


Books in 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

Charlie Chan's Chance
The Screenplay for the Lost Charlie Chan Film
2009

Charlie Chan in The Temple of the Golden Horde
1974
Authors

Michael Collins was a Pseudonym of Dennis Lynds (1924–2005), a renowned author of mystery fiction. Raised in New York City, he earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart during World War II, before returning to New York to become a magazine editor. He published his first book, a war novel called Combat Soldier, in 1962, before moving to California to write for television. Two years later Collins published the Edgar Award–winning Act of Fear (1967), which introduced his best-known character: the one-armed private detective Dan Fortune. The Fortune series would last for more than a dozen novels, spanning three decades, and is credited with marking a more politically aware era in private-eye fiction. Besides the Fortune novels, the incredibly prolific Collins wrote science fiction, literary fiction, and several other mystery series. He died in Santa Barbara in 2005.