Seven Keys to Baldpate

By: Biggers, Earl Derr

A young woman was crying bitterly in the waiting-room of the railway station at Upper Asquewan Falls, New York.A beautiful young woman? That is exactly what Billy Magee wanted to know as, closing the waiting-room door behind him, he stood staring just inside. Were the features against which that frail bit of cambric was agonizingly pressed of a pleasing contour? The girl's neatly tailored corduroy suit and her flippant but charming millinery augured well. Should he step gallantly forward and inquire in sympathetic tones as to the cause of her woe? Should he carry chivalry even to the lengths of Upper Asquewan Falls?No, Mr. Magee decided he would not. The train that had just roared away into the dusk had not brought him from the region of skyscrapers and derby hats for deeds of knight errantry up state. Anyhow, the girl's tears were none of his business. A railway station was a natural place for grief-a field of many partings, upon whose floor fell often in torrents the tears of those left behind. A friend, mayhap a lover, had been whisked off into the night by the relentless five thirty-four local. Why not a lover? Surely about such a dainty trim figure as this courtiers hovered as moths about a flame. Upon a tender intimate sorrow it was not the place of an unknown Magee to intrude. He put his hand gently upon the latch of the door.And yet-dim and heartless and cold was the interior of that waiting-room. No place, surely, for a gentleman to leave a lady sorrowful, particularly when the lady was so alluring. Oh, beyond question, she was most alluring. Mr. Magee stepped softly to the ticket window and made low-voiced inquiry of the man inside."What's she crying about?" he asked.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08MSV1QJF
• ISBN13: 9798558085693
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

There are at least seven movies based on the play written by George M. Cohan.

The stories most aligned with the book have the same name. One outlier is named “House of the Long Shadows” (1938), where only the names are similar. A lightweight writer, Mr. McGee, besides that, it was time for him to write a classic novel; to write this novel, he needed to find a place for perfect solitude. That place turns out to be an inn high up on Baldpate Mountain that was closed for the winter. Little did he know that there were seven Keys to Baldpate Inn. Each key can be held by a person or persons with unique characteristics and a good reason for being there. If you can believe who they are and their reasons. Mr. McGee suspects them all of being some part of a convoluted plot that n-o-b-o-d-y will let him in on. We go along for the ride. There is no use speculating. And Mr. McKee's chivalry may be his undoing. Be sure to read the book to the last sentence. I came to this book by Earl Derr Biggers (of Charlie Chan fame) after watching the 1935 version of “Seven Keys to Baldpate” with Walter Brennan as the station master. I have several video versions of “Seven Keys to Baldpate.” I have still to see them play live; however, the movie versions were more based on the play than the book. Some of the statements were directly out of the book, but many others had that Cohan feel. Meantime the book stands alone as a great example of a 1913 Earl Derr Biggers mystery.