There was nothing distinctive about her except the hat — the shape and color of a pumpkin, with a cockerel feather curving up from the center. And that is all Scott Henderson could remember when his life depended on it. He had met her in a bar when he was grimly trying to recover from the aftermath of a quarrel with his wife He took her to dinner, then to the theatre. It was understood that personalities should not enter into their conversation. Thus when he returned late to his apartment to find his wife strangled with one of his own neckties and the police waiting to hear his story, he could not tell them the name of the only person who could prove his innocence. Worse than that, as the police retraced his steps on the fateful night, bartender, taxi driven waiter and ticket-taker all swore that Henderson had been alone. Horrified at the thought that he had taken leave of his senses, Scott Henderson was arrested for murder. Tough, exciting and rapid-fire, the solution to the story is even more ingenious than the puzzle itself. The result is one of the most satisfying pieces of mystery fiction since the early Van Dines and Hammetts