Silver Kane: Un cadáver de segunda mano

Museum Catalog Note This Spanish-language pulp mystery, *Un Cadáver de Segunda Mano* (A Second-Hand Corpse) by Silver Kane, opens with two young university women—Mary and Norma—driving into the small Iowa town of Scottville. The atmosphere grows increasingly unsettling: abandoned tractors dot silent fields, church bells toll for the dead, and the main street lies eerily empty despite parked cars and unfinished coffee cups in a bar. Upon entering the Commerce Hotel seeking lodging, they discover a perfectly embalmed young woman seated motionless in the office. After the corpse falls rigidly when touched, the women notice a manually-wound clock still ticking—proof someone wound it days earlier. A hearse passes through town, driven by a uniformed man. Norma, who grew up in Scottville until age six, decides to follow the vehicle and locate her uncle Vanee, a respected lawyer and amateur watchmaker who collects black-cased pocket watches, hoping he can explain the town's nightmarish condition. The story emphasizes mounting dread and inexplicable death in an isolated community.