The twelfth Nero Wolfe novel written by Rex Stout, published in 1949, and the second in the Arnold Zeck trilogy.
It's the height of the Red Scare and Wolfe is hired by Industrialist James U. Sperling to prove that Louis Rony, the suitor of his daughter Gwenn, is a member of the Communist Party. Their investigations turn up both a Communist Party membership card in Rony's possession, and strong signs that he is an associate of organized crime czar Arnold Zeck from the previous novel. Zeck makes his displeasure into their investigation known by machine-gunning the plant rooms, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage and nearly killing Theodore Horstmann, Wolfe's gardener. Soon Rony ends up dead, and the Sperlings and their associates, as suspects, are a lot less forthcoming towards Wolfe and Archie, who undergo a complicated scheme that involves getting the Communist Party of America to reveal the killer.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Evil: Aloysius Murphy, Rony's partner. He acts very cordial and welcoming to Archie while offering to let him look through Rony's papers to find his killers, but his junior partner was a high-ranking mob associate and Archie (a famously perceptive guy) feels that Murphy's manner is suspicious and probably artificial, saying that compared to him, "Rony was a flower of truth" (although it's never revealed if he was right).
- Amoral Attorney: Louis Rony is an attorney, and some of the first information we find out about him is his passionate defence of those accused of various crimes. While this might initially seem quite laudable (and, indeed, the person who brings this up is clearly demonstrated to be somewhat inclined to mild authoritarianism), it quickly becomes clear that in Rony's case it's less out of a genuine conviction in the rights of all to have a spirited and capable defence regardless of their accused crime, and more because he's transparently a mob lawyer. And one who works for Arnold Zeck, no less.
- Asshole Victim: Louis Rony is, at the very least, a sleaze. Aside from the fact that he's apparently quite highly placed in the criminal organisation of one Arnold Zeck, he is also clearly blackmailing Mrs. Sperling and/or James Sperling Jr., as well as Webster Kane, in order to ensure their support for his attempts to marry Gwenn.
- Awful Wedded Life: The Emersons, with Wolfe observing Mrs. Emerson making a very blatant pass at Rony.
- Benevolent Boss: In the midst of all the damage to his priceless orchids, Wolfe's first concern is whether Theodore is alright.
- Blackmail Backfire: Rony blackmailed Webster Kane to get his support for his pursuit of Gwenn, and Kane murdered Rony in response.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Madeline Sperling is described as having "just enough curves not to call anywhere flat."
- Call-Back: Andy Krasicki, from the short story Door to Death, is among those Wolfe calls in to help salvage the orchids.
- Cryptic Background Reference:
- Sperling flatly says that the reason he's hiring Wolfe is because he's the best that there is. A flattered Wolfe replies that there is another man in France, but he's busy with something else and doesn't speak English. Who this man is and what causes Wolfe to be so impressed by him are left unsaid.
- When Wolfe is telling the Sperlings about Zeck (while carefully avoiding his name), he mentions that Zeck once blackmailed a high-ranking member of the police force into doing his bidding. Jimmy Sperling exclaims "Inspector Drake!" Wolfe denies that this was the man he was referring to, but who Inspector Drake is and why Jimmy would have thought that he was the man Wolfe was referring to are never elaborated on.
- Dirty Commies: The American Communist Party is portrayed as shifty and even murderous throughout the novel. Though to be entirely fair, the latter is only one individual member, not the organization as a whole, and they are persuaded to help with the investigation because even they can see that the Communist Party actively hindering a murder investigation and shielding a possible murder is practically the textbook definition of "bad optics" for them.
- Double-Meaning Title: The Title Drop comes when Archie describes the stupefied, Bad Liar expression on Kane's face as the real second confession but it could also refer to Kane admitting he didn't hit Rony by accident after having earlier "confessed" that he had accidentally hit him.
- Faking Engine Trouble: Archie, Saul, and Ruth Brady use this to lure Rony off the road and search his car.
- False Confession: Sperling has his associate Webster Kane claim to have accidentally ran over Rony with his car in order to kill the investigation and avoid a scandal. Considering that Kane did run over Rony, only not by accident, this also counts as Confess to a Lesser Crime..
- Flat Character: Wolfe's operative Ruth Brady (who is recruited to the job because they need a fake woman motorist) has absolutely no noteworthy characteristics or background, and vanishes from the series after that brief job aside from a passing mention in the following novel.
- Foreshadowing: Wolfe acknowledges that his feud with Zeck will soon boil over and discusses some of the steps he might take once that happens, with this being re-visited in the next novel.
- Frame-Up: Wolfe tricks the American Communist Party into thinking that Webster Kane is the man who has been selling their secrets to the Gazette so that they'll incriminate him in the murder of Rony.
- Hypocritical Humor: Some critics point out that for all of the anti-Communist rhetoric in the novel, Wolfe calling in a favor from Sperling to get obnoxious radio personality Paul Emerson yanked off the air due to personal dislike for him isn't exactly championing a free press himself. That said, the scene reads more as comeuppance for Emerson's obstructive obnoxiousness and mockery of Wolfe on the air rather than a desire to muzzle his freedom of speech, and (unlike the then-official party line from Moscow) Wolfe never suggests that Emerson should be permanently prevented from having a venue to express his thoughts; he simply makes it a condition of his employment that his employer not be the one to provide him with such a platform.
- Jerkass: Paul Emerson, conservative radio commentator.
- Leg Focus: Archie takes note of Gwenn Sperling' legs when she's first introduced, noting that "those details which had been first disclosed when she appeared in her swimming rig were completely satisfactory."
- Locked Out of the Loop: James U. Sperling is the only member of his family not to indicate awareness of the well-publicized murders from the previous book (which Wolfe brings up when explaining his past experiences with Zeck), although that could just be impatience keeping him from acknowledging this.
- Mysterious Informant: Mr. Jones, a high-ranking communist who Wolfe pays for transcripts of their meetings which he gives to the newspaper.
- Never My Fault: Sperling denies any fault when Zeck's thugs shoot up the plant room, even though it happened as a result of Wolfe's undertaking (and refusing to quit) his investigation. That being said, this protest isn't as much feelings of responsibility as it is about Wolfe's announcement that the massive amount of money it will take to replace the damaged or destroyed orchids will be included in his bill to Sperling.
- Non-Idle Rich: Attempted but averted with Sperling's son Jimmy, who repeatedly tries to immerse himself in his father's mining company to be a useful helper, but has repeatedly tired of it and come slinking back home to party.
- Oh, Crap!: When Archie drops the bombshell of Rony being associated with Zeck, Wolfe stops in mid-motion of shaking a can of insecticide and needs to sit down.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Sperling is absolutely right to dislike and distrust Rony and want to keep him away from his daughter. But he's dead wrong about Rony being a communist.
- Spotting the Thread: Archie realizes Rony's tie to organized crime — specifically, whose crime organization — when one of Del Bascom's operatives sees him enter a front for one of Zeck's businesses.Archie: He went into Bischoff's Pet Shop on Third Avenue and stayed over an hour, and he doesn't keep pets.
- Strawman Political: While the Communist Party doesn't come out of this one looking good, Stout balances the depiction with Paul Emerson, a snide right-wing radio talking head apparently in the Paul Harvey model.
- Tranquil Fury: Wolfe's reaction to being insulted on the air by Paul Emerson.
- The Un-Reveal:
- It's all but outright stated that Rony was also blackmailing Mrs. Sperling and/or her son in order to get them to support his courtship of Gwenn, but it's never revealed what dirt he had there.
- It's also left a mystery exactly when and why Webster Kane, a wealthy industrialist, became a communist.
