Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 935

Detective Story

This Beadle and Adams weekly features "The Newsboy Detective's Chum," by J.C. Cowdrick, opening a mystery centered on the theft of a corpse. The story introduces Business Bob, a white teenage detective's assistant, and his friend Glossy Pete, a Black newsboy, who learn of a peculiar case: a young woman named Luella Achterson died suddenly from heart failure and was laid out for her funeral, but her body vanished overnight from her mother's Brooklyn home. Detective Joe Phillips investigates, questioning the grieving widow about whether enemies might exploit her ten-thousand-dollar life insurance claim, or whether her missing husband—who disappeared twelve years earlier—figures into the case. The investigation touches on Luella's engagement to a man named Robert Wellstone who has not called upon hearing of her death, raising Phillips's suspicions. The detective methodically gathers details about the household, the locked doors, and the circumstances surrounding the mysterious disappearance.