Joe Phenix's Right Bower

"Joe Phenix's Right Bower; or, The Fifth Avenue Police Spy," by Albert W. Aiken, is a serial detective story beginning in this issue. Detective Joe Phenix, a renowned man-hunter formerly with the Police Department and now private, encounters retired financier Solomon Lenbold on Broadway. Lenbold, once a powerful "railway king" with a fortune of ten to twenty million dollars, seeks Phenix's help investigating mysterious spiritualist messages received through his stenographer, Miss Holbrooke. The spirits have made troubling accusations against Lenbold's daughter Phyllis and secretary Huntington, yet have also provided surprisingly accurate information—notably predicting the arrival of a potential buyer for his Virginia plantation. Lenbold asks Phenix to investigate undercover. Phenix assigns the task to an assistant, arranging for him to pose as a Western friend's son. A parallel subplot introduces Andrew Jackson Boone from Kentucky, a horseman for owner White-hat Kilduff, who reports to Inspector Grimshaw about the wanted criminal William Black, who robbed Boone's town bank and seduced Boone's girlfriend three years prior.