Hired to locate Amy Denovo's long-lost father, Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin, discover that the missing man has a deadly and dangerous secret to hide.
None of the 3 cases herein occur during the same year, one each occurring in 1960, 1961, and 1962. The common factor is, of course, that in each case a blunt instrument (speaking loosely) serves as a murder weapon.
A beautiful socialite widow comes to Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin to ask them to investigate why a baby has been abandoned on her doorstep, in a case that all too quickly leads to murder.
A private club is the setting for murder whe n Paul Jerim, playing chess with twelve opponents, is poison ed. When her father is accused of the murder, beautiful Sall y Blount calls on gourmet detective Nero Wolfe to find the real killer.
Nero Wolfe attempts to find the killer who murdered his victim with Wolfe's own necktie, and he encounters a list of bizarre suspects, including a gun-toting wife and a cop-hating landlady.
