Bad for Business

Someone has been doctoring the gourmet appetizers at family-run Tingley's Titbits. And when old man Tingley meets a sudden end, suspicion falls on a gorgeous young detective whose fingerprints are on the knife. Moved by feminine beauty and professional courtesy, Tecumseh Fox takes the case, only to find he's got more on his plate than he bargained for. Suddenly he has enough suspects to fill a fair-sized cocktail party. On the menu are corporate pirates, crackpot economics, a license plate that doesn't exist, and a phone conversation with a dead man. Now it's up to Fox to provide the missing ingredient in this smorgasbord of absurdity: a cold-blooded killer.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) wrote dozens of short stories, novellas, and full-length mystery novels, most featuring his two indelible characters, the peerless detective Nero Wolfe and his handy sidekick, Archie Goodwin.