The characterizations were juvenile and simplistic (although King Bendigo is scarily reminiscent of a "titan" personality frequently in news headlines, but it was a fun read with some humour, and a sharp-eyed reader can detect along with Ellery Queen that not everything is as it is presented.

Abel Bendigo, brother of the fifth richest man in the world, "strongly persuades" Ellery Queen and his father to jaunt off to a tropical unnamed uncharted island to deduce who is sending King Bendigo death threats. The Queens learn there's more going on than just someone trolling an armaments and munitions entrepreneur with a noiseless typewriter.