Keystone

by Peter Lovesey

Warwick Easton is a cop - a movie cop, that is. When this vaudevillian lands in California, his screen prospects look bleak. But a bathtub meeting with Mack Sennett, lands him a stunts-and-chases job. Danger is to be expected in the work of Keystone Cops - but murder is quite another thing.

Put a solemn Englishman into police uniform and thrust him into the crazy world of Keystone Film Studios in 1916 and you have the premise for this novel. The King of Comedy, Mack Sennett, insists on calling the new cop Keystone. But comedy turns swiftly to crime. Shocking things occur that are not in any script – a horrific death on a rollercoaster, a body in a bungalow, the disappearance of a girl, a shooting on a beach.

Keystone the cop gets on the trail. His mission: to find the adorable and much abused blonde actress, Amber Honeybee. The action is threaded through the real stories of silent comedy stars Mack Sennett, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Mabel Normand.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Historical

255 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1984

About the author

Peter Harmer Lovesey, also known by his pen name Peter Lear, was a British writer of historical and contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. He was also one of the world's leading track and field statisticians.

Reviews

[Les Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book but found it had too many words and not enough story for its length.

[John Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

There arent many of this author's books left for me to read. Whilst I am waiting to get my hands on Beau Death, the latest in the Peter Diamond series, I reached back in time for this 1983 novel 'Keystone', one that is a bit different.

Having said that the book was written 35 years ago, it could have been written at anytime over the last 100 years as it is set in the famous era of the Max Sennett and the Keystone Cops in America at the time of the first World War.

Lovesey captures the feeling of the studio and the inherant dangers of filming some of the famous stunts are well illustrated here when one of them goes wrong and an actors is killed.
What follows is a cleverly crafted story involving more death and dastardly dealings, like a real life Sennett comedy, against the unreal backdrop of the film studio.
There are some star names including Roscoe Arbuckle ( dont call him Fatty), some amusing scenes, of course a car chase, a hero, a villain and a beautiful heroin. Does young love triumph in the end? You will have to wait for the film !`

[Graceann · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's difficult to find a novel about the early days of Hollywood that gets certain bits right. Either it's all played for "oh look at the quaint old-timey filmmakers," or it's anachronistically modern. Peter Lovesey managed to hit just the right note to make this story entertaining, but not silly or implausible.

Keystone is actually a solemn young man named Easton, who is renamed by his new boss, Mack Sennett. As the newest of the Keystone Cops, he is on the periphery as a gruesome death occurs on set during the filming of a Mabel Normand comedy. That's just the beginning. From there we are treated to layers of intrigue, secrets and separated loyalties.

From the lovely way that Roscoe (his friends never called him "Fatty") Arbuckle is portrayed to the depiction of the landscape of Southern California one hundred years ago, Keystone is fun, funny, interesting and a thoroughly commendable offering to keep one entertained on a rainy afternoon.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good murder mystery set in the days of silent movies. I'm not really one for period whodunit's but this had an air of realism to it that had me pretty much convinced as to both the crazy world of the film studios & the power that men such as Mack Sennet held.

The storyline worked well enough with a few twists & turns along the way to keep it entertaining. The main character, Warwick Easton, was believable enough but I don't feel I really got to know him. His character was supposed to be aloof (or so it seemed to me) so the feeling of detachment towards him made sense. The book had the feel of the start of a series, as if more about this character would be revealed over the course of further stories. However, it's a standalone & that's probably for the best as though I enjoyed this delve into the past, it's not a setting I'd care to keep re-visiting.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always read novels about historic Hollywood with a jaundiced eye, but i have to say that "Keystone," is a real delight. Good mystery, and the detail and backgrond on Mack Sennett, the Keystone Film Company, and the times (ca. 1915) were pretty much spot on.

[Carly Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting of this book was so interesting. I really liked learning about Old Hollywood. However, the plot and the murders got a bit muddled in my opinion.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystery and crime novels are some of my favorites I like the hunt for killers and trying to work out the ending before the writer serves it up. So as you can imagine I've read a fair few of them most of these have had modern settings. So when I came across keystone it piqued my interest, most of us have heard tales of the early days of Hollywood. However when it comes to fictional tales of this time not many have taken up my interest. Too often to me they either seem to be tinted with rose-colored glass or simply make up everything and have no real connection to what this time was like.



