Keene wrote quite a few stories for the pulps besides the two
in Black
Mask. For Ace G-Man Stories, he wrote the following: "It
Could Happen
Here" (Sept.'40), "Wake Up, America" (Jan.'41), "Last of the
Fighting
Ainsleys" (Sept.'41), "What So Proudly We Hail" (Oct.'42),
"Herr Yama From
Yokohama" (Feb.'43), and possibly others. "Herr Yama From
Yokohama" was
reprinted in _The Super Feds_, ed. by Don Hutchison and
published by
Starmont House in 1988. Keene's story "Rhapsody in Blood",
from Dime
Mystery Magazine, Jan.'43, is reprinted in _The Defective
Detective in the
Pulps_, published by Bowling Green Popular Press in 1983.
Keene also wrote
at least one adventure story that was published in the pulp
Short Story
during the Forties (don't have that issue available at the
moment, but I'll
try to remember to look it up), as well as other assorted
pulp mystery
stories. And he wrote a Western novel called (I believe)
_Guns Along the
Brazos_. I have a lot of his novels but have read only a few
of them. All
the ones I've read have been very entertaining, though. He
was a good
storyteller, which comes as no surprise considering the era
in which he
wrote.
I have to 'fess up: I didn't reread _The Maltese Falcon_. But
I am
rereading _Farewell, My Lovely_ for the first time in almost
thirty years.
I had forgotten just how good it is. Chandler's style is
justly praised,
but he was also very good at the sheer nuts-and-bolts of
moving the story
along. Again, not a surprise considering the era and the
apprenticeship he
served in the pulps.
James Reasoner
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