George Harmon Coxe

The killing of Jess Flemming, a minor-league hoodlum, brings Dr. Paul Standish, a physician who doubles as the city medical examiner, into an affair that implicates some prominent members of the community. To Police Lieutenant Ballard the case is cut and dried. The obvious suspect is Ralph Estey, a jazz trumpeter who has disappeared. But a second murder alters the situation markedly. Standish, compelled by a desire to learn the truth, not only as a medical examiner but as a man, conducts his own investigation. His inquiry into an accidental death of the previous year, in which Flemming ran his car over a well-known businessman, puts his own life in jeopardy before he is able to piece together the puzzle, which includes some entangled family finances and a surprising love affair.