Frank Cairnes, a popular detective writer, embarks on a real-life crime of his own. He is determined to hunt down the runaway motorist who killed his small son, Martin.

As the plot thickens, Cairnes becomes the prime suspect when his intended victim is found dead. Nigel Strangeways, a private detective, is called in to unravel this fiendishly plotted mystery and discover what really happened.

This novel is a part of the Nigel Strangeways series and offers a perfect introduction to one of the most charming and erudite detectives in Golden Age crime fiction.

A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a secure vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, but Princeton has insured it for twenty-five million dollars.

Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts.

Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. She is approached by an elegant, mysterious woman working for an even more mysterious company. A generous offer of money convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Bruce Cable’s circle of literary friends, ideally getting close enough to him to learn his secrets. But eventually Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise as only John Grisham can deliver it.