The Chinese Keyhole, Richard Himmel’s second novel starring his creation Johnny Maguire, finds the ass kicking lawyer immersed in intrigue in Chicago’s Chinatown district, where a mission to deliver a coded message reveals a conspiracy centered in a strip bar. Turns out communists, including a whip wielding psycho, are trying to steal nuclear secrets. Maguire is no longer just a lawyer, but a government agent with his law practice as a front. We don’t remember that from the first book, but maybe we missed it.
As in the debut outing Maguire is a guy who takes what he wants, never really asking permission before laying his lips on a nearby woman, and always, of course, he’s correct in his assumption that he’s sexually desired. Faithful Tina from book one returns to be shabbily treated again, and as before the romantic subplots blossom into full-blown melodrama that would fit perfectly in a Harlequin novel.
We probably don’t need to mention that any mid-century book with Asian characters is going to cross some lines, and Maguire doesn’t defy expectations on that front, nor does he miss an opportunity to disparage homosexuality. If you haven’t read many of these old thrillers you might think that was the norm, but actually it’s rare because gay characters don’t figure in most of the books. When they did, well, the language got baroque, to say the least. Culturally we’ve arrived at a better—though still imperfect—place in time.
Flaws aside, we thought The Chinese Keyhole was better written than Himmel’s first Maguire novel I’ll Find You. Even with this mostly hackneyed commie conspiracy potboiler, he’s intrigued us enough to take another ride with his interesting lawyer/lothario/secret agent, so we’ll read the third book I Have Gloria Kirby and see where that leaves us. The art on this Gold Medal edition is by Barye Phillips and it dates from 1951.
