Mr. Wong - Complete Collection vol. 2 1935-36: The Famous Exploits of Detective James Lee

by Hugh Wiley

PERIL PRESS

Collier’s, June 29 1935
TOO MUCH ICE
by Hugh Wiley
Illustrated by Irving Nurick
Another Adventure of James Lee, who knew that diamonds don’t have wings
James Lee Wong runs down the loot.
2900 Words

Collier's, July 20 1935
Mr.
JAYBIRD’S CHANCE
A James Lee detective story—
by Hugh Wiley
Illustrated by Irving Nurick
The suavest of all detectives, James Lee, again. This time, trailing a thief, he adroitly proves that a man can lose at poker—and yet win.
James Lee goes fishing and catches a gold brick
4600 Words

Collier's, September 14 1935
Mr.
SCORNED WOMAN
A James Lee detective story—
by Hugh Wiley
illustrated by Irving Nurick
A mystery story with as many quick twists as you’ll find in a Chinatown alley. And that curious detective, James Lee, the deep one, again on the job
Hugh Wiley—Scorned Woman. James Lee Wong—in the very nick of time. Page 12
5000 Words

Collier's, November 2, 1935
Mr.
THREE WORDS
A James Lee detective story—
by Hugh Wiley
James Lee, the subtle, in another murder mystery, wherein a killer raises a question—and answers it
James Lee examines a Japanese
4400 Words

Collier's, February 15 1936
Mr.
NO WITNESSES
A James Lee detective story—
by Hugh Wiley
illustrated by Irving Nurick
No Witnesses. A Holiday for Detective James Lee.
James Lee, undercover man, takes a little vacation and finds it decidedly more exciting than yours will be—we trust
4400 Words

Collier's, September 5, 1936
Mr.
SEVEN OF SPADES
A James Lee detective story—
by Hugh Wiley
illustrated by Irving Nurick
Poker game, James Lee dealing. Page 10
James Lee, government man, follows a gangster’s trail to another strange and thrilling adventure
5700 Words

This edition includes the illustrations and covers to Collier's magazine for all 6 stories.

With the success of Fox's Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto movies, Monogram decided they wanted a piece of that action and hired Boris Karloff to play Hugh Wiley's Detective James Lee in a series of Mr. Wong movies.

131 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 6, 2014

Reviews

[Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugh Wiley’s Chinese detective, Mr James Lee Wong, returns in this second volume in the series for another six adventures taken from the pages of Collier Magazine, from which are also presented the covers and interior illustrations. Those who know Mr Wong only from the films by Monogram Studios will be surprised that the literary character is a much younger chap than Boris Karloff, and rather than a private detective of enigmatic ways he is an employee of the Justice Department. Mr Wong (or James Lee as most people know him) is depicted in these stories as being much more accessible than he was in earlier stories, less inscrutable and more urbane. He still has encounters with his countrymen, whom he tries his best keep off the path to destruction and dishonor, but his foes are more likely to be Occidental than not, and likely to be the ones spouting the derisive comments that were merely rude back in the Thirties but are considered vile today. Mr Wong is revealed to be a Yale graduate, thus giving a firm base to his ability to move back and forth between the Oriental and Occidental worlds with ease, but it’s neither his education nor his facility with language that engenders respect in everyone he meets, no matter the race or the situation, but his presence, his humanity, and his actions as a relentless (yet polite) nemesis against evil. Most of the stories in this volume take Mr Wong out of Chinatown, some into high society, others into low society, and in one of the stories he learns that a vacation does not mean a break from the evil that men do. The stories are briskly written for the high stratas of the literate that Collier Magazine aimed for in the mid-Thirties, and not the tommygun narrative style of the pulps, which means the style may be a bit dated, but not egregiously so. The short stories are very much in the classic form of the Golden Age, though not always as fair-play as a novel format might have been, but they remain enjoyable as exercises in deduction and clever plotting.