At the height if his popularity, S.S. Vane Dine pens a locked-room mystery with a lethal dose of sex and sin where infamous actress, "The Canary," is murdered in her cage after a passionate night with her lover. Margaret Odell, the famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her ransacked apartment, her jewelry stolen. It appears to be a robbery gone wrong, but the police can find no physical evidence to pinpoint a culprit. No one witnessed anyone entering or leaving, and the only unwatched entrance to the apartment building was bolted from the inside. Who could have killed the Canary in her locked cage? Margaret was seeing a number of men, ranging from high society gentleman to ruthless gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she died.

本作は、本格ミステリの知的遊戯とブロードウェイの背徳的な官能が結晶化した傑作です。名探偵ヴァンスの冷徹な推理は、密室で殺された美女の死を通じて、欲望に狂う人間心理を解剖する芸術の域に達しています。華やかな社交界の裏に潜む歪みを浮き彫りにする筆致は、読者の知的好奇心を激しく揺さぶります。 映像版では、原作の緻密な論理に1920年代の退廃美が肉付けされています。スクリーンの優雅な演出は、ヴァンスの魅力を立体的に際立たせ、活字が描く重厚な空気を補完しています。テキストで論理を追い、映像で視覚的陶酔に浸る。この重層的な体験こそが、本作を不朽の古典たらしめる真髄です。