According to Curt Evans, Keystone came at an interesting time in Lovesey’s career. Between the ending of his Sergeant Cribb series in 1978 and the beginning of his Peter Diamond series in 1991, Lovesey produced six books, four of which were non-series. Keystone was one of them. I knew nothing at all about this book going in. Was it a worthy read?
Keystone stars Warwick Easton, a British vaudeville performer who’s reached the end of his tour and is desperate to get back home. World War I is raging and he’s eager to get to the homefront. As such, he throws himself at the mercy of Mack Sennett, the “King of Comedy,” for a job. Sadly for the ambitious Easton, Sennett sees the humor in his name, “Would you believe this guy goes by the name of Keystone?” and offers him a role in a Keystone Cops production. Easton’s dignity causes him to refuse, but his position as a nameless extra to be called upon when needed isn’t making him any money, so when one of the Cops is hit by a roller coaster during a stunt gone wrong, he agrees to replace him.
In the course of his new career, our hero meets Amber Honeybee, a young woman with dreams of being an actress…but she has no skill. So how did she get a starring role with “Fatty” Arbuckle? There are rumors that she’s sleeping with Sennett, but Easton doubts them. His increasing attraction to her might be clouding his judgement on that though. Then her mother is killed in her and Amber’s bungalow, and Easton gets pulled into a mystery that all seems to revolve around a certain film…
On the whole, I really enjoyed this book. It’s fair to note that, as the subtitle makes clear, this is mainly a novel of suspense, not mystery. It’s not until halfway through the book that Easton really pursues an investigation. Even then, he’s not whipping out elaborate deductions, but just following leads and evidence. It works for the kind of book this is. Is it fair to the reader? I’d say yes. While the vital piece of evidence that connects everything only comes near the end of the book, a reader who’s paying attention can grasp the bigger picture of what’s going on, although the details about the why only come near the end. One thing I didn’t like is that the format means that the initial murder--no, not an accident--is never investigated. Easton realizes how it was done near the end, and it’s honestly a very clever and simple way of killing a man. But because it’s treated like an accident throughout the book, we never get any real investigation, and the impact of the idea isn’t as strong. Lovesey’s use of real historical figures also means that a reader knowledgeable of the era might be able to pick up on certain ideas before the reveal.
It’s clear that Lovesey, er, loves the comedy of this era, and his enthusiasm and knowledge bleeds through and makes the early, crime-less part of the book a smooth read. He makes the Keystone Cops movies sound funny and made me interested in watching them. However, while this book is in theory a comedy mystery, I didn’t find it all that funny. Much of the humor comes from the very-British Easton’s interactions with American Hollywood, and while it’s amusing, there’s never really any laugh-out-loud humor in the book. Not that there needs to be, I just didn’t find what was there all that hilarious.
For all my nitpicking, I really did enjoy Keystone. While it’s not a hyper-logical deduction chain kind of book, it’s a well-written, low-key thriller that shows a love of the era and still gives the mystery-minded reader some clues and interesting ideas to dig into. It sold me on Lovesey, and you can expect to see more of his books on here. Recommended.
