Double-Voice Dan the Always-on-Deck Detective or, The Female Jekyll and Hyde. A Weird Mystery of the Great Metropolis [within:] Beadle’s New York Dime Library.

“The gamin had snatched Dan’s revolver from the floor, placed himself astride the stricken detective and drew a ‘dead bead’ on Bark Murphy”

---

Double-Voice Dan the Always-on-Deck Detective begins with a “foul murder”; detective Double-Voice Dan is quick on the scene and the investigation soon leads to the Morphine Fiends. “Dey’re der crowd w’at eats morphine an’ hit der pipe,” Dan is informed. And this is just the start of the adventure!

The intriguing subtitle of the story evokes Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 gothic novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but this time with a twist: a woman. The question remains: “Who killed Colonel Wayne?”

A dramatic cover illustration shows a street urchin defending a stricken Dan with a pistol as armed thugs draw near. Presumably, Double-Voice Dan uses his arts as a ventriloquist to help defeat the most dastardly of his foes.

Author William G. Patten of Maine (b.1866), was a popular author of dime novels, writing under many pseudonyms.  Rare; 2 copies in OCLC (U. Rochester and NIU).¹

Sold