Today, in addition to being Juneteenth, is Keller’s birthday. Now Keller, who kills people for money and collects stamps for pleasure, is a fictional character, essentially a figment of my overactive imagination. So one might well wonder what he needs with a birthday, or why we need to know it. But it came up years ago in the course of a long story called “Keller’s Horoscope,” which became an episode in the second Keller book, Hit List. (So our boy’s a Gemini on the cusp of Cancer, and if you want to know more about his natal chart you’ll have read the story.)

I remember his birthday because of a dear woman, Marilyn Furman, who always congratulated me on favorable reviews, and who never failed to remember Keller’s birthday and Matt Scudder’s sobriety date. On one such occasion I added Keller’s birthday to my Google calendar, and otherwise it would nowadays pass unnoticed, because a few years ago Marilyn died, and I have to say I miss her. You could say she lives on in my calendar, but a fat lot of good that does her.

I don’t know how old Keller is. Matthew Scudder ages in real time. Bernie Rhodenbarr doesn’t age at all. Keller’s somewhere in the vague middle, getting a little older but at a measured pace. Like Mr. Scudder, I myself have made the mistake of aging in real time, and my Airborne birthday is but a few days from now, on the 24th. I may find myself saying more about that closer to the date, but maybe not. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, if you have the urge to celebrate Keller’s birthday in appropriate fashion, “Keller’s Horoscope” is available for Kindle. If you’re a Kindle Unlimited member you can read it for free. If not, rather than pay $2.99 for it I’d suggest you pick up Hit List in ebook or printed form, or in the fine audio version voiced by George Guidall.