Archie Goodwin leaves Manhattan for the Midwest to find out who put a bullet into a banker.

Archie Goodwin’s aunt Edna is about to lure him away from his work at Nero Wolfe’s New York brownstone. After a phone call, he heads off to Ohio, where the president of Farmer’s State Bank and Trust, an elderly widower, has died in an apparent suicide. But Archie’s aunt has expressed nagging suspicions—which only grow stronger when someone takes a shot at a local reporter who wrote about the case.

It wouldn’t be a small town without some gossip, and Archie soon hears the whispers: romantic intrigues, a possible paternity case, a ruined business. While reconnecting with his aging mother—and fending off his nagging aunt—Archie tries to untangle a web of grudges, scandals, and murder.

From Nero Award winner Robert Goldsborough, this is a brand-new novel in the series created by Rex Stout, starring one of the world’s most beloved detectives and his equally engaging sidekick.

Archie Goodwin leaves Manhattan for the Midwest to find out who put a bullet into a banker.

Archie Goodwin’s aunt Edna is about to lure him away from his work at Nero Wolfe’s New York brownstone. After a phone call, he heads off to Ohio, where the president of Farmer’s State Bank and Trust, an elderly widower, has died in an apparent suicide. But Archie’s aunt has expressed nagging suspicions—which only grow stronger when someone takes a shot at a local reporter who wrote about the case.

It wouldn’t be a small town without some gossip, and Archie soon hears the whispers: romantic intrigues, a possible paternity case, a ruined business. While reconnecting with his aging mother—and fending off his nagging aunt—Archie tries to untangle a web of grudges, scandals, and murder.

From Nero Award winner Robert Goldsborough, this is a brand-new novel in the series created by Rex Stout, starring one of the world’s most beloved detectives and his equally engaging sidekick.