Karmesin: The World's Greatest Criminal -- Or Most Outrageous Liar

Rating:
Summary: A Genius At Work
Review: Gerald Kersh was a prolific author during the 1930s through until the 1960s, particularly when it came to short stories. Like so many authors of his era, he produced an enormous number of short stories that were published in newspapers and magazines of the day and then later picked up by pulp magazines such as Black Mask, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Argosy.

One publisher is now performing the wonderful task of gathering together many authors' short stories and compiling books containing a single author's works. That publisher is Crippen and Landru. Although Kersh's Karmesin stories have been reprinted individually over the years in various publications, they have never been put together in the one book...until now.

As all of the Crippen and Landru books do, Karmesin begins with a very informative introduction providing tremendous insight into the author. An explanation is given into how the stories came about including anecdotes from Kersh himself, as well as the real life person upon whom Karmesin is based. I found the introduction in this book to be a wonderful lead in to the stories themselves, and then found myself referring back to it as I finished each story.

The book contains 17 short stories and they range in length from 5 to 13 pages; just ideal to finish a single story if you have 10 minutes to spare or for settling in and reading the lot in one sitting.

Each story unfolds in much the same way. They open with Karmesin admonishing Kersh (who acts as Karmesin's disbelieving audience) for doubting his stories. At the same time he scoffs at the crimes that are committed nowadays, claiming that not only could he pull off a better burglary, blackmail or robbery but that he already has. He then proceeds to tell a tale of fantastic achievement that is hugely entertaining and brilliant in its simplicity and success. For, as Karmesin keeps reminding Kersh, he is a genius and a master-criminal.

The contradiction to Karmesin, and the reason for the title to the book, is that, while he claims to be the most successful criminal the world has ever seen, and while he claims to have easily pulled off crimes that have netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars, pounds and francs, he invariably finishes his story by cadging a cigarette or the money for a cup of tea off Kersh. As he explains when questioned as to where the money went, he can't remember every penny he ever spent.

Karmesin is a curmudgeonly old cuss, but an entertaining character who I would best describe as a lovable old rogue. Many of his stories rely on perfect timing and as he explains in The Conscience of Karmesin: "mediocrity chooses an hour where genius picks its instant!" No story is too tall to be passed off as an exploit. And how tall are the tales that he tells? Among the 17 stories, he uses a ghost named Henry as an accomplice (twice) and in another describes how he stole the crown jewels. Of course, not all of the stories are this fantastic, but in each Karmesin highlights the brilliance of his plan and the success in which he carried it out.

At the end of the book, a Karmesin bibliography is included detailing where and when each of the stories was published. To finish the book off, a reading list that details Kersh's novels and a couple websites containing more information about the author are added.