The story by the American writer William Irish (1903–1968) meets all the requirements of the detective genre: it contains a mysterious murder, insidious criminals, dangerous adventures of heroes who for one night had to become detectives, and acute, tense situations. But there is something in this work that distinguishes it favorably from purely “entertaining” detective stories. This is a truthful and sympathetic story about the hardships of two young people from the provinces who came to New York to seek illusory happiness and almost became victims of this gigantic city, a murderous city, cruel and merciless to the common man - this is exactly how he appears on the pages of Irish's story .