Stunning Stephen Edwards and the West Side Kids in the Invisible Man

By David Dorris

If you like to be entertained, you will really enjoy reading this book. Have I ever lied to you before? No, not never. This is a an easy read for any age with a great story that will keeps your attention, make you feel good and make you laugh. Oh yeah. Buy this book, go home, sit in your easy chair, put your feet up and start reading. Once you start getting involved with the story, you may say to yourself, “Impossible, can’t be done. No way.” And you will not want to put this book down. You may want to make yourself invisible so nobody will bother you as you read on with the laughs, plots, twists and turns with many surprises.

The story centers around boxing with a boxer named Stunning Stephen Edwards as The Invisible man. The Jerry Dickerson gang is after Stephen for not taking a fall at his last boxing match. Stephen teams up with The West Side Kids Detective Agency and two Davenport Police Detectives to get out of trouble with The Jerry Dickerson Gang.

Stephen is introduced a new way to fight crime. One of the Detectives gives Stephen a chemical to drink that will make him invisible. Jerry and his gang are no match for Stephen. As an invisible man, Stephen has fun pulling pranks and spying on The Jerry Dickerson Gang. After hearing what Jerry is planning, Stephen uses this information and forms his own schemes and uses The West Side Kids to fight Jerry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728342740

David Dorris

David Dorris had retired after working 35 years at Ralston Purina. He got a 2- year degree from Scott Community College in 1992 for General Studies. He was a newsletter editor for Dads' Club, his church, and the Junior Chamber of Commerce over the years. He coached Dads' Club softball for 30 years. He always taught the kids that played for him that life is like a sport, which encouraged him to write several books. He has a sense of humor portrayed in his West Side Kids book series. He is a kind and generous person. Happiness can be found in making the best of everything you have. Laughing can ease the downs in life and help you find sunshine in life. Treat people with respect and help those in need. These facts guide his life. The West Side Kids Series Books by David Dorris: The West Side Kids Meet The Small Fry. Stunning Stephen Edwards and The West Side Kids in The Invisible Man. The Adventures of Stunning Stephen Edwards as The Stunning Kid in The Time Traveling Marshals. Stunning Stephen Edwards as Detective Steven Edwards in Wrestling With Death. The West Side Kids in A Pocket Full of Wishes.

Book preview

ABOUT STEPHEN EDWARDS

I’m Stunning Stephen Edwards. I am a professional boxer from the West End of Davenport Iowa. I grew up on 3rd and Sturdevant in the duplex between Harris Pizza and Role Park. Being from the West and I got into a lot of fights I started boxing at age 13. It grew on me fast and before you knew it I was 16-0, winning Jr Olympics and silver glove titles.

I turned professional in 2014 I won my 1st 10 bouts I won my 1st championship in October 2016 at 168 pounds. I also won a title in 2018 and 154 pounds.

In 2018, I open Stunnings Boxing Club, since then, I produced over a dozen champions. I now have 3 kids Michael 14, Miella 6, Champion 2 and a fiancé named Morgan. I’m a family man that loves making memories with his kids! I’m still pushing for my dream of becoming the world champion!! I have a few fights coming in 2020 so keep look out on me!

REVIEWS

The author, David Dorris, has incorporated his past experiences and his life-long residency in Davenport, IA to write a book of ingenious fiction while weaving in some reality. As a child and adolescent, he loved to watch the Bowery Boys, which replaced the East Side Kids. From that he picked up the use of malaprops that the West Side Kids use in the book. Perhaps this book will resurrect a Bowery Boys type movie to entertain a new generation. Since this is the second book in a series, who knows, there may be sequels.

Stunning Stephen Edwards and The West Side Kids in The Invisible Man is a book full of surprises and twists and turns that has something of interest for most people throughout. Once the reader begins the book it is hard to put it down because you want to know what happens next.

Since Davenport was my hometown, I could identify with many of the streets and locations mentioned throughout the book. It was easy to imagine a boxer and boxing club rising up from the West end of Davenport. But one need not imagine, because the boxer and the boxing club was real.

I would recommend Stunning Stephen Edwards and The West Side Kids in The Invisible Man book for anyone from Davenport or who follows boxing and anyone who enjoys a good book.

