"Eugenie La Verde was lying upon her bed, clad in the soft wrapper which the maid had helped her to don before leaving her on the preceding night. Her face was distorted and swollen almost beyond recognition, and in spots was highly discolored, where the blood had coagulated beneath the skin. Her mouth was open, and her eyes were wide and staring, even yet filled with an expression of the horror through which she had passed just before her death. Her delicate hands, pretty enough for an artist's model, were clenched until the finger-nails had sunk into the tender flesh and drawn blood. The figure bore every evidence of a wild and terrific struggle to escape from the grasp in which she had been seized, while the dull blue mark around her throat told only too plainly how her death had been accomplished." (Excerpt) Nick Carter is a famous private detective, a fictional character invented by John R. Coryell and Ormond G. Smith. This private detective from thriller classics has appeared in a variety of formats over more than a century. His father, Sin Carter, was also a detective and he taught young Nick some investigation techniques from early ages. After his father's death during one case, Nick takes over the investigation and continues to work as a detective. A master of disguise, Nick Carter spends most of the time under cover and keeps a low profile, based in an apartment on Madison Avenue in New York.