Archie Goodwin's Office book cover

It’s 1978.

Nero Wolfe, New York’s 300-pound, orchid-loving, epicurean genius detective who fought crime from the seat of his over-sized chair for more than three decades has now been dead for two years. In America, it’s a time of change: Viet Nam, Watergate, free love, smallpox, the reserve clause, and cheap oil are history.