Not up to snuff at all at all. But -- since it is Van Dine -- it will sell and rent.... A good for nothing wastrel is presumably kidnapped. Vance thinks he is dead, but goes ahead with the Inspector's elaborate plans for snaring the kidnappers at the ransom tree. That failing, he turns to his own methods, and gently but firmly eliminates the suspects down to one, though not in time to prevent the death of the first victim and the kidnapping of a second.