The Jew Detective

# The Jew Detective; or, The Beautiful Convict

By Colonel Prentiss Ingraham. Beadle and Adams, No. 662, July 1, 1891.

This melodrama concerns twin siblings Frank and Cora Keene, wealthy children of a retired New York physician. The reckless Frank, seventeen, visits the village tavern for gambling and drinking, while virtuous Cora waits at their family estate, Oak Ridge Farm. Frank is thrown from his horse after a night of carousing and left senseless on the road.

Meanwhile, a Jewish stranger named Alvan Judah is discovered standing over a murdered body in the woods and arrested by townsmen despite his claims of innocence. The corpse is an unknown stranger; Judah's derringer matches the fatal wound. Imprisoned and facing trial, Judah resolves grimly that he will not hang. The narrative intersects the parallel fates of the injured Frank Keene and the accused Judah, their stories moving toward convergence.