Tue 31 Dec 2013
Reviewed by Geoff Bradley: HARRY STEPHEN KEELER – The Affair of the Bottled Deuce.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
HARRY STEPHEN KEELER – The Affair of the Bottled Deuce. Ramble House, 2005.
I’ve read half-a-dozen Keelers with generally pleasing results, but this is the first Ramble House original I’ve read. This was written in 1958 but was unable to find a publisher until Fender Tucker embarked on his project to release all the Keeler in existence.
Reading it one can see why. This is particularly slow moving — a body found shot in a locked room is reported to the police on the first page of the book, but it’s not until some 50 pages later that the police arrive, and it’s even later when they realise that the gun in the supposed suicide victim’s hand is actually made of wax.
So it’s a locked room mystery with several of Keeler’s trademarks — the usual will, the magic tricks — but ultimately the good bits — and there were several — didn’t quite outnumber the bad bits (as has been the case in other Keelers I have read). And even the locked room answer was a little disappointing, at least to readers who know their Sherlock Holmes.
Will I be reading more Keeler after this? Of course I will.
December 31st, 2013 at 4:33 pm
I don’t understand why you’d continue to read poorly written mysteries when there are so many better ones to choose from? And reading time is finite, after all.
December 31st, 2013 at 6:32 pm
At this point there isn’t a lot left to say about the King of Cracked. I don’t think anyone, even Bill Pronzini, who tried, has ever caught exactly the pleasures/annoyances of reading Keeler. He may be the only writer in the genre who can honestly be described as epic, unfortunately that isn’t a virtue in Keeler’s case.
Still, like Geoff I still try. Must be a masochistic streak.
In the case of this one it sounds as if the best thing about it is the really attractive cover. Sad, when you have to review the cover.
December 31st, 2013 at 11:26 pm
One person I know who actually finds a sort of cockeyed virtue in Keeler is Mike Nevins. There is a Keeler Society headed by Richard Polt that publishes a newsletter.
January 1st, 2014 at 8:11 am
This just happens to be one Keeler book that I didn’t enjoy but there are many others I would highly recommend: The Mysterious Mr. I. (UK edition), The Amazing Web, and The 16 Beans, to name just three. Keeler was eccentric and his books are set in not-quite-the-real-world but within that setting follow a logic of their own. Flawed, maybe, but a flawed genius whose better books are well worth reading.
January 1st, 2014 at 1:44 pm
Now I am puzzled. I didn’t think that quality ever entered into the consideration of a Keeler novel!
January 1st, 2014 at 6:17 pm
Keeler is a great surrealist writer, sadly he didn’t mean to be.
January 7th, 2014 at 5:20 pm
I can almost see liking it in the same way that I like B movies that aren’t very good, but then again, my tolerance level for films is set a lot lower than it is for fiction.