Dyke Darrel the Railroad Detective or, the Crime of the Midnight Express

In this High Victorian detective novel, Dyke Darrel investigates the robbery of the Central Railroad's midnight express, during which Dyke's friend Arnold Nicholson, a messenger, was murdered. He is helped by his sister Nell, with whom he was supposed to go on holiday. Dyke Darrell turns "the Gotham of the North" - as he calls Chicago - upside down in search of the culprit. On the way he encounters old ennemies, kidnappers and masquerades, as he tries to solve "the most audacious crime of my remembrance."