There was also another reason for me to pick up this book, It involves a great many people who really existed. Now while I have seen a few stories that did this Keystone for me holds a more personal connection. One of the side characters is someone I'm actually related to, so finding out Harry Gribbon is in this book, one of the founding members of the keystone cops was the final thing that made me give up my hard earned cash. I have to say it's slightly surreal reading a name so familiar to me. Anyway, he is not the main focus of this book so I will move on.



For any crime novel set during this period, our hero is usually that of a bitter and hard battled detective usually in the Hollywood homicide bureau. Lovesey took his story in another direction, his cop is only police in the big screen sense. there are worlds apart from a real cop and the keystones. Most people who have heard of them remember there comedic act and bumbling style. But much like the real world what takes place behind the camera is far darker than you might think. What starts off as a new job and maybe a shot at the big time for Easton soon spirals out of control and drags him into something he could never have imagined. Our hero is one of those guys who wants to do his best and I think had a good soul although he may not be the happiest of guys I think that he would help you out if he possibly could even if he does feel a little detached from those around him.



With a slew of well-known names from the time the story rolls along delving deeper and deeper into the seedier world of Hollywood. I suppose some things never really change, Too many people seeking out a better life and to many looking to take advantage of them for there own gains. If you are looking for the likes of L.A confidential then you will be left feeling let down, this is not as darker novel as that and being set a few years earlier doesn't quite have that Hollywood sparkle that you would have heard about. I suppose that being set those few years earlier mean that these names are not so much in the forefront of peoples minds. Like I said having that more personal connection to that time means I have looked more into the time period. But overall I felt It was a solid mystery and still gave me a lot of what I was looking for in this book. In some ways, It felt like the start of a series the setting up of our hero for more adventures and a close look into how he became the man he is but as of writing this no more have been written.



I enjoyed my time with this book, it was an interesting time to set the book and the characters pulled me in. there is a lighter touch to this book and that maybe be due to it being set around the Keystone Cops. But if you want something a little different and have a free afternoon why not give it a shot.

[Lanina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable little mystery. I love the silent movie theme.
I wasn't in love with the main characters; Keystone and Amber felt a bit flat and insufferable until toward the end.
Their relationship just didn't really feel like it developed naturally, and despite being from the point of view of the person who loves her, Amber's not framed very nicely beyond 'she was kind to me when we first met'.
Then she disappears for a large portion of the story and he's so concerned with finding her, we kind of start to like her more in her absence and just...forget about her being awful until we're reminded later why she's in this mess in the first place.
The twists and turns were fun.

It was a bit weird to me just how many of the important characters are real people, and how much time we spend with them. Given the theme I expected some name-dropping and mentions, but wasn't prepared for basically silent movie celebrity fanfiction. It seems he did his research in getting their personalities down pretty well, and I wonder how much was real and how much was made up? [Like Mack's whole thing with baths, was that a thing? I've never heard that before but he sounds like someone who would...]
Having well-known people as your characters certainly makes writing them and the worldbuilding easier. They felt more fleshed out than some of the completely fictional ones.

The drawback of this though is as the story goes forward it makes it a bit obvious who the important players are. All of the characters heavily involved with the crime were the few that weren't actual people, so even if you didn't know how it all pieced together you could deduce pretty early who was innocent despite suspicion being pushed on them, and who was going to play a bigger role. It puts the story in this awkward place of catering to fans of silent films with all of these recognizable personalities, but the actual plot of it being best read by someone going in blind and not knowing who anyone is.

It also follows the trope of 'the person becoming the detective's biggest ally is the villain' and 'this one person that we've suddenly started spending all our time with so is really the only option at this point is the one who did it', though this was written in 1984, so I can't really knock it too hard. It might not have been as common and predictable at the time.

