Lawyer Jesse Falkenstein thought his secretary Miss Williams was a remarkably efficient typist, but he felt she had drawbacks as a legal secretary. She had an earnest face, unfashionable tight curls and she irritated him very much. Jesse wished he could fire her.

But she'd been his secretary for nine years, so even when, on a particularly busy day, she called to say that an urgent matter would keep her away from the office, Jesse didn't fire her. He also didn't realise how urgent the matter was until it was almost too late . . .

'My favourite American crime-writer' New York Herald Tribune