When the Wall Street giant Sigsbee Manderson is found dead, the local newspaper sends in Philip Trent, its favorite contract journalist/amateur detective, to investigate and report on the case. Trent encounters a paucity of facts on the ground, but the ones he does find leads him to a conclusion he’s unsure of how to handle.

E. C. Bentley was a close friend of G. K. Chesterton , to whom he dedicated this book (in response to Chesterton’s dedicating The Man Who Was Thursday to him). The book is said to have been one of the first “modern” mysteries, and included Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie among its fans.