The Oakdale Affair (The Mucker #3) (1917)

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by Edgar Rice Burroughs



Bridge, the poetry-spouting hobo from Burroughs's Mucker novels, goes out on his own for a solo adventure involving theft, murder, missing persons, mistaken identities, and possible ghosts. 



This was one of ERB’s few (his only?) mystery stories. 



The genre is not as suited to his headlong style in which coincidence tends to figure prominently as is his usual territory of the chase and the quest. It all kicks off when an heiress goes missing, her possessions are stolen, and a mysterious figure who goes by the name of the Oskaloosa Kid runs afoul of some murderous tramps. Bridge and the Kid team up and the result, at the risk of spoiling a twist that most will see coming, is simultaneously among the most homoerotic and homophobic relationships I have encountered in a book. Check it out for yourself to see what I mean. It’s not among Burroughs best by any stretch of the imagination, but it goes down pretty smooth.

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