The Tangled String: A Charlie Chan Mystery takes the famous detective and his family to Boston for daughter Rose's wedding, where prenuptial planning collides with an empty safe, untimely death, and hints of family scandal.

Rose Chan's marriage to John Quincy Winterslip promises to be a joyous occasion in the groom's native Boston, and his family insists on putting up the bride's parents and nine siblings at the famous Hotel Statler. Honolulu police inspector Charlie Chan welcomes the opportunity to take his devoted wife and their brood to far-off New England, and the Winterslip family introduces them to the Athens of America.

After an enigmatic family heirloom arrives under police escort, Chan soon discovers that the hotel elevator isn't the only thing that's out of order. A burglary leads to a suicide-or was it murder? The father of the bride-to-be comes to the aid of Boston police to find the connections between thievery, death and blue-blooded family skeletons. Drawing on ancient wisdom, intelligent deduction and his characteristic wit, Chan must help a junior police detective reveal all as the wedding day approaches.