Ron Dorris, MHA, D.Ph., FACHE

Managing Partner

Healthcare Distributors United

Growing up in the 1950s, 60s & 70s I loved watching the Our Gang Comedies, Abbott & Costello, the 3-Stooges and I Love Lucy and occasionally catching Norm Crosby, "The Master of Malaprop, on Johnny Carson. Reading this book frequently brought these early comedians to mind, with an added mystery twist. Hannibal, Scooter and the rest of the West Side Kids partner with their parents, who just happen to be Cops, to bring down Jerry Dickerson and his gang. Using a chemical concoction created by Scooter, that just happens to make invisible anyone who drinks it, they are able to get into Jerry’s mind, under his skin and into his safe to obtain the needed evidence. Along the way they encountered many challenges overcome by good plans, dumb luck and the ineptitude of Jerry Dickerson. It’s a fun book and demands attention of the reader to keep the characters straight through the many twists and turns. If you like fun and a bit quirky mysteries and/or the above mentioned comedians, you’ll enjoy Stunning Stephen Edwards and The West Side Kids in The Invisible Man.

Bob Applegate

Owner of The Book Rack

Elmore Avenue,

Davenport, Iowa

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West Side Kids team up with the Davenport Police Department to uncover a boxing scam and arrest the leaders of the Jerry Dickerson boxing club, the Dickerson Gang.

After the purchase of a detective agency, Hannibal and Scooter, detectives now themselves, work at making things right with a professional boxer, Stunning Stephen Edwards, owner of the Stunning Boxing Club. Stunning Stephen Edwards is an undefeated champion boxer.

Jerry Dickerson and his gang of thugs will make tons of money in boxing by requiring boxers to take the fall. They were profiting by cheating. If the boxers did not take the fall then they would lose a lot and/or never be heard or seen again.

Rex, who was the victim of Scooter’s chemical mix up and was shrunken, is also a detective for the police department. He is working with the West Side Kids to create a plan to expose the fraudulent business of the Jerry Dickerson Boxing Club. Stunning Stephen Edwards agrees to act with the plan and have reluctant Scooter, who has never won a fight, fight the Ace the Assassin, a fighter for the Jerry Dickerson Boxing Club, in the boxing ring. To do that, someone has to be not seen.

Reading this book will keep you interested to see how it all works out and to bring fairness back to the professional boxing.

Michael E. Boblit,

D.D.S.

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David Dorris truly brings the characters to life during this whimsical read. I found it entertaining due to the fact references are made from my home town Davenport, Iowa which is where the story takes place. I think this would make for a great cartoon movie, explosive with colorful characters and a story line escape from the real world.

Roxann Adamson

Program Director-Moline Township Activity Center

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In reading, Stunning Stephen Edwards and The West Side Kids in The Invisible Man I experienced a book that kept me guessing with unexpected twists. David created vivid visuals of the characters and scenes that they participating in. There was also humor and great interactions/relationships between the characters. David did a phenomenal build-up of the story-line which made the anticipation of completing the book necessary. I wasn’t able to put the book down the last two chapters as my excitement grew to find out the finish. I recently learned I have dyslexia and this book was easy for me to read and understand. Thank you David for the opportunity to read and review your latest book.

Rhonda Curl

Provider Reimbursement Specialist

United Healthcare

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David Dorris’ new book reminds me of some of my favorite childhood movies! This story had elements of Lewis and Martin, as well as Andy Taylor and Barney Fife. The story was fun, full of one liners and quite the play on words. The further I got into the book, the more I wanted to see how it ended! I also enjoyed the sneaky references to Davenport, IA. I think I knew them all!

Robin Rollins

CEO, JW Koehler Electric, Inc.

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The plot was interesting and showed good imagination. Characters and name parallels made it fun to read.

Diana Meersman

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Eloquently written, telling the story of the boys at it again, getting in trouble, saving the day, and an enjoyable Quad Cities story. A great installment into the West Side Kids saga, and a must read. Two thumbs up!

Zac Bartels

Children’s Director, The CITY Church; Web Content Producer, TownSquare Media

The West Side Kids are back to defend their turf and fight off bullies. In the sequel, Stunning Stephen Edwards and The West Side Kids in The Invisible Man, you find that hope and honor prevail over darkness and despair. The West Side Kids cast of characters are back to defend hope and honor. The main character, Hannibal, leads you down the road to triumph and victory for the Small Fry! Enjoy this read.

