A beautiful young wife, whose life was seemingly an open book, is foully murdered and her body found in the private "crime museum" of an intimate friend. No clue, apparently, though both the police and famous scientific detectives use all their best efforts to solve the mystery and bring the murderer to justice. Out of them all, it is the old-time, retired detective of the police force, with his police methods which are somewhat sneered at who finally solves the mystery. In this the author has rung in a change on the usual theorists who have been wont to slur at police inefficiency in real crime solving. But McCarty, crude, uneducated, though keen, is a remarkable character with whom you will be in sympathy from the first to the last chapter of this subtly thrilling crime.