From the translator:...The novel is the fourth (out of six) in an internal cycle featuring the brilliant criminal known as “the Deaf One.” According to critics, in Ed McBain’s work this criminal plays the role of the Conandoyle professor Moriarty. By exposing the problems of the American police machine, time and again the Deaf One plans his crimes based on mathematical calculations of probability, but in every new case, as a rule, chance has the final say…
The novel has never before been translated into Russian and, no doubt, will be interesting both to fans of Ed McBain’s work and to lovers of a dark detective story.