Starrett, Vincent 1886-1974 creator text utu 2025 monographic en 1 online resource : multiple file formats "Missing men by Vincent Starrett" is a detective short story written in the early 20th century. It follows the cool-headed sleuth Lavender as he probes a spate of puzzling disappearances in Chicago. The likely topic is a web of vanishing men tied to the theatre, stage identities, and a family secret that has been carefully hidden. When a picture broker named Peter Vanderdonck, a popular comedian named Charles Merritt, and finally the wealthy Cyril Minor all seem to vanish, Lavender pieces together odd clues: a nearly unused office, greasepaint traces at a washstand, a safe, and a newspaper note about actress Sidney Kane. He deduces that Merritt and Vanderdonck are the same person—and then that Minor is both of them, living a double (and triple) life to avoid publicity while secretly reunited with his former wife, Sidney Kane. A suspicious telegram signed “Father” instead of “Dad” sends Lavender and Minor’s daughter, Shirley, to Kane’s suburban home, where the truth emerges: Kane is Shirley’s mother; she and Minor have remarried, and Minor—struck ill—has been convalescing there under the cover story of an “invalid brother.” The disappearances are thus revealed as a theatrical masquerade rather than crime, ending in a family reconciliation. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Release date is 2025-07-11 Roger Frank and Sue Clark Originally published: New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1925 Detective and mystery stories Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction Missing persons -- Investigation -- Fiction Lavender, Jimmie (Fictitious character) -- Fiction PS New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1925 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76476 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76476 UtSlPG 260607 20260610134753.0 76476