Earl Derr Biggers. Seven Keys to Baldpate. 1913; Project Gutenberg, 22 June 2011.

We heard about this 1913 mystery in connection with the Broadway and Hollywood impresario George M. Cohan. He wrote a play script based on this novel. That was not something Cohan usually did himself, so he must have really liked this story.

Seven Keys to Baldpate is a funny mystery. Today’s audiences would probably like it because it contains self-conscious irony, a trendy attitude these days.

Billy Magee is a writer who is looking to change his approach. He has written a number of popular novels that sell well but that the critics pan. “Too melodramatic,” they say, but people still like melodrama. “Not serious” say others.

Magee, then, has decided, as we would say today, to go off the grid. The father of a friend of his owns an inn among the mountains of upstate New York-New Jersey. The Baldpate Inn gets its name from the mountain peak that rises above it. It is December, and the inn will be closed until April. Magee plans, then, to live there alone and write the great American novel.

As the reader can guess from that title, his plans go crazily awry. It seems like six other individuals or groups of people have similar designs on the Baldpate Inn for a variety of reasons. No sooner does Magee get settled than another young man by the name of Bland enters the inn with another key. He says that the love of his life has left him for another man and he wants to get away for a while.

The two young men just get settled into their rooms when another visitor enters. This man is an older college professor, Thaddeus Bolton. The college where he works is not too far away by train, and he is looking for some solitude. It seems that university politics was not much different a hundred years ago. From his account, all it takes is a small misunderstanding and one’s academic freedom is challenged. He had to get away.

The next morning Magee meets still another visitor, Jake Peters. He is a hermit who lives farther up the mountain in a shack. In the summer he sells post cards to patrons of the inn. He has been recruited by Quimby, the inn’s caretaker who lives nearby, to cook for the guests who will be coming.

So, no, these are not the only people expected at the inn. Soon they are joined by the mayor of a city not too far away. The mayor is accompanied by servile flunky who does his dirty work. Mayor Cargan and Max both complain about “reformers” who make life miserable for politicians. Cargan says to the professor:

“…Who makes the trouble? Who’s made it from the beginning of time? The reformers, Doc. Yes, sir. Who was the first reformer? The snake in the garden of Eden. This hermit guy probably has that affair laid down at woman’s door. Not much. Everything was running all right around the garden, and then the snake came along. It’s a twenty to one shot he’d just finished a series of articles on ‘The Shame of Eden’ for a magazine. ‘What d’ye mean?’ he says to the woman, ‘by letting well enough alone? Things are all wrong here. The present administration is running everything into the ground. I can tell you a few things that will open your eyes. What’s that? What you don’t know won’t hurt you? The old cry’, he says, ‘the old cry against which progressives got to fight,’ he says. ‘Wake up. You need a change here. Try this nice red apple, and you’ll see things the way I do.’ And the woman fell for it. You know what happened.” (1194)

Speaking of women, the next to arrive are a matronly Mrs. Norton and her attractive daughter. It so happened that Magee had seen Miss Norton crying in the railroad station. He was struck by her beauty and had asked if there was anything he could do to help, but she told him it was none of his business. Now she has arrived at the inn as well. This pair is soon followed by a woman in her late twenties or thirties by the name of Helen Faulkner. The addition of female guests gets our hermit Mr. Peters rather nervous. It turns out he is writing a book on the evils of women.

Two more visitors add up the seven keys. One is a mysterious figure who only seems to travel or leave his room at night. The other is a Mr. Hayden, newly CEO of the Suburban Railway. It seems that Mr. Bland works for Hayden, and that both Quimby and Mayor Cargan have a history with him.

The author follows the advice of Chekhov, who tells us that all details in telling a story need to be relevant. As he is to have said, “One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off.” So all the details in this tale do come together. As already noted, the young woman crying in the train station appears a little later in the story. Even the details about some the summer guests should not be overlooked.

The tale is told from Magee’s point of view, so there is a mystery almost from the beginning. Why are all these people coming to the Baldpate Inn in the off season? Especially so for a city mayor and a railroad executive? We also learn that not everyone is going by his or her real name. What are they all hiding?

Part of the fun of the story is that it does itself turn a little melodramatic. The situation baffles Magee at times. The melodrama amuses him. And he feels he is falling in love with Miss Norton. Many will experience all three sentiments about the tale as they read Seven Keys to Baldpate.