The old master, nonplussed, even a little unnerved, by the nine unrelated deaths by strangulation which bear no clues, no common denominator, and no interidentity. As New York City reaches a panic pitch, Ellery Queen is appointed as the Mayor's special investigator, singles out his killer, only for a reversal of the evidence after the closing of the case. Some of the same old stratagems, in a new territory- psychoanalytical-, and a more than superior manhunt.