The Fourth Letter / Frank Gruber

Tom Haggerty arrived in Elmhurst, Iowa to take over as circulation manager of a newspaper called The Farmer’s Helper. Twenty-four hours later the city slicker found himself managing a murder case – and a love affair with a local beauty not to be designated as a typical farmer’s daughter.

Tom had his troubles. He was a prime suspect as well as a self-appointed detective; he had to buck the provincial resentment against “furriners”; and his girl friend was considered the private property of the sheriff’s large-muscled nephew. But young Mr. Haggerty had a few brainstorms left over from his Chicago days, and the guts to stay on a trail that led from his own office to a Cattle Congress, to a dim-lit roadhouse, and to a showdown at a lonely Iowa farm.