When Thief Meets Thief

Terrific! A really fun caper novel: The humorous adventures of Jerry Hammond, who intended to be a dentist, narrowly missed being executed, almost achieved presidency of a banana republic, and ultimately became a safe cracker, and his pursuit of vengeance against one Tillbury Steevens, a mystery writer whose success rests on stolen manuscripts written by Jerry's grandfather. Jerry is particularly charming example of the criminal protagonist, and Keeler's writing is light-hearted and funny.This is the first Keeler novel I've encountered, so I decided to look him up. It turns out he was a highly prolific but obscure Chicago writer with a penchant for bizarre plots. This one must be among his tamest. If he were publishing today, he might be ranked with Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Moore, but he seems to have been ahead of his time. (Note: This 1938 work contains characters — you might say caricatures — who are uneducated, Southern, black and speak in dialect, as well as unsympathetic characters who refer to them using objectionable terms. I can't claim that this humorous novel has anything near the historic and cultural value of "Huckleberry Finn"; those who would like to see that work banned or bowdlerized will definitely object to this one.)