Аннотация

Nero Wolfe is back in all his orchid-growing, gourmandizing glory! In The Bloodied Ivy and two previous bestsellers. Robert Goldsborough re-creates Stouts sedentary supersleuth and his energetic aide. Archie Goodwin, so convincingly that even the most devout Stout fans are delighted. John McAleer, Stouts official biographer and editor of The Stout Journal, has said, “A half dozen other writers have attempted it, but Goldsborough’s is the only one that feels authentic, the only one able to get into Rex’s psyche. If I hadn’t known otherwise. I might have been fooled into thinking this was the genuine Stout myself.’

Playboy Sparky Linville has a nasty notion of fun and games. But when he picks popular Noreen James as his unwilling playmate, the result is murder — and a case that will rock Manhattan’s trendy Upper East Side and divide the family of Lily Rowan. Noreens aunt.
As furor rages in the local press and the police fix their attention on her relatives. Lily turns to her old friend and confidant Archie Goodwin for help, hoping he can convey the seriousness of the family’s plight to his eminent employer, Nero Wolfe.
Wolfe decidedly doesn’t enjoy being distracted from his greenhouse and his groaning board. Yet Archies eloquence — and the prospect of an enormous fee — seduce him into accepting the case. It is, of course, understood that since the master detective has no intention of venturing forth from his snug brown stone sanctuary on Manhattan’s West Side, Archie will handle the leg work.
But the more shoe leather Archie burns, the more burning questions arise. There are altogether too many suspects — and every one of them has (a) a strong motive and (b) no alibi.
And on top of that, two people have confessed to the crime! Now as Archie faithfully relates his findings, the great Nero Wolfe is left to ponder this bizarre puzzle — and the deadliest coincidence-in the most baffling case of his career.