This issue contains the opening installment of "Joe Phenix in Chicago, or The Serio-Comic Detective" by Albert W. Aiken, author of the Joe Phenix novels and other adventure tales. The mystery unfolds when English businessman Carroll Berkeley meets his old acquaintance MacKensie on a train and reveals that his brother Marshall has vanished in Chicago. Marshall cashed a forged check for five thousand dollars (allegedly for property) two days before disappearing—a signature Berkeley suspects is counterfeit. The Chicago police attribute it to bunco-men in low establishments, but the renowned detective Joe Phenix, engaged by Berkeley, theorizes the crime is the work of clever European criminals. Investigation reveals Marshall frequented the Glorious Alcazar, a beer-garden music-hall in the Fair District. Phenix accepts the case and prepares to travel to Chicago to investigate.
About this artifact
- Date
- February 3, 1897
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by comicbooks.com.
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