Rex Stout's thirty-first Nero Wolfe novel, published in 1969.
At Lily Rowan's Bar JR Ranch in Timberburg, Montana, Archie becomes involved in clearing the name of Harvey Greve, who runs the ranch but has been imprisoned for the murder of Philip Brodell, a "dude" (city-dweller) who impregnated Greve's daughter a year prior. Archie takes an indefinite leave of absence to work on the case, but does not foresee Wolfe's reaction: faced with an undetermined length of time without Archie, Wolfe leaves the comfort of his New York brownstone for the wilds of Montana to solve the case. Faced with an unfriendly populace and a small-town-big-power obstructive local sheriff, Wolfe and Archie find themselves hamstrung - even more so when a second murder lands Archie in jail.
Tropes in this work: (Tropes relating to the series as a whole, or to the characters in general can be found on Nero Wolfe and its subpages.)
- Cowboy Episode: The usually citybound Nero Wolfe has to relocate to the wilds of Montana to investigate a murder on a dude ranch.
- In the Back: Philip Brodell was shot from behind while picking huckleberries. This is Archie's main reason for concluding Harvey Greve is innocent, as Harvey was not cowardly enough to shoot a man in the back.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Sheriff Haight, who clearly resents Archie and Wolfe muscling in on his authority. While he does have some motive (at one point Archie suspects his son, who was sweet on the girl Brodell impregnated, of some involvement), for the most part it's clear he's just an inept big-fish-in-a-small-pond type who is reacting out of spite due to outsiders showing him up.
- Sacred Hospitality: Having deduced Wade Worthy as the murderer and carried out his duty to inform the police, Wolfe arranges for a fishing trip to clear out the household, and for Worthy to escape and be caught by the highway patrol well off the premises — before the local police arrive with a search warrant at the empty and locked-up house, all because it would be a serious breach of his duties as Lily's guest to put his host through that turmoil if he could prevent it. This has the added benefit of embarrassing Sheriff Haight, who had earned Wolfe's animosity.
- Tar and Feathers: When Archie questions a friend of Gil Haight, who arguably had the strongest motive (Brodell's getting Alma Greve, whom Gil loved, pregnant before deserting her), she says that she had indeed encouraged the suspect to seek revenge that day, but that he'd planned to tar and feather the man, not kill him. This causes Archie to reflect that at least now he knows why Gil had visited a chicken farm and a roofing business that day, as he'd apparently planned to go through with the tarring and feathering and had been gathering the supplies before his victim turned up dead.
