Gloria Stanford was very sexy, very rich and very, very dead. Found in her plush, city apartment, she had been shot twice in the heart. All her credit cards and ID were gone but apart from that there seemed no motive at all. It's only when the detective-in-charge, Steve Carella, starts to receive bizarre cryptic notes in the mail that he realises something bigger than a simple homicide is going on. It seems the Deaf Man is back - a notorious crook and killer who has a morbid fascination with puzzles and anagrams. Long thought dead, he's back on the loose and wants his long-hidden millions back...