The only novel of the crime genre in the creative heritage of Jack London. The novel, the idea of which was suggested to the writer by his friend Sinclair Lewis, and completed according to London's sketches, many years after his death, the Edgar Poe Prize winner, the famous American master of ironic detective story Robert Fish Ivan Dragomilov is a decent entrepreneur with a strict code of honor. His bureau accepts orders for the assassination of any person: from private citizens to prominent politicians, presidents, dictators and monarchs - and guarantees high-quality execution of the work. One condition: an ironclad justification is required from the customer that the intended victim really deserves death. And since a professional killer undoubtedly deserves death, Dragomilov calmly accepts the order... for himself. However, principles are principles, and your shirt is closer to the body, so that an honest murderer is not at all going to obediently wait for the execution of the sentence...