Devotees of the late Rex Stout's bestsellers will be pleasantly surprised by Goldsborough's first story about Nero Wolfe. Related by the elephantine genius's faithful assistant Archie Goodwin, this mystery starts when Maria Radovich asks him to intercede for her with Wolfe. She's worried over threats against her great-uncle Milan Stevens, controversial new director of the New York Symphony. Since Stevens, ne Mikos Stefanovic, had saved the detective's life years earlier in Montenegro, Wolfe agrees to take the case. Before he can act, however, someone stabs the musician fatally in his apartment. The police arrest Jerry Milner, a violinist with the orchestra and Maria's fiance, but Wolfe demolishes the evidence against him. While his boss remains sedentary, Archie obeys orders to go looking for information about other suspects: the victims's sponsor who regrets his choice of director; musicians whom the maestro had publicly insulted; the glamorous society woman who had been his frequent companion.
