Ellery Queen is back in Wrightsville - the town that his thousand of admirers will remember as the scene of many of the brilliant detective's most striking triumphs, including Calamity Town and Ten Day's Wonder.
Ellery has never had a more bewitching client than Miss Rima Anderson, who recalls him to Wrightsville. A series of newspaper clippings, sent anonymously, have half-prepared him for Rima's visit, but upon his arrival for on-the-spot investigation, he comes up against the most puzzling set of clues in his career: a heart attack, a suicide, a disappearance over a cliff, all quite natural - perhaps - but whoever sent the clippings might have thought otherwise.
Ellery Queen has never been sharper and Wrightsville has never been as productive of such interesting characters as those found in this unusual novel. As a final fillip, the authors have again cast reasonable doubt on the continuation of Ellery Queen's prized bachelorhood.

There were three deaths before Ellery Queen was called in on the case ... 

1. Luke MacCaby - A "heart-attack" killed Wrightsville's Town Hermit and revealed that he had left a fortune of $4,000,000!
2. Johan Spencer Hart, The Wealthiest Man in Town, committed "suicide" and was discovered to have been penniless!
3. Tom Anderson, the Town Drunk, "disappeared", leaving only his hat and coat at the edge of a cliff!

But that was only the beginning. Soon there was another "death," then another, and another ... until murder had struck seven times. The most diabolic killer Ellery Queen had ever known was on the loose ... and he left no clues! (cover)

The last full-fledged Wrightsville story is as usual strong on characterizations. But some of the deductions made from the clues seem more speculative than logical. Rima Anderson, grossly neglected by most Queen-critics, is featured as a 'Nikki Porter' like character, a very down to earth girl with basic interests (nature!). Again Mr.Queen keeps his interest in her very ambigu.