Terry Reiter

Music Educator

34 years

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A story set in the West End of Davenport, IA…good idea! If the reader is familiar with the area, they will feel they are a part of the story. Well done!

Sharon Garcia

Registered Dental Assistant

Stunning Stephen Edwards

and The West Side Kids

in The Invisible Man

DAVID DORRIS

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

Copyright © 2020 David Dorris. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   01/10/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-4275-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-4273-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-4274-0 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

About the Author

Chapter 1    Beat Up-Bruised, Bloody and Unconscious

Chapter 2    Flashback-Recapping What Happened When The West Side Kids Meet The Small Fry College Bound

Chapter 3    The Trouble with Chemistry

Chapter 4    Facing The Dean

Chapter 5    Scooter Returns To The Dean’s Office

Chapter Chapter 6    Rex Becomes The Small Fry

Chapter 7    Dreams Do Come True

Chapter 8    Court Is Now In Session

Chapter 9    Oh Yeah. They Want To Be Detectives.

Chapter 10    The Defective Detectives Of Davenport

Chapter 11    Rex And Family Help Arrives

Chapter 12    Stunning Stephen Edwards Arrives

Chapter 13    Rex’s Plan

Chapter 14    Hannibal And Scooter’s Special Jobs

Chapter 15    The Training Begins

Chapter 16    Have You Ever Seen Anybody Disappear?

Chapter 17    Challenging Ace At Jerry’s Place

Chapter 18    Unexpected Visitors

Chapter 19    Dinning Room Antics

Chapter 20    Scooter And The Girls

Chapter 21    Hannibal And The Girls

Chapter 22    Jerry Has A problem

Chapter 23    Strange Things Are Happening

Chapter 24    Reporting To Rex

Chapter 25    Scooter On The Loose

Chapter 26    Dealing With Dixie

Chapter 27    A Toast To Dixie

Chapter 28    Scooter Is Returned To Hannibal

Chapter 29    Come To Jerry’s Party

Chapter 30    Another Voice To Be Heard

Chapter 31    I Tell You Stephen Edwards is Invisible

Chapter 32    Stephen Knows Jerry’s Plans And Has Plans Of His Own

Chapter 33    Because Approaches Jerry

Chapter 34    The West Side Kids Approach Jerry

Chapter 35    Planning A Celebration

Chapter 36    We’re Going To Celebrate Jerry Our Way

Chapter 37    Jerry’s Party Plans

Chapter 38    Celebration

Chapter 39    Playing With Jerry’s Mind

Chapter 40    Jerry’s Gym, Stephen’s Envelope

Chapter 41    The Main Attraction

Chapter 42    Celebrating With A Bottle Of Wine

Chapter 43    Rewards Given As Case Closed

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the people behind this book project, Raven Tan, my Check-In-Coordinator, Kristine Rubio, my Publishing Services Associate and the rest of the AuthorHouse team.

About the Author

David, who is the author retired after working thirty-five years at Ralston Purina. David got a two-year degree from Scott Community College in 1992 for General Studies. He was a newsletter editor for The Dad’s Club, his church and The Junior Chamber of Commerce over the years. He coached Dad’s Softball for thirty years. He always taught the kids that played for him that life is like a sport, which encouraged him to write his other three books, Life Is Too Short, Life Is Too Short: Choices In Life and Life Is Too Short: Life Is What We Make It". David would joke around once in a while about writing a short story about a Dwarf going around robbing and killing people. He was caught by the police and this Dwarf was sentenced to the electric chair by a judge. David was going to call this short story, Small Fry. A friend of his suggested he write a book about Small Fry. After thinking about it, David came up with a more detailed version of Small Fry and all the Danger, Excitement and Adventure is in this book.

In David’s new book, the Danger, Excitement and Adventure continues as The West Side Kids team up with Stunning Stephen Edwards in Stunning Stephen Edwards and The West Side Kids in The Invisible Man. This story has a real live boxer mixed in the world of fiction containing The West Side Kids, two Davenport Police Detectives and The Jerry Dickerson Gang. There is no violence, but lots of laughs. The story line will make the reader want to keep on reading to find out what happens next.

