Two cases are presented from the files of the Michael Joyce Agency, a New York detective firm, both published in the early 1930s.
In Poison Case Number 10, the agency is approached by an elderly man who believes that his wealthy family is being systematically targeted by a murderer. Michael Joyce and his team (son Tom, operative 'Sheriff' Symes, and assistant Kay Carey) launch an undercover operation that uncovers a serial poisoner. In Murder Case Number 33, Joyce is asked to help an Osage tribe in Oklahoma, rich from oil leases, but being murdered one-by-one. Is it an outside party? Or is it a member of the tribe seeking to gain from the government-operated royalty scheme?
1931 review: "Generally speaking inspectors are not delightful persons, but Michael Joyce is. The bulwark of Poison Case Number 10 is humor-keen, discriminating humor to lighten the tragedy at hand. The Van Zantern family is threatened with extermination, and the criminal is doing a pretty good job when investigations are begun. How Joyce solves the mystery is not only original, but fascinating."
1932 review: "Those who remember Poison Case No. 10 will find another thriller in Murder Case Number 33 by Louis Cornell, who writes the first American Indian mystery novel and lends spice to his plot by putting investigator Michael Joyce and his wide-awake secretary on the job. The Osage tribe, made rich by oil, is being slowly but surely wiped out. One of its members, a Rhodes scholar, asks Joyce to investigate the murders. From New York City, after an attempt to slay the tribal leader, the party is taken to Oklahoma, where there is plenty of local color and action. This is a mystery that is hard to equal, let alone surpass. A top-notcher."
Little is known about author Louis Cornell, but he was an actual detective in George S. Dougherty's New York agency, and his character Michael Joyce is clearly patterned after Dougherty.
