thoughtful and precise, turning what begins as a locked-room puzzle into a meditation on justice and the persistence of truth.