1

BEAT UP-BRUISED, BLOODY AND UNCONSCIOUS

This story begins with Hannibal, who is a private eye with The West Side Kids Motorcycle Gang laying unconscious on the floor in his office for an hour. He is now starting to wake up. As he is waking up he begins to sit up rubbing his face and then his head.

Now that you are starting to read this story, Hannibal said to the reader, ‘You are beginning to want to know who I am and why I have been laying here in my office unconscious for an hour, waking up with my face as a mess, all bruised, bloody and looking like ground round. I didn’t get this at a beauty parlor. Right now I’m in terrible pain and agony. That’s for sure. This is a very unfortunate circumstance and a hard way to get a story for you the reader. Don’t think it hasn’t been fun, because it hasn’t.

My name is Hannibal Columbo and over in the corner of the office lies Scooter Hickenbottom who is unconscious and my lifelong friend. When we were growing up, I was always defending Scooter from his classmates and we were both beat up. My dad let me take classes in kick boxing and I was pretty good at it. Scooter was beat up again today and I couldn’t help him. I did my best to save him. He still looks better than I do from these beatings we took.

I have a friend that raises rabbits in his basement. They are all ingrown hares. One of his rabbits escaped out of his basement and was run over by a garbage truck and he looked better than me.

One hour ago, a beautiful woman came rushing through the door to our office screaming that she was in desperate trouble and that we needed to help her. Scooter stood up from his chair and walked over to her saying that he was going to handle this. I jumped out of my chair and walked over to Scooter and told him that I wanted to confirm with our first patient and then I informed the woman that I was in charge here.

The woman asked me to take an envelope she had in one hand and money in another envelope in her other hand to pay us for our services. She told us that four men were following her and if anything happened to her, that we should take the envelope to the police.

She then walked over to the window and saw four men get out of their car and she screamed. I told her that there must be some misamputation. Our fee isn’t that high. She told me that the four men following her was on there way up to my office and quickly walked back out in the hall way and disappeared.

I handed Scooter the envelope the woman gave us to take to the police and told him to go hide it in the closet.

Within minutes, four members of The Jerry Dickerson Gang came to up to the office. I knew every pair of eyes was on me, because Scooter was still in the closet.

I thought the gang didn’t realize it, but they was falling perfectly into my plan I just digested before they arrived at the office. I knew they wasn’t impressed to what I had to say. Scooter finally came out of the closet and I asked him why he was in the closet so long? He told me it was dark in the closet and he got lost.

These four men already knew they were going to beat us up before they came to the office to get information from us about the woman who was just here. Just before we were beat up Scooter and me thought we had a few minutes to find out the score. I knew the score and lost my sense of curiosity once these men ganged up on Scooter and myself alright. That was very destructive to my curiosity.

Scooter is as yellow as a ripe banana and I had to fight them by myself. Even though I am a decent kick boxer, it was the most excavating match of my life. I just couldn’t fight all four of them at once. It was a rough meeting for both of us. Now you know how Scooter and me had our lights punched out.

Scooter is starting to move and he is sitting up, so I said,

You know something Scooter. Those guys who beat us up don’t take a breather.

You know something Hannibal, whined Scooter. Those guys who beat us up don’t take a breather.

Where does it hurt Scooter? growled Hannibal. "It can’t be your head. Sometimes it helps to talk. When do you want to talk about this, sooner or later?

What do you think I am, a squealer? answered Scooter.

Maybe this will teach you, don’t ever cross your bridges until you burn them, instructed Hannibal. By the way, do you have two tens for a five.

Let me look, answered Scooter. I have two tens. Take them.

Thanks, said Hannibal. Here’s your five.

Scooter grabbed the five out of Hannibal’s hand and started to put it in his pocket and then said, Something’s not right. The money I gave you just went South.

Hannibal answered, If that’s the way you feel about it, give me back my two tens and I will give you back your five.

Scooter grabbed the five out of Hannibal’s hand and said, "Now that’s more like it.

What makes a balloon go up in the air?" Scooter asked.

Hot air, answered Hannibal.

What’s holding you down? laughed Scooter.

Scooter, sometimes your a fool, growled Hannibal.

That’s a terrible thing to say, replied Scooter. "You don’t have to kick a man when he’s down. I was just