The double dagger or, Nat Ridley's Mexican trailNat RidleyOmniClassics · Literature
The double dagger or, Nat Ridley's Mexican trail
Nat RidleyA rival detective's desperate appeal sends Nat Ridley from New York toward murders connected with Mexican oil properties.
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About the book
Nat Ridley is surprised when Carl Lemberg, a professional rival whose methods he distrusts, urgently asks for help. Lemberg's brother, uncle, and chief assistant have been killed, and the crimes appear linked to oil holdings near Rolamotaza in Mexico. A distinctive double-dagger sign turns the murders into a warning that may reach beyond the original victims. Ridley's willingness to hear the case carries him from his Times Square office into an adventure of concealed identities, pursuit, and international danger. The novel uses the rapid escalation characteristic of its detective series, making personal courage as important as deduction. Its treatment of Mexico and secret societies reflects sensational period stereotypes, which belong to the fiction's construction of menace rather than reliable cultural description.
- Rivalry and cooperation
- Property and violence
- Pursuit and identity
Why read it
The appeal from a distrusted rival gives Ridley a practical reason to question both the danger and the account supplied to him.
English Garden City Publishing text of 1926, credited to Nat Ridley, Jr.