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Authors: Caroline Lawrence

The Case of the Petrified Man

BOOK: The Case of the Petrified Man
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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.

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.).

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England.

Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd).

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd).

Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi—110 017, India.

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd).

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue,
Parktown North 2193, South Africa.

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.

Table of Contents

Ledger Sheet 1

Ledger Sheet 2

Ledger Sheet 3

Ledger Sheet 4

Ledger Sheet 5

Ledger Sheet 6

Ledger Sheet 7

Ledger Sheet 8

Ledger Sheet 9

Ledger Sheet 10

Ledger Sheet 11

Ledger Sheet 12

Ledger Sheet 13

Ledger Sheet 14

Ledger Sheet 15

Ledger Sheet 16

Ledger Sheet 17

Ledger Sheet 18

Ledger Sheet 19

Ledger Sheet 20

Ledger Sheet 21

Ledger Sheet 22

Ledger Sheet 23

Ledger Sheet 24

Ledger Sheet 25

Ledger Sheet 26

Ledger Sheet 27

Ledger Sheet 28

Ledger Sheet 29

Ledger Sheet 30

Ledger Sheet 31

Ledger Sheet 32

Ledger Sheet 33

Ledger Sheet 34

Ledger Sheet 35

Ledger Sheet 36

Ledger Sheet 37

Ledger Sheet 38

Ledger Sheet 39

Ledger Sheet 40

Ledger Sheet 41

Ledger Sheet 42

Ledger Sheet 43

Ledger Sheet 44

Ledger Sheet 45

Ledger Sheet 46

Ledger Sheet 47

Ledger Sheet 48

Ledger Sheet 49

Ledger Sheet 50

Ledger Sheet 51

Ledger Sheet 52

Ledger Sheet 53

Ledger Sheet 54

Ledger Sheet 55

Glossary

Ledger Sheet 1

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.

Ledger Sheet 2
BOOK: The Case of the Petrified Man
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