Seven Keys To Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers

Seven Keys to Baldpate was the first novel published by Earl Derr Biggers, creator of Charlie Chan. Its instant widespread success made his name tops in mystery in 1913. He introduced his Chinese-American sleuth in 1925, and the series of six Chan mysteries was born.

Only knowing it was a mystery, I expected ghosts and rattling chains, but Seven Keys is actually a fast and witty crime caper with a house full of oddball guests.

Billy Magee has been writing popular novels and yearns to write a serious one. His friend gives him a key to Baldpate Inn, a mountain resort closed for the winter in upstate New York where he hopes to write in solitude. The inn "clung with grim determination to the side" of the high wintry slope, "making the Sahara look a cozy desert corner."

Silence is the opposite of what awaits Magee, as that night six others 'running towards or escaping from' arrive with their own keys to Baldpate Inn; each with an interest in the hotel safe, and the $200,000 that was quickly stashed and then quickly stolen from it. The lovelorn haberdasher, the discredited professor, the hermit of Baldpate, Mrs. Thornhill, and several other assorted crooks - even sweet Mary whose eye Billy caught at the station. They share their histories, steal each other's stories, someone is running around outside on the snowy balcony, the loot is found and lost... Says one crook to another amidst the action, "If you think I've come up here on a pleasure trip, I've got a chart and a pointer all ready for your next lesson!"

The chaos is untangled, but will there be enough time for Mr. Magee to catch up to Mary, who escaped into the night?

Fast-paced and fun, with witty dialogue and old-fashioned phrases, candles illuminating the dark halls, a wintry night of crime and deception. Seven Keys is an enjoyable adventure, still fresh as over 100 years ago.

Seven Keys was a success and has been filmed seven times over the years, including The House Of Long Shadows in 1983, starring Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee. The cover art included here is from the 1935 film starring a favorite actor, Richard Dix.

As for Mr. Magee's serious novel writing? "Fate set plump in his path the melodrama he had come up to Baldpate to avoid. Ironic Fate, she must be laughing now in the sleeve of her kimono."

1913 / Hardcover / 408 pages