Stephen Van Dyne is a world famous American writer, one of the founders of the classic detective story. “The Evil Genius of New York” is the best of his works. In the center of the city, some maniac playfully commits sophisticated murders, leaving messages with nursery rhymes at the crime scene. He is smart, calculating, ruthless and... elusive. Newspapers full of monstrous headlines instill fear. The townspeople are in panic. And only detective Philo Vance, armed with logic and composure, seems to know how to stop the evil genius.