Harry Stephen Keeler - Riddle Of The Travelling Skull

 

Harry Stephen Keeler is a writer many mystery fans have never heard of — but once you step into his world, it’s hard to get out. Riddle of the Travelling Skull is one of his most famous (and most unhinged) novels, a book that reads like something Agatha Christie might’ve written... on LSD.

The story follows Calthorpe, who accidentally switches suitcases on a train trip to Chicago. Back home, he opens the suitcase only to find — a skull. Inside it: a bullet, mysterious papers, and clues that lead him down a bizarre investigation involving theft, murder, and deception.

We learn that a man named Phalmsey had stolen $20,000 from a gambler, and his friend Pelton — instead of reporting him — decided to kill him and take the money for himself. Things grow even more tangled when a man named Payne appears, demanding $20,000 in exchange for the skull, which could be used as evidence to send someone to prison for life.

During their conversation, Payne reveals that he is actually Phalmsey — he had foreseen Pelton’s murderous intent, jumped into a river, escaped to London, and found an almost identical skull to fake his own death and later blackmail Pelton for the stolen money.

But in the final twist, when Calthorpe lights a match in the darkness of the park, he sees that the man he's been speaking to isn’t Phalmsey — but his old friend, John Barr. What this means exactly remains unclear. The mystery is unresolved. The novel ends in a way that may seem either nonsensical or brilliant — depending on your patience and your tolerance for chaos.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the ending. The final twist — where the mysterious blackmailer turns out to be John Barr, a relatively minor character — raises more questions than it answers. If it really was Barr, how could he have known all the intricate details about Phalmsey, Pelton, the stolen money, and the skull?

One might argue that Keeler was more interested in creating a dizzying narrative than in resolving it. The novel leaves you with the sense that the answer is just out of reach — or that maybe there was never meant to be one at all.

Still, the book is an experience. For readers who enjoy strange logic, relentless twists, and narratives that feel like dreams verging on nightmares, Riddle of the Travelling Skull offers a truly unique ride — even if it doesn’t quite take you to a clear destination.

Fredric Brown - Knock Three-One-Two

Fredric Brown (1906–1972) was an American writer known for his mastery of both science fiction and crime fiction, often blending the two genres with a sharp wit and surprising twists. His stories are typically concise, packed with suspense, dark humor, and clever plot turns that keep readers guessing until the last page.

Brown excelled in crafting short stories and novels that explore human psychology, moral ambiguity, and the unexpected consequences of seemingly simple actions. His work influenced many later writers in the thriller and mystery genres, and he is celebrated for his ability to combine entertainment with thoughtful reflection.

Whether in the realm of a chilling mystery or speculative science fiction, Fredric Brown’s storytelling remains engaging, unpredictable, and uniquely memorable.

Fredric Brown’s Knock Three-One-Two is a masterclass in noir storytelling — short, sharp, and deeply unsettling. With its grim moral landscape and ironic twists of fate, it offers not just suspense, but a disturbing psychological portrait of broken lives and failed ambitions.

The novel centers on Ray Fleck, a man in deep financial ruin, whose mounting gambling debts push him toward a horrifying plan: to manipulate an active serial killer into murdering his wife, Ruth, and collect her life insurance. To cover his tracks, Ray engineers a drunken arrest — getting himself locked up overnight so he’ll have an airtight alibi.

But the brilliance of Brown’s storytelling lies in how fate, madness, and irony collide.

Ray’s cellmate that night is a delusional racetrack tout, a man who has long insisted (falsely) that he is the one killing women around the city. He is unstable, obsessed with the idea of being taken seriously, but has never actually committed murder — until now. After waking from a vivid nightmare in which a demon taunts him, the man becomes fixated on Ray Fleck, recognizing him as the figure from the dream. This isn’t rational — it’s raw psychosis. To him, killing Ray becomes proof of his power, a way to make the demon go away, and to finally be seen as dangerous.

