Way Out

What kind of book would be printed on orange leaves? It could only be the one book that contains all of the wisdom of the ancient Chinese, as told in hundreds of aphorisms -The Way Out. Featured in a half dozen web work mysteries by Harry Stephen Keeler, The Way Out is the only thing keeping one-handed Stefan Czeszcziczki's wife alive as she awaits an operation. How "Zicky" uses its wisdom to save her life is a tale only America's most forgotten author could have written.

It's tough being a damn'd Yankee reporter in Southern City, but life just gets worse when the nude bodies of two women - one white, one black - are found dead in Cattail Swamp with their heads cut off and swapped. Of course the only way to identify them is to have the bodies on display so every person in Southern City can see them. With such an organized ritual, how can ace reporter Tommy Skirmont ever hope to solve the mystery and keep his job?

"Beans to YOU, sonnyboy, as per my will!" So read the wishes of rich old Balhatchet Barkstone, uncle of young Boyce. Why would he deny Boyce his proper inheritance by leaving him a paltry 16 beans instead of millions of dollars? Could it have been a big mistake? Or an imagined insult? Only Harry Stephen Keeler could have concocted such a plot. A note to the sensitive: As with many novels written in the first half of the 20th century, this book contains elements which may be viewed as racist today. Please keep in mind the era in which it was first published.