Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)One of Keeler's early novels, compiled in 1927, this one is actually cobbled together from two "novellos" and one short story, all written before 1918. To use the three shorter pieces, Keeler provides an "overplot" in which three writers are facing execution via electric chair. Since only two bullets were found in the corpse of the man each of the three shot at, the Governor leaves one pardon; the three authors must decide among themselves which of the three deserves it. Naturally, the three writers each tell a story (Keeler's old pulp-magazine stories), and a friendly prison guard is to decide who told the best story and merits the pardon. The writing style Keeler adopts for these prison sequences is surprisingly stiff, labored and amateurish, and it made me fear the whole book was going to verge on the unreadable.
I'm happy to report that the first two stories, "The Adventure of the Giant Moth," and "The Adventure of the Twelve Coins of Confucius," have classic Keeler webwork plots, with incredible complexity and with satisfying last-page revelations right out of classic Keeler left field. Indeed, Keeler even has one of his authors provide a brief outline of how such plots are constructed, on pp. 227 - 228 of this edition. Alas, the final story, "The Strange Adventure of the Missing Link," is routine pulp stuff all-too-typical of the 1910s, with a dull, linear plot whose final "surprise" is predictable and expected by the long-suffering reader after the second or third page. So for the money you get two good shorter Keeler works in his best vein, and one complete dud. It's interesting that the two good stories and framework were adapted as films: SING SING NIGHTS (1934) and THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG (also 1934). This might have been the height of Keeler's celebrity; his descent into obscurity was fairly linear thereafter. It's very difficult to imagine any of Keeler's webwork novels being filmed at all, in any reasonably faithful adaptation.
This trade paperback edition is attractively printed and bound, and I saw no misprints.
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A man will say almost anything to save his life when he's on death row. Imagine what three men convicted of the same heinous crime will say to keep from having 2,200 volts course through their bodies! But talk they'll have to, for the warden knows one of the three is innocent and has dropped off a signed pardon at their cellblock. He's leaving it up to the prisoners to decide which one is the innocent one. The one who tells the best story gets the pardon. You wouldn't expect anything less in a classic webwork novel by the master, Harry Stephen Keeler. The three stories that make up the plot of SING SING NIGHTS were written before 1920!