And so, Fleck — who thought he had planned the perfect crime — ends up the victim of a mind even more unhinged than his own schemes.

Meanwhile, Ruth, unaware of her husband's betrayal, is working her shift at a Greek restaurant. Her boss, Mikos, harbors quiet affection for her and becomes suspicious when a strange, unsettling phone call comes in asking for her. Trusting his gut, Mikos walks Ruth home, checks her apartment for danger, and leaves — but remains uneasy. When he sees a man lurking nearby who vaguely resembles Ray, he rushes back just in time to confront the real serial killer. After a violent struggle, he subdues the man and saves Ruth, who survives the attack with minor injuries.

The novel ends on a surprisingly tender note: Mikos writes a letter to a police inspector friend, recounting the strange chain of events, and expressing his hope to marry Ruth now that her treacherous husband is dead.

Brown wraps it all in his trademark style: compact prose, moral ambiguity, and a deep, noir-tinged sense of irony. Knock Three-One-Two isn’t just about crime — it’s about how delusion, desperation, and fate entangle until no one gets out clean. Even the "rescue" feels like chance, not justice.

Cornell Woolrich - Four Novellas Of Fear

This is good introduction to noir world of Cornell Woolrich, somewhat forgotten master of noir fiction and often dubbed as 'Poe of twentieth century'. Woolrich was a troubled man, deeply attached to his mother, closeted homosexual and his life is like some character from his fiction, full of doubt and sense of doom and he tragically ended life in seedy motel after his mother died, with untreated gangrene in his leg, so they had to amputate it. He was bound to a wheelchair (dark irony considering movie rear window based on his story), and he began to drink heavily after his mother passing.

Collected in this volume are four novellas : Eyes That Watch You, great starting point about paralyzed woman who suspects foul play against her son; The Night I Died; gripping story about man who fakes his suicide with an ironic twist at the end; You'll Never See Me Again, probably best story in collection  about wife of a husband who goes from him and in the end one more good story, Murder Always Gather Momentum about desperate man needing cash to pay debt for his flat and when he tries to take money from former employer things go wrong and he accidentally kills him with pistol, leading to further troubles and ending with another dark twist at the end.

French Crime Fiction - Claire Gorrara

Frustrated by the general dominance of English and American traditions in crime fiction, I picked up this volume focused on French crime fiction — part of a wider European series including entries on Germany and Italy. It turned out to be an insightful and rewarding read.

The book traces the evolution of the genre in France, beginning with the argument that France may have originated crime fiction itself, citing Vidocq — the real-life criminal-turned-detective who inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s foundational detective stories. From there, it explores a fascinating literary lineage including Fantômas, Arsène Lupin, Georges Simenon, Gaston Leroux, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Frédéric Dard, Fred Vargas, Léo Malet, and the often-overlooked but brilliant Sébastien Japrisot — whose The Sleeping Car Murders and One Deadly Summer stand as major achievements of psychological noir.

One of the most important cultural forces discussed is the Série Noire imprint by Gallimard, launched in 1945. This series not only translated American and British hardboiled fiction for French audiences (introducing figures like Jim Thompson, James M. Cain, and Chester Himes) but also provided a crucial platform for French authors to reinvent and shape the genre in their own voice. Writers like Manchette, Malet, and Japrisot crafted stories with existential themes, gritty realism, and political critique, giving birth to a distinctly French noir sensibility.

The book also touches on how French crime fiction expanded beyond novels into film and comics, reinforcing its cultural presence and giving it a unique visual and stylistic identity — think Rififi, Le Samouraï, or the Fantômas films.

Even if I was already familiar with many of the writers discussed, this book gave me a closer understanding of how they connect and differ from the Anglo-American crime canon. For anyone growing weary of the more formulaic aspects of British or American crime fiction, this is an excellent way to explore a darker, more cerebral, and stylistically bold tradition.

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