Against Odds

It's 1893 Chicago, and the World's Fair draws the world to its gleaming white palaces, but also draws those who prey upon it. Detective Carl Masters finds himself hunting two dangerous operators: the elusive Greenback Bob and the mysterious Delbras, international criminals whose scheme spans continents and whose ambitions threaten far more than pocketbooks. As conmen work the crowds and an audacious adventuress complicates every clue, Masters must untangle a web of jewel robberies, lost fortunes, and disappearances before tragedy strikes close to home. When two young men vanish and a body surfaces, the case turns lethal, and the detective realizes too late that he's not merely observing the crime, he's become its target. Against Odds is a wonderfully preserved specimen of early American detective fiction, dripping with period detail and the particular anxieties of a nation marvelling at its own progress. For readers who cherish the genre's origins, who want to see how Sherlockian deduction looked in Chicago's shadow, this is a rewarding time capsule. The mystery satisfies, but it's the setting that lingers: a fairground of wonders where anything can vanish, including justice itself.