The Last Express

This book, by the author of Blood on Lake Louisa, THE IRON SPIDER, and

THE ELEVEN OF DIAMONDS, introduces a character that is destined to

become one of the better-known fictional detectives. Captain Duncan

Maclain is blind, but his infirmity has forced him to develop his other

senses to the point where he is an antagonist to be feared. Maclain is

also aided by Schnucke, a Seeing Eye dog. It is believed that this is

the first fictional use of a Seeing Eye dog, though the dogs themselves

have achieved an international reputation. And the book is also unique

in that, for the first time, the vast subterranean labyrinths of

underground New York, with their many molelike activities, are used as a

setting for a mystery story.

A Mills bomb, which exploded in the car of an assistant district

attorney and brought about his death, was the first thing to draw

Maclain into the mystery of the last express. Two minor problems

presented themselves at the outset. What was the meaning of the two

caged white mice in the back of the car, and what was the significance

of the murdered man’s dying words, “Seabeach Subway—the last express”?

Every clue Maclain uncovered seemed to point underground and eventually

he went searching for a tunnel that had been closed in 1859. He also had

to puzzle over the problem of how a girl in a white evening dress

soaked with blood, and with the handle of a knife protruding from her

back, could remain undiscovered in a crowded night club for twenty

minutes. That was to be one of the major mysteries of the case. But

finally a blood-red light and a secret that hinged on the builder of the

first subway brought two midnight visitors to Maclain’s apartment. They

made the fatal mistake of underestimating a blind man, with the result

that the case ended abruptly and in a manner no one but Maclain had

anticipated.