Roger Thule was a prodigy born old-a lightning calculator and walking encyclopedia whose brilliance has hollowed out his appetite for life. When his celebrated father is found shot dead and a woman's scented handkerchief is the only clue, Roger is pulled from the brink by an unlikely vow: he will prove he can be as human as he is brilliant. He will win love-and he will unmask a killer. Torn between cold reason and raw feeling, Roger crosses from study to ring. Under the tutelage of a hard-bitten trainer and the scheming guidance of Dr. Tom Marvin, he learns to move like a boxer and think like a hunter. Eloise Lane, the beautiful actress at the center of the mystery, refuses his easy certainties and forces him to confront the one thing he never studied: the heart. Meanwhile a city of gamblers, brokers, and hired guns closes in, and the fight for a title becomes a fight for life. Equal parts pulp mystery, courtroom drama and prize-ring spectacle, The Mental Marvel is a ferocious, romantic thriller about genius and guilt, science and savagery-and a young man who must choose which will define him.