The Agony Column

Description

Earl DerrBiggers is mainly known as the author of the Charlie Chan stories and, while this novel features the same style and argumentation logic that we see in the Charlie Chan novels, the detective who investigates this case is not the Honolulu-based character who travels the world unraveling mysteries, but a young American called Geoffrey West.

The story of The Agony Column takes place in the summer of 1914 in London, when the atmosphere is already tense because of the war that is just about to break out. The title refers to the column of personal ads in English newspapers that people used for finding strangers they became interested in for some reason. The young American protagonist, Geoffrey West, enjoys reading the column and he decides to place an ad in the column to get to know an American girl he has seen over breakfast in his hotel.

His decision starts an avalanche of events, full of unexpected turns – to his greatest surprise, the young lady replies him, requesting him to write seven letters during the course of a week to her to prove his worth. The story starts slowly, but reaches high speed soon enough to make the reader want to keep reading, not letting the romance line of the plot fade out and starting other lines as well. The reader is drawn in with political plotting and crimes until the very end, the story revolving around two questions: who committed the murder, and will the young man win the love of the lady of his heart? The Agony Column was initially published under the title Second Floor Mystery in 1916, when Biggers was already a nationally recognized writer. He publishes the first novel featuring the amiable, philosophical Charlie Chan only in 1925, but the characters he uses in his previous novels, including Geoffrey West, are not less fascinating.
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