What this mystery is about: An ingenious suicide, which somehow smells of murder, in a sealed room on the zoo grounds... A pair of professional magicians (young, hot-headed, assorted male and female) with a grudge against each other that dates back four generations... A Bornese tree-snake named Patience... A pistol shot that wrings an eager smile from a devoted relative... A dinner rapidly becoming charcoal in a very empty house all decked out for a party... A reptile house which becomes the scene of increasingly amazing events... A photograph that causes an unaccountable shock... Excitement on the catwalk of an empty theater... A burned paper match that incites a frenzied attempt upon the life a beautiful girl. Wouldn't you like to know: * How a murderer manages to put to shame two famous families of escape artists? * Why Agnes Noble seems to regard the victim's death as a deliberate of discourtesy? * How a dead snake points to a murder? * How to get away from a Gila monster? * The secret of Fatima, the card-playing dummy? * How to get a confession from someone who is dead sure it can't be done? * What happens when old Sir Henry Merrivale become the unwilling roommate of two deadly snakes and a murderer?