While it's not the worst episode in the history of the show, it's not great. There are so many little things that erk about this one.

The totally pointless drive across town which sees Columbo allow a man who is clearly unfit to drive get behind the wheel. The terrible scene where Columbo is trying to guess the soundtrack "the fish, the fish" awful.

Then there's the gotcha. I think I read somewhere that it was changed and that the "love notes" were supposed to be a vital clue. As it was, all of the guff around the notes on the batton has no real value to the story.

This story could have been so much better if the script was tighter.