This episode had some good acting and a good storyline, but what hurt it for me was at the end, when Columbo 'proved' that the villain could not have received his set of Civil War books in the box that arrived first, the guy caved and admitted his guilt. In reality, though, the proof would hardly have been evidence at all, let alone enough to prove a murder. It only showed opportunity. Usually Columbo has more to go on than that. Also, either I missed it or the 'classified' information that was mentioned in the phone calls was never described.