Sun 30 Sep 2018
Reviewed by Dan Stumpf: HARRY STEPHEN KEELER – The Riddle of the Yellow Zuri.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[9] Comments
HARRY STEPHEN KEELER – The Riddle of the Yellow Zuri. E. P. Dutton, hardcover, 1930.
Keeler is almost as retrograde as Edgar Wallace, say, but somehow much more enjoyable. His books are the Yard Sale of Mystery Plots, with everything and the kitchen sink tossed out in chaotic profusion. This one is wilder than most — even most Keeler — hanging on coincidences too improbable for normal readers to imagine, let along believe.
In fact, the Jacket Blurb reads in part: “The grand climax is an absolute surprise, and no reader will be able to say, ‘I knew it from the beginning.'” You can say that again. I read the ending, and I still don’t expect it!
As for Style, Keeler’s is all his own, a prose pattern literally so bad it’s good. I was no further than the second paragraph before I ran upon the following sentence:
As the sentence goes, so goes the book. Simplistic, awkward, exotic, implausible, but suffused with a child-like innocence that I find addictive … in small doses.
The plot, if I divine correctly, encompasses two or three Stock swindles, a death-trap Safe, coded messages, a bizarre Will complete with missing heir, sacred Chinese rings, superstitious Italians, Black Comedians, Circus Folk, and the Yellow Zuri, a not-very-rare India Snake for which a fabulous reward is offered.
Whew! Keeler should’ve won a Pulitzer just for stringing it all together!
September 30th, 2018 at 9:55 pm
The only thing by Keeler I finished other than X JONES were some shorts he wrote about a Raffles/Lupin style character for a spicy pulp that were halfway readable even if they read as if a child wrote them.
Granted the books are funny, though they weren’t supposed to be, but the sheer size of many of them defeat me too often.
As for his plots, whole books could be written trying to decode them and they still would be tangled. Even WIlliam Burroughs tossing three by five cards in the air seems a more ordered plot system than Keeler uses.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:21 pm
What I have never understood is how Keeler managed to stay hooked up with Dutton, a major publisher, for so long. The books must have sold well, but who read them? Many went into later printings.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:40 pm
I suppose you know there is a Harry Stephen Keeler Society that publishes a newsletter called Keeler News. The members seem to really enjoy his stuff and Ramble House has kept most of it in print. I had an autographed copy of The Riddle of the Waltzing Skull that I kept trying to read. I gave up after the third try.
October 1st, 2018 at 9:02 am
I’ve read about a dozen Keelers. A couple were poor, a couple so-so, but the vast majority were excellent and I really enjoyed them. Keeler specialised in throwing in lots of unconnected stuff and going off at tangents but, in his better books, he managed to bring it all together in an satisfying conclusion. I haven’t, though, read The Riddle of the Yellow Zuri (or The Tiger Snake, as it was called over here) so can’t comment on that one.
October 1st, 2018 at 11:45 am
Ramble House can’t be doing too badly by keeping Keeler’s books in print. Obviously you aren’t the only one still reading and enjoying him!
October 1st, 2018 at 4:12 pm
Mike Nevins is the leading authority on Keeler and even knew Keeler’s widow.
October 1st, 2018 at 8:52 pm
Mike has talked about Keeler any number of times for this blog. Use the search box in the right hand column, about a third of the way down, using the words nevins and keeler.
October 1st, 2018 at 6:46 pm
I had a very brief period of Keeler mania when I tried to collect him based on his reputation for crackpot fiction, but actually reading him pretty much cured me, and this from someone who tried to read everything in Bill Pronzini’s GUN IN CHEEK and SON OF GUN IN CHEEK.
October 3rd, 2018 at 2:17 pm
Some books are so bad they’re really bad. The fans of Keeler may be living in another world.