The Half Dime Library, No. 1053

This issue of Beadle and Adams' New York Dime Library (September 2, 1897) contains "The Three Spotters' Dead Mystery: Blonde Bert of Brick Alley" by Marcus H. Waring (credited as "Sergeant Mark"), continuing the author's detective series. The narrative opens when chambermaid Wilhelmina Willoughby discovers an unexplained coffin containing a beautiful young woman's corpse in the parlor of wealthy Walden Savern's mansion, with no signs of forced entry. Despite household investigation, no one recognizes the deceased. Mr. Savern contacts authorities and the coroner. The story shifts to Greenwich Avenue, where a one-legged man called Stumps, a youth named Bobby Blossom, and a visitor named Job Lots (Moses Bemis) read newspaper accounts of the baffling case, recognizing it as potentially one of New York's most mysterious crimes.