"You don't understand, Mr. Queen," Linda Fox interrupted. ''It's not Davy's fault."

"I'd rather your husband spoke for himself, Mrs. Fox," remarked Ellery, studying Davy with his silver eyes. "Well, Captain Fox? Why did you try to kill your wife?''

Davy glared at him. But then his glance fell, and he seized his glass and gulped.

"Because," he said in the most hopeless of voices, ''my father killed his."

For the twelve years following the death of Davy's mother Jessica, and the trial of his father, Bayard, Davy Fox has suffered inner torture. Ellery Queen learns that the young captain has a twisted feeling of guilt springing from this early tragedy, and reinvestigates the 12-year-old mystery of Jessica's death in one of his most brilliant and startling cases.