Beadle's Dime Library No. 850

This 1895 Beadle and Adams pulp novel, *The Planter Detective* by Dr. Noel Dunbar, opens with a gothic-tinged plantation romance. The story centers on Raynor Rickerly, master of Crag Eden, a grand Virginia mansion overlooking slave quarters, who is bound by his deceased father's will to marry Agnes Ashly, an heiress. His past entanglement with Roma Leigh, a beautiful Gypsy queen leading a nomadic tribe, complicates matters. When Roma's caravan camps nearby and she demands he honor an old promise of marriage, Rickerly refuses her at a clifftop arbor rendezvous, spurning her passionate pleas. Roma vows vengeance before vanishing. The narrative establishes Agnes—a Virginia belle whom Rickerly had previously rescued from a runaway buggy—as his intended bride, setting up conflict between passion and duty.