Karmesin: The World's Greatest Criminal -- Or Most Outrageous Liar

by Gerald Kersh, Paul Duncan (Editor)

Gerald Kersh (1911-1968) wrote amazing novels and hundreds of short stories about the weird and wonderful people he met during his lifetime. The most intriguing was Karmesin, a master thief and self confessed genius. His robberies, cons and double crosses involve split second timing, almost supernatural foresight, and spine-tingling nerve. But is he telling Kersh the truth? For the first time all 17 short stories are collected in a single volume so that you can decide for yourself.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

170 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2003

About the author

Gerald Kersh was born in Teddington-on-Thames, near London, and, like so many writers, quit school to take on a series of jobs -- salesman, baker, fish-and-chips cook, nightclub bouncer, freelance newspaper reporter and at the same time was writing his first two novels.

In 1937, his third published novel, Night and the City, hurled him into the front ranks of young British writers. Twenty novels later Kersh created his personal masterpiece, Fowler's End, regarded by many as one of the outstanding novels of the century. He also, throughout his long career, wrote more than 400 short stories and over 1,000 articles.

Once a professional wrestler, Kersh also fought with the Coldstream Guards in World War II. His account of infantry training They Die With Their Boots Clean (1941), became an instant best-seller during that war.

After traveling over much of the world, he became an American citizen, living quietly in Cragsmoor, in a remote section of the Shawangunk Mountains in New York State. He died in Kingston, NY, in 1968.

(Biography compiled from "Nightmares & Damnations" and Fantastic Fiction.)

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Entertaining collection of classic Kersh stories: large than life characters, witty narration, twisty scams, and a general sense of being taken for a ride on the back of the world's largest shaggy dog. Good fun.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid Kersh fan, I’m very happy that Crippen & Landru has published this collection of Kersh’s Karmezin stories and preserved them for us all. Otherwise they would likely be lost to history. Some of these stories were pretty entertaining, but it’s obvious that this is minor work compared to Kersh’s novels, and it’s also evident in the early stories that he was still developing as an author. There a few flashes of the Kersh to come, especially in his dazzling descriptions of Karmezin’s fantastically rich victims. I wish he had written a few long Karmezin stories, which would have been great in long-form with space to flesh out Karmezin as the eccentric and mustachioed old retired criminal.

As for their veracity, the intro notes say that Karmezin was based on an acquaintance of Kersh, named Carfax, a old master criminal — or at least a schiester, a scoundrel, and amazing liar. I think some of these stories are based on facts, some Kersh wanted to believe were true, and some are total falsifications and basically impossible. Each crime had foundational elements seem decently plausible, however, and may have been based on actual heists that Carfax either orchestrated or knew about. Each would make a better plot than many, many movies that get made each year. Read Karmezin only when you can't get your hands on any other out-of-print Kersh.

[Severian13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karmesin is a collection of short stories by the great Gerald Kersh that follow the adventures of his only recurring character. When I say adventures, I use that term loosely. You see, Karmesin- as the book's title suggests- could very well be telling fibs to Kersh himself, who is inserted in to the stories to play straight man to Karmesin, an apparently master criminal that tells Kersh his amazing stories. Is he really telling tales out of school, saying he is a genius opportunist while he pockets sachets of sugar and bums cigarettes from Kersh while sounding like a down-and-outer? Who knows? That is part of the intrigue of the character. He is based on a "real person" called Carfax that Kersh apparently knew in real life...but whether that is true is anybody's guess. Gerald Kersh is so great that he could spin a web of lies and intrigue of the most outlandish sort and make you believe it. The tales Karmesin tells are fantastical and exciting, for the most part, and read like accounts of national and international intrigue. Kersh's range is displayed excellently here: there is even a story in which Karmesin plans to use an actual ghost to help him pull off a crime.

Paul Duncan, a champion of Kersh, tells fascinating accounts of the man himself in the introduction. Until his long-awaited biography of Gerald Kersh is released, this will serve as an exemplary titbit concerning his 'lost years'.