Trying to determine why his last two clients were ruthlessly murdered, Nero Wolfe wonders if the answer is linked to a young boy who turns up at his brownstone apartment and finds clues in a gray Cadillac, a mysterious woman, and spider-shaped earrings.
One by one they knocked on Nero Wolfe's door, each with a case more perplexing than the last: a suicide victim who turns up alive, only to be murdered anew; a murder victim's family who provides his killer with an alibi; and a master horticulturalist who finds the woman of his dreams--dead and cooling in his hothouse.
It is April 1797, Falmouth Bay, and returning home after 18 months' continuous service, Flag Captain Richard Bolitho finds himself at the centre of the Great Mutiny crisis.
As the American Revolution rages on the mainland, the British Navy prepares for action at sea. Against a growing fleet of Americans and French privateers, the navy must maintain its blockade of Washington's vital military supplies. Caught up in the turmoil, junior officer Richard Bolitho finds himself having to make momentous decisions in the heat of battle-decisions that could affect the lives of many men and, perhaps, even the fate of nations.
Every cop gets angry when a police officer is killed. And Lieutenant Eve Dallas is no exception. But Amarylis Coltraine was also in a relationship with one of Eve's closest colleagues, so after Eve has delivered the terrible news to him, she throws every resource she has into finding the killer. When she finds a link to the son of a criminal she and her husband Roarke had put behind bars, the case heats up even further.
