This is a collection of 18 cases of crime and murder, written by ""police chiefs of the world"". In San Francisco, a stay of execution arrives two minutes too late; in Marseilles a penniless, aristocratic couple kill and dismember the body of a wealthy young woman; in Honolulu, a ""cat man"" terrorizes the city; a madman in Melbourne is apprehended only after he has disposed of nine wives; the first American to receive the death penalty since 1952 in executed in Japan. An interesting record but for the pervading tone of uniform, stylized exaggeration running throughout.