The Case of the Barking Clock

Tuddleton Trotter #2

by Harry Stephen Keeler, Hazel Goodwin Keeler

"My guiltiest pleasure is Harry Stephen Keeler. He may been the greatest bad writer America has ever produced. Or perhaps the worst great writer. I do not know. There are few faults you can accuse him of that he is not guilty of. But I love him." -- Neil Gaiman

It wasn’t fair! Just because Joe "Zicky" Czeszczicki had the misfortune to hire as his lawyer, 'Golden-Tongue' Winfrock, who died right before the trial, Joe was slated to die in 48 hours! There's no way a man accused of murdering a State's Attorney could beat those kinds of odds. But Joe didn't know about Crystal Armswayne of London and how she would figure into his life -- and he knew even less about Tuddleton T. Trotter, ingenious author of Mathematics versus Crime. All of these threads -- and more -- come together in a masterwork of webworkian logic! [ This is the longer, British version of the book.]

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Born 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.

Reviews

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Czeszcziczki se encuentra en el penal de Central City esperando ser ejecutado en la silla eléctrica por el asesinato del fiscal del Estado. Le quedan apenas 48 horas para convencer al gobernador Moorgate de su inocencia, aunque éste tiene claro que no se va a echar atrás, ya que tiene el testimonio de otro preso que dice haberle visto salir de la casa de la víctima a la hora del crimen. Mientras espera, Joe lee un extraño anuncio en el periódico: un matemático busca un caso para demostrar que su ciencia es capaz de analizar cualquier crimen utilizando estos principios.

Esta es la premisa, la punta del iceberg de otra gran novela del genial Harry Stephen Keeler. Es un historia que contiene en su interior otras historias, unas más interesantes que otras, todas ellas relacionadas, aunque aparentemente no lo parezca. Si bien la trama a veces se va un tanto por la tangente, el interés de la novela no decae en ningún momento.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Joe the Duck, small-time racketeer, is condemned to die for the murder of State Attorney Ibstone. But it was circumstantial evidence.

[JD]

Book contains a personal note and signature from the author, addressed to his physician.