I read the new [soho 2025] publishing, but I'm curious to get ahold of an older version. There were a lot of little grammatical errors, [quotations starting mid-paragraph with no opening marks, the number 1 sometimes in place of letters like I or L, Sennett sometimes spelled Sehnett]. I wonder if these are quirks of the original print back in the day that have been kept for posterity or if these are some errors from the new edit. I could see them being made easily on a typewriter, but with modern publishing methods they should be easy to see and fix so I'm leaning toward them being left intentionally.

[R.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Κριτική στα Ελληνικά πιο κάτω...
This was an easy, entertaining book to pass the time. I admit that I recognised some names like Roscoe Arbuckle, but been completely unfamiliar with American cinema at the time (or cinema in general to be honest, not much my thing), it got me some time to figure out things like what the Keystone Cops were etc -I thought it was a fictional device, but apparently the setting and many other characters are real too. After I got a grasp on things I kind of enjoyed the chaotic rythme of the filming procedures and the studios' ambience.

The characters weren't very deep to be honest, very cliche, superficial and indifferent while I couldn't quite see how the romance of the story came to be. Of course this is 1915 or thereabouts and the mentallity of people was kind of different and the people on the movies' buissiness were maybe that airhead, who knows... The mystery/plot wasn't that much intrigueing or convinving and the conclusion was rather weak, but this was a story easy to follow and kept my mild interest till the end.

It was a very decent book to spend a couple of hours with. I didn't love it, didn't hate it either. It served its purpose!

Η ιστορία του βιβλίου διαδραματίζεται περίπου το 1915, στην χρυσή εποχή του βωβού Αμερικάνικου σινεμά, κυρίως στα γυρίσματα κάποιων κωμωδιών του Keystone Studios. Ομολογώ ότι ο κινηματογράφος γενικά δεν είναι το δυνατό μου σημείο, πόσο μάλλον η συγκεκριμένη χρονική περίοδος του κινηματογράφου. Αναγνώρισα κάποια ονόματα όπως ο Roscoe Arbuckle αλλά αρχικά μου πήρε κάποιο χρόνο να προσαρμοστώ στο βιβλίο, καθώς δεν είχα ιδέα για το τι είναι οι Keystone Cops κτλ. Νόμιζα ��τι μπορεί να είναι εφεύρεση του συγγραφέα, ωστόσο το περιβάλλον του βιβλίου και τα περισσότερα πρόσωπα είναι πραγματικά.
Μόλις βρήκα το ρυθμό μου, μου άρεσε να παρακολουθώ την χαοτική ατμόσφαιρα των γυρισμάτων και το πως λειτουργούσαν τα πράγματα.

Ωστόσο οι χαρακτήρες ήταν μάλλον πολύ επιφανειακοί, κλισέ και αδιάφοροι, ενώ το ειδύλλιο της ιστορίας δεν με έπεισε καθόλου. Φυσικά μιλάμε για την Καλιφόρνια του 1915 όπου η ιδιοσυγκρασία των ανθρώπων ήταν διαφορετική και για τον κόσμο του θεάματος όπου ίσως οι άνθρωποι να ήταν έτσι επιπόλαιοι, επιφανειακοί και μωροφιλόδοξοι κατά βάση, ποιός ξέρει... Η πλοκή του βιβλίου ήταν μάλλον "χλιαρή" κι απίστευτη, το μυστήριο δεν με τράβηξε ιδιαίτερα και η λύση του ήταν μάλλον υπερβολική κι αδύναμη. Όμως η όλη υπόθεση κράτησε το ενδιαφέρον μου ως ένα βαθμό και ήταν πολύ ευκολοδιάβαστο βιβλίο.

Δεν το αγάπησα, δεν το μίσησα, ήταν ένα καλούτσικο βιβλίο να περάσει κανείς λίγες ώρες διαβάζοντας. Μια χαρά.

