"I am bound to tell this story, just as Mark McPherson was obliged to continue his searches, out of a deep emotional involvement in the case of Laura Hunt. I offer the narrative, not so much as a detective yarn as a love story..."
This is Laura's book, although most of it is told by three men—the three men who knew her best. When the story opens, Laura has already been murdered.
Some of it is told by that nasty gossip columnist, Waldo Lydecker, written partly out of gloating interest in tragedy of any kind, partly because Laura was the only person Waldo had ever loved.
And it could not have been written without the help of Shelby Carpenter, Laura's fiance, who knew more about her death than anyone suspected.
Most of it, however, was written by Detective Mark McPherson, although Mark never heard of Laura until after she had been murdered. Often a detective's duty is to reconstruct the life of a victim—but not to the point where he falls in love with her.
Here is the secret of Laura's death...and her life.
