Better the Devil You Know…

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Keller’s background as a drama teacher and a playwright definitely
manifests itself in this fast-paced, comic novel, which reads much like
scenes from a physical comedy. The setting is Vancouver of 1907, a time
when the community’s Red Light District was sandwiched between the
warehouse and hotel districts (Keller provides a labeled, period street
map plus a two-page description of Vancouver as it was). While asserting
that “just as the place names are real, much of this tale is
constructed on fact,” she quickly adds that “I have, of course,
taken considerable poetic licence with all these historical facts.”
Nevertheless, Keller’s inclusion of black-and-white period photos,
mostly from the City of Vancouver and B.C. Archives, helps to reinforce
the feeling that the book’s incidents could possibly be true.

For 20 years, Abercrombie Dodds had made a shady living by passing
himself off as the “Reverend” Dodds. His favorite scam involved
contrived barroom conversions which, when reported in the newspaper as
his crusade against demon rum, led “influential God-fearing filthy
rich matrons” to try to outdo each other in contributing to the
“Reverend Dodds Evangelical Mission.” Dodds and their money would
then move on to the next community. In Vancouver, because the town
council had targeted the local brothels, Dodds decides to switch from
the devil he knows to a new focus for his scam.

Unfortunately, Dodds’s past catches up with him. Angel, the madam of
the Red House, is someone Dodds had previously alienated in San
Francisco. Motivated by revenge, Angel pursues Dodds throughout the
entire novel. Theirs, however, is not the book’s only chase: Magnolia
is hunting another prostitute, Princess, for having stolen her tips, and
Klondiker Olie Yonsen is seeking Foxy Fawkes, a ladies’ underwear
salesman, for stealing his bag of gold nuggets. Everyone gets mixed up
together until a trial, humorously presided over by a half-deaf judge,
provides closure. Not pretending to social significance, Better the
Devil You Know... provides an evening of light, fun reading.
Recommended.