Murder by the Book
Rex Stout
 Because the New York police have written the case off as an accident, a Peoria businessman asks Wolfe to investigate the hit-and-run death of his daughter, a reader for a book publishing company, in Van Cortlandt Park. Wolfe connects her death to a list of names he was recently shown by Inspector Cramer, related to a stalled homicide investigation &mdash; and concludes there is a second murder. A third murder validates Wolfe's conclusion, and Archie follows the trail of an unpublished novel to California and back. Much of the plot - and the eventual solution to the mystery - turns on the daily life of a big law office, the frictions and rivalries between the partners (as well as between their respective secretaries and clerks).