Sam Russo, Private Eye, is back, after hotfooting it around America's oldest and classiest racetrack in Shadow Roll, the case that saw him chasing the killer of three promising jockeys. Shadow Roll brought him two good things: a yodeling dog named Jane, and an upper crust sharp-tongued dame called Mrs. Willingford. Now he's home again, in his one room fourth floor walk-up on Staten Island. Not much doing but going to the movies, lying in bed reading crime novels, and laying low with Jane. That first big case flattened him, shook his outlook on life. Getting a taste of real killings was bad enough to make small town detecting look good. As long as his dime doesn't run out. But dimes always run out. All it takes is a knock on the door for Sam and Jane to find themselves careening along naughty gaudy Broadway, in and out of one high-stepping star-studded show after another, in hot pursuit of a giant killer.