The Bradys’ Singular Search; or, The Mystery of the Mississippi Steamer by A New York Detective

A nickel weekly originally published June 21, 1912, number 700 in the popular “Secret Service” series featuring “Old and Young King Brady, Detectives” which started January 27, 1899, and came out like clockwork every Friday for more than two decades—by which time well more than a thousand issues had been published—The Bradys’ Singular Search; or, The Mystery of the Mississippi Steamer puts the Brady detective agency—Old King Brady, Young King Brady, and Alice—on the Mississippi River, chasing after a kidnapped baby and trying to solve the mystery of a long-lost heir. There is also a missing purser from a riverboat, which makes for three related cases at once. And then, after the Bradys are done with their work, there is a bonus story included in this issue: “A Terrible Experience,” about a Bengal tiger attack in rural New York.

At more than 28,000 words, this novella-sized work of pulp fiction, besides being an interesting and fun read, gives the reader a taste of what the masses were reading in the late 19th and early 20th century time period.