More Than Skin Deep

When a nitroglycerin blast tears open Silas K. Mears's safe in the mountain town of Mesa Flat, the wreckage seems to point to robbery, murder, and a sensational mystery worthy of a city detective. But behind the shattered store, the dead clerk Ben Drake, and the frantic cries for help lies a sharper satire of "modern methods" versus plain common sense. Mears scoffs at local authority and summons the famous Big Bill Poindexter, a swaggering investigator who dazzles the town with fingerprints, photographs, and confident theories. His attention soon turns to bank cashier Dick Lamb, and the evidence appears damning enough to threaten a good man's reputation and family. Yet Constable Dad Anderson, calm and unshowy, keeps asking the questions others ignore, even as Judge Horn postures and the crowd rushes toward judgment. With dry humor and growing tension, the case unravels into a clever expose of planted clues, hidden gold, and a staged crime meant to cover Mears's own troubles. In the end, Dad's steady judgment proves more powerful than theatrical detection, and Mesa Flat learns that character can matter more than fingerprints. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.