Beadle's Dime Library No. 42

1878 · 32 pages

Catalog Note This installment of *Beadle's Dime Library* presents the opening chapters of *The California Detective*, a detective mystery by Albert W. Aiken, author of "Indian Dick" and "Rocky Mountain Rob." The plot concerns David Van Rensselaer, a wealthy heir to an old New York patroon family fortune of one hundred thousand dollars. Three years prior, David discovered that his late father had made a will leaving fifty thousand dollars to an illegitimate half-sister, Alice Gordon, from his father's secret first marriage. David employed a detective to investigate the heir but conspired to suppress the will by acquiring incriminating documents from a dissolute man named Royal Keene, leaving Keene to perish in a deliberately set fire. Now a letter arrives from an old family friend announcing he will produce the will itself. As David schemes to intercept and destroy the document, a mysterious Californian named James Bright suddenly appears, whose striking facial resemblance to someone unspecified deeply shocks Van Rensselaer. The narrative combines elements of inheritance drama, blackmail, and detective work with hints of supernatural mystery.

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