In 1936 Harry Stephen Keeler wrote a huge novel featuring the most unreliable narrator in literary history. His publishers forced him to split the books into two volumes, The Mysterious Mr. I and The Chameleon.
Now, Ramble House has put the two novels together in one volume so you can read the whole story without changing books. Together, they are one of the most unusual books ever written.
Note:... [click here for more]
After a thousand pages and more sidetrips through the backwoods of Chicago than you can imagine, the story of the man standing on the corner with the crimson hatbox is completed.
Finally we find out why the defendant, when asked by the archbishop what was in the box, replied "Wah Lee's skull. I cracked Vann’s pete." But not without some of the most incredible courtroom hijinks in the history... [click here for more]
From 1935 comes this thrilling novel about five odd people who happen to buy tiny jade figurines of a non-smiling Buddha. Only Harry Stephen Keeler could have come up with this plot!
Note: This digital edition includes the PDF, EPUB and MOBI (Kindle) versions of the book. ... [click here for more]
A man stood on a streetcorner with a crimson hatbox in his hand. An archbishop approached him and asked what was in the box.
"Wah Lee's skull. I cracked Vann's pete," is the enigmatic reply.
From this simple encounter stems the trial of the century. The crimson box does indeed hold the skull of a long-dead Chinaman (or is it?), and the man did break into D.A. Vann's safe (or did he?) One thing... [click here for more]
A man standing in a darkened room notices that someone is breaking in via the window.
He waits until the intruder is inside then holds him at gunpoint. The two then embark on the most audacious conversation any author has ever had the nerve to write. By the end of the book you'll be exhausted by the tales each man tells, each more unbelievable than the last.
The climax will leave you gasping!... [click here for more]
The trial of the man apprehended with a crimson hatbox containing a skull continues with the shenanigans of the Moffit brothers, Silas and Saul, trying to thwart the efforts of Elsa Colby, the young defense lawyer who must win her first case -- or it will be her last!
Elsa finds herself visiting the darkest parts of Chicago in her quest to prove that when her client told the archbishop that the box... [click here for more]
One of Keeler's best, this is the second half of the notorious Marceau case, where a strangler baby dangling from an autogyro may have done the deed. Written in 1935 at the peak of Keeler's powers.
Xenius Jones, Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, gave the exact date he would reveal the details of the infamous André Marceau murder. Then Alec Snide, an American reporter, broke the case before... [click here for more]
Young Y. Cheung is in a pickle!
In order to receive a $100,000 inheritance from his grandfather’s estate, he must get his name mentioned in 1000 U.S. newspapers, “in an honorable fashion” before midnight of the day before the estate is settled. On top of that, his family doesn’t consider his one-of-a-kind profession, business detective, “honorable”. How Y.... [click here for more]