The Case of the Petrified Man
Read The Case of the Petrified Man Online
Authors: Caroline Lawrence
Don’t miss the first book in Caroline Lawrence’s
P.K. Pinkerton series:
P.K. Pinkerton and the Deadly Desperados
CAROLINE LAWRENCE
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
AN IMPRINT OF PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC.
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS • A division of Penguin Young Readers Group.
Published by The Penguin Group.
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, U.S.A.
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England.
Copyright © 2012 by Roman Mysteries Ltd.
Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Richard Lawrence.
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Orion Children’s Books,
a division of Orion Publishing Group, Ltd.
First American edition published in 2013 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Reg. U.S. Pat & Tm. Off. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission in writing from the publisher. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
Design by Annie Ericsson.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lawrence, Caroline. P.K. Pinkerton and the petrified man / Caroline Lawrence. p. cm.
Summary: “After escaping the ruthless desperados, master-of-disguise P.K. Pinkerton has now set up a Private Eye business in Virginia City and is ready when a young maid named Martha approaches him for help in escaping a killer”—Provided by publisher.
[1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Disguise—Fiction. 3. Orphans—Fiction. 4. Racially mixed people—Fiction. 5. Nevada—History—19th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.L425Pkp 2013
[Fic]—dc23
2012026737
ISBN: 978-1-101-60857-9
To Nevada historian and
B Street B & B proprietress Carolyn Eichin,
who introduced me to the journals of Alf Doten,
a vein I can mine for years.
MY NAME IS P.K. PINKERTON
& I am a Private Eye operating out of Virginia City, Nevada Territory. At the moment I am in Jail on the charge of Murder.
I am writing this Journal because my lawyer told me to set down my side of the story. He told me to write it as if I was talking to a jury of “12 good men and true” or a kindly, sympathetic Judge with “white hair and twinkling eyes.”
He said I should start by putting my name, age & qualifications.
I have already stated my name: P.K. Pinkerton.
I am 12 years old.
I can read & write & I can speak American and
Lakota. I can also speak a little Spanish & Chinese & a few words of French.
I am real good at tracking & hunting. My eyes are as sharp as a hawk’s & my ears are as keen as a rabbit’s & my sense of smell is almost as good as a bear’s.
For the sake of honesty, I must confess that I have a Thorn.
My Thorn is that people confound me. I am not good at reading people’s faces & sometimes have trouble knowing if they are telling the truth or lying.
As well as my Thorn, I have some Foibles & Eccentricities.
One of my Foibles is that I get the Mulligrubs.
One of my Eccentricities is I like Collecting things.
It is my Foibles & Eccentricities—and my Thorn—that have landed me here in jail today, beneath the shadow of the hangman’s noose.