[Karen M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh I just loved this book combining murder , film making, romance, stars of silent movies , makers of silent movies ( Mack Sennett) , humour, and America in 1916.
It’s a fantastic read full of peripheral details and name dropping which never intrudes just adds to the enjoyment - well I wasn’t aware of the actual dangers faced by untrained stuntmen being filmed live . Was one really injured every week - I must find out. The murder is delightfully technical and clever - but not too clever for the intrepid Warwick Easton ( say it out loud and hear his nickname which gains him a job) to solve.
How does he do it , who else does he save , how is his life changed … read it and see.
Oh and if you’re interested Silentology.Wordpress.com has some lovely pictures and details of the real Keystone Kops.

[Scilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warwick Easton shows up at Keystone studios looking for an acting job. He gets called Keystone and becomes a Keystone Cop in a comedy series. He meets Amber, a woman with small parts, and becomes enamored with her. Keystone watches a filming and sees one of the Keystone cops die when his stunt didn't work right. Then someone uses his car in a stunt which damages it severely. Then he is knocked out and tied up in a beach house. When he gets home it has been thoroughly searched. When Amber is missing and her hair is found in his car, he knows he has something someone is looking for.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t anything like the books I would normally read, but I acquired an armful of books by this author and figured I might as well give one a go. I actually quite enjoyed it. The story was set over 100 years ago and was based around actors of silent movies. The plot was interesting and the main character rather entertaining. I will read more of Peter Lovesey’s books at some point.

[Gareth Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

In general I like Lovesey’s novels, but this was a bit below par. The silent movie setting was great, but the plot was rather weak and neither of the lead characters really rang true. Full marks for the setting, rather fewer for the plot.

[Cyprien Saito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classical retro whodunit by no means giving any concrete clue to the specification of actress' image.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A jolly good romp of a mystery.

[Paula Schumm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel set right in the middle of filming the Keystone Cops. Silent movies, star politics, danger at every turn! Recommended.

[Christine Roff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something a bit different. Set in the silent movie times with the real stars as characters. That aspect was interesting for this otherwise light story.

[Kiersti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounding up to four stars. Once I got past the first few chapters, I liked it more! Lol

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murder Mystery. This novel is set in Hollywood in 1915. Warwick Easton ends a tour as a vaudeville comedian with no prospect of employment. He is offered a job as a Keystone Cop - and becomes involved in intrigue when one of the Keystone Cops is involved in a fatal accident. Interesting to read how these movies were filmed.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keystone is a historical crime story set in Los Angeles in 1916, specifically focusing on the Keystone Studio. Whilst firmly a piece of fiction it includes a number of real-life characters including the studio owner, Mack Sennett, and actors Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harry Gribbon, Mack Swain, and a number of the Keystone Cops. The two lead fictional characters are Warwick Easton and Amber Honeybee, neither of whom are particularly likeable: Easton being solemn, defensive, snooty, and standoffish; Amber, overly ambitious, lacking in talent, devious and opportunist, and stubborn. Easton is smitten, but the relationship is mostly platonic, with him trailing round after and defending her. The tale unfolds at nice pace, the prose is light and breezy, and the plot is interesting without being captivating. I had a good idea as to the culprits, though not the reason why events were unfolding as they were. Overall, a good setting and idea, and it help pass a few hours pleasantly enough.

[Genna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found the characters to be unpleasant - the Englishman "Keystone" was condescending and aloof at best, his relationship with Amber Honeybee only ever seemed superficial. She was as shallow and inconsequential as one could be - not even showing any emotion when her own mother was killed. The whole plot of "who's breaking in/killing/kidnapping etc.?" did not particularly interest me, it seemed secondary to the general setting of an early 20th century film studio and the people who worked there (and, as I've said, none of whom were likeable!)

[Alistair · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an insight to old time Hollywood, or at least how it is perceived to have been, this is rather entertaining. Peter Lovesey has a skill where his writing flows and sucks you in.

However, speaking personally I much prefer his English locations and in particular the Peter Diamond series.

Would I recommend this book, well yes, but it is unlike what I call ‘normal Lovesey’.

[Brian Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great crime mystery that takes place during the silent film era. Love it!

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it! Like going on a fun adventure ride with over-the-top but believable characters.

[Mark Edlund · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mystery series
Did not like the writing style or characters. Set in the 1920's on a Mack Sennet movie set.
Pharmacy reference - character's father owns a pharmacy in San Francisco.