There was a suspicious death, a marriage proven to be a sham, a grave disturbed at midnight, and all before Detective Joe Phenix has even entered the case! Soon, in an underground New York City meeting place, an extensive criminal enterprise is revealed and infiltrated. And, the plot has only begun to unfold.At the peak of summer, on July 24 of 1880, this second Joe Phenix adventure began as a serial in the New York Saturday Journal, a story paper published by Beadle and Adams. In Joe Phenix, Private Detective, he has become independent of the police force of New York City and has his own detective agency. Written in 1880 to be read in 1880, this is Historical Detective Fiction created before it was Historical!