A Crime Club detective story

Gentle, idealistic Edward Latimer lives a peaceful life in the tiny village of Stapleford. He is a widower, with two grown sons working in London and a rather dull, dutiful daughter keeping house for him. He was once a schoolmaster and a journalist, and is now happily retired. As Latimer's son Hugh describes him, "He's a great reformer, you know, in his quiet way, and the kindest man alive--if everyone were like him the world wouldn't be a bad place to live in." Then a young woman comes forward to accuse him of assault - with witnesses, no less - and is later found strangled in a lonely spot on the marsh where she allegedly was going to meet with none other than... Edward Latimer. Now, Latimer's family must work together to solve the mystery before it is too late.

Eleven years ago, wealthy Nebraska businessman James Herold gave his only son, Paul, a very raw deal. Now he wants Nero Wolfe to track Paul down so that he can make amends. But what if the young man doesn’t want to be found . . . and what if he’s the same P.H. who’s currently on trial for cold-blooded murder? It’s a case that will draw the great detective and his dedicated sidekick into a sticky web of deceit, one that will tax their resources to the utmost, and even cost them one of their own.

Pianos tampered with, tennis balls dipped in treacle, and mysterious forces pulling idle swimmers underwater: the ‘Mad Hatter’ is wreaking havoc at Wonderland summer camp and his pranks are getting dangerous. Private detective Nigel Strangeways receives a call for help from Wonderland, a new holiday camp that has recently opened only to be plagued by a series of cruel practical jokes conducted by the self-proclaimed ‘Mad Hatter’. The camp’s owners are convinced a rival firm, desperate to put them out of business, is behind the events. But with four hundred guests, an angry hermit, and plenty of disgruntled employees, who is the ‘Mad Hatter’?

The victim was certainly deserving of death. But not the hard, cruel death that he found. No-one deserved that. But the murderer made him suffer it, nevertheless. And the murderer went unsuspected. Someone else would pay the price society demanded for the crime. An innocent woman would pay, and the murderer was willing to arrange other, more 'accidental' deaths to ensure it. But then Arthur Crook took a hand. Big, fat, crafty and cocksure Arthur Crook is a solicitor — but the most unorthodox one it is possible to imagine. And he has two guiding principles only: his client is always innocent — because he says so — and come hell or high water he always gets his man. But even these two hitherto immutable principles were placed in some peril this time — in what turned out to be one of Crook's most baffling cases.