Nick Carter is not only a legendary detective character, but also a collective pseudonym for many authors who wrote under this name for entertainment periodicals. Nick Carter became a unique phenomenon: the number of stories about him exceeds any other detective series, and the number of writers who worked on his adventures is in the dozens.

This character first appeared on September 18, 1886, in the story "The Mysterious Crime in Madison Square", published in the weekly "New York Weekly". The author was John Russell Cornwell (1848-1924), and the idea itself belonged to Ormand Smith, the head of the publishing concern Street & Smith. Later, other writers picked up the baton, and among them the most famous was Frederick van Rensselaer Day (1861-1922), who wrote hundreds of stories about the elusive detective.

Like other popular adventure series, the Nick Carter stories formed internal cycles with constant allies and sworn enemies. In the stories presented in this volume, the detective's main opponent is the mysterious Dr. Quartz - a brilliant criminal whose image is undoubtedly inspired by the sinister Professor Moriarty, the antagonist of Sherlock Holmes.

This collection invites the reader into a world of action-packed investigations, dynamic fights, cunning crimes and brilliant solutions, where Nick Carter again and again finds himself one step ahead of his enemies.