The Rat Racket

by David H. Keller

With Dr. Keller's genius for hitting at vital spots every time, he now gives us a brand new idea and an ingenious solution. We hope no racketeers read this story. They might, as a result, cause the police some trouble. Fortunately, however, the racket has a flaw.

Kindle Edition

First published March 23, 2011

About the author

David Henry Keller was a Doctor and a Lieut. Col., U.S.A., ret.

David Henry Keller (1880–1966) was most often published as David H. Keller, MD, but also known by the pseudonyms Monk Smith, Matthew Smith, Amy Worth, Henry Cecil, Cecilia Henry, and Jacobus Hubelaire. He was a writer for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century who wrote science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's that sense of disappointment you get when something you're looking forward to sucks so bad. I like to read science fiction of the twentieth century ever since middle school, and I even have collections of short stories. Stanley Weinbaum was a talented writer, and the same can be said somewhat about David H. Keller, and so I've been looking forward to reading this one for a long time. Maybe that's why I was so disappointed? It's a real shame when you get so much scientific writing talent in a work of fiction, both in front and behind the scenes, and yet the result really isn't all that funny or interesting. It sort of sits at a slight level for the whole time, and only rarely gets any better than that. The highlight is the inventions, which are all pretty well described in detail. It's obvious that the scientific invention ideas were what they spent all their time writing, and then just fitted the story in around them. The story is so basic, it all just happens with nothing really happening, and I know that makes no sense but it's just the way it is. It's like, lets get the team of scientists and inventors back together, ok we're back together, now we'll make some inventions, ok we're done. And the ending? Well, it's kinda funny, and kinda weird. It makes sense, but it's sort of in a we-don't-know-how-to-end-it kinda way. Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to read it? Who knows. It's far from terrible, but far from good. Which means it's solidly average. There is far worse than this around, especially when you compare it to other works of science fiction in the Golden Era, but Keller, and everyone else involved, can do a lot better than this.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird, scifi short story