Train was the former assistant district attorney in New York City. His interactions with clients, together with his experiences in the courtroom, provided the material for the more than 250 short stories and novels he would write during his lifetime.

Contents: The Pleasant Fiction of the Presumption of Innocence; Preparing a Criminal Case for Trial; Sensationalism and Jury Trials; Why Do Men Kill?; Detectives and Others; Detectives Who Detect; Women in the Courts; Tricks of the Trade; What Fosters Crime; Insanity and the Law; and The Mala Vita in America.