Whispering Wires

A letter from a cemetery announces that a grave is ready for someone in Montgomery Stockbridge's family, although no death has occurred. The wealthy ammunition magnate calls detective Triggy Drew to his Fifth Avenue mansion to discover who arranged this disturbing message. Concern for his daughter Loris gives the threat a personal urgency beneath the rich surroundings and Stockbridge's angry demands for answers.

Henry Leverage's detective novel builds its puzzle through telephone messages, suspicious circumstances and the patient comparison of physical clues. In the investigation, Drew asks the police to examine fingerprints, while Commissioner Fosdick insists on his own authority over the case. Their exchanges bring professional friction into the search for evidence. Readers interested in early urban detective fiction will find a New York setting where private wealth, telephone connections and police filing cabinets all become part of the machinery of suspense.