The trouble at Pinelands : A detective story by Ernest M. Poate
"The trouble at Pinelands" by Ernest M. Poate is a detective novel written in the early 20th century. Set in a brooding North Carolina mansion nicknamed Fort House, it blends ghostly disturbances with small‑town rivalries and family tensions as an elderly bachelor, Uncle George Uhlman, looks after Dorothy McGregor, her ailing spiritualist aunt, and a somnolent nurse while Dorothy prepares to marry young Dr. Lewis Parker. The tale pivots from a teasing
“poltergeist” to a sudden death that forces a closer look at superstition, jealousy, and motive. The opening of the story introduces Uncle George’s sleepless night in Fort House, where eerie crashes and a chilling scream are attributed to a “poltergeist” that also raids the pantry and breaks dishes. Dorothy confides her fear, while Aunt Mary, paralyzed and devoutly spiritualist, alternates saintly resignation with manipulative complaints; nurse Miss Christie drifts through it all half-asleep. At dawn, quail calls torment Aunt Mary, prompting Lewis to promise to shoot them with Peter McGregor’s shotgun. Tensions spike when the established Dr. Gaskell brusquely dismisses Aunt Mary’s “bad spell,” Lewis bristles over a poached patient, a mountain man named Lafe Rutledge threatens Gaskell, and Miss Christie reacts with sudden dread at Rutledge’s name. The next morning, as Lewis moves to shoot the quail, his gun fires and Dr. Gaskell is found dead in the scrub—sparking a hostile crowd, Lewis’s arrest by a blustering constable, and the calming arrival of Sheriff Redden to begin the investigation. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Poate, Ernest M., 1885?-1935 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Coughlin, John A. (John Albert), 1885-1943 |
| LoC No. | 22024686 |
| Title | The trouble at Pinelands : A detective story |
| Original Publication | New York: Chelsea House, 1922. |
| Credits | Tim Miller and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Distilling, Illicit -- Fiction |
| Subject | Detective and mystery stories |
| Subject | Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction |
| Subject | North Carolina -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78103 |
| Release Date | Mar 4, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 5144 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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