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The Fourth King
What happened to the thirteen kings of crooked Chicago finance? The double for the fourth crooked king faces certain death.
"A dark mystery story of LaSalle Street, Chicago's financial center, in which the author presents a dramatic picture of what happens on the shady side of the street.
"As the suave J. Hamilton Eaves sat at his desk gloating over the mail from his 'sucker' list, his eye suddenly lighted upon a playing card--a King. With it was a warning that if he did not cease his crooked stock operations, something terrible would happen to him.
"Thus begins a chilling Keeler mystery novel that winds into labyrinths of darkness--and something worse.
"A dark mystery story of LaSalle Street, Chicago's financial center, in which the author presents a dramatic picture of what happens on the shady side of the street.
"As the suave J. Hamilton Eaves sat at his desk gloating over the mail from his 'sucker' list, his eye suddenly lighted upon a playing card--a King. With it was a warning that if he did not cease his crooked stock operations, something terrible would happen to him.
"Thus begins a chilling Keeler mystery novel that winds into labyrinths of darkness--and something worse.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1929
About the author
Harry Stephen Keeler
175 books55 followersBorn in Chicago in 1890, Keeler spent his childhood exclusively in this city, which was so beloved by the author that a large number of his works took place in and around it. In many of his novels, Keeler refers to Chicago as "the London of the west." The expression is explained in the opening of Thieves' Nights (1929):
"Here ... were seemingly the same hawkers ... selling the same goods ... here too was the confusion, the babble of tongues of many lands, the restless, shoving throng containing faces and features of a thousand racial castes, and last but not least, here on Halsted and Maxwell streets, Chicago, were the same dirt, flying bits of torn paper, and confusion that graced the junction of Middlesex and Whitechapel High streets far across the globe."
Other locales for Keeler novels include New Orleans and New York. In his later works, Keeler's settings are often more generic settings such as Big River, or a city in which all buildings and streets are either nameless or fictional. Keeler is known to have visited London at least once, but his occasional depictions of British characters are consistently implausible.
"Here ... were seemingly the same hawkers ... selling the same goods ... here too was the confusion, the babble of tongues of many lands, the restless, shoving throng containing faces and features of a thousand racial castes, and last but not least, here on Halsted and Maxwell streets, Chicago, were the same dirt, flying bits of torn paper, and confusion that graced the junction of Middlesex and Whitechapel High streets far across the globe."
Other locales for Keeler novels include New Orleans and New York. In his later works, Keeler's settings are often more generic settings such as Big River, or a city in which all buildings and streets are either nameless or fictional. Keeler is known to have visited London at least once, but his occasional depictions of British characters are consistently implausible.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 6, 2014
¡Cómo me entretiene Harry Stephen Keeler! Sus novelas de argumentos imprevisibles y desconcertantes nunca dejan indiferente. En ‘El cuarto rey’ (The Fourth King, 1929) nos encontramos a J. Hamilton Eaves, dedicado a las altas finanzas, venta de acciones y demás, que recibe inesperadamente un paquete con una baraja de cartas a la que le faltan tres reyes y una nota amenazante de alguien que se autodenomina “Estrella de la Noche”. Investigando tan misterioso asunto, Eaves no tarda en averiguar que ha habido más ejecutivos que han recibido otras tantas barajas de cartas. Pero Eaves tiene un plan. Es entonces cuando se ve involucrado uno de los empleados de Eaves, Jason Folwell, el verdadero protagonista de la novela. Como siempre en las tramas de Keeler, Jason no tardará en verse en un verdadero embrollo, del que deberá salir a contrarreloj.
Cada vez estoy más fascinado con este escritor y sus adictivas historias.
Cada vez estoy más fascinado con este escritor y sus adictivas historias.
December 29, 2016
Interesting narrative but pretty poorly written. Silly dialogue, flat characters, mildly sexist/racist/xenophobic. This reprinted edition (Ramble House) had a lot of spelling and punctuation errors. I felt like I was proofreading part of the time.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews