About the book: 1951 / A comic book publisher comes to Nero Wolfe and asks to lend him a gun and Archie Goodwin to boot. It turns out that his Marley pistol disappeared from his table. The client’s idea is this: when Goodwin, in the presence of his household, takes his “Marley”, which had previously been placed there, out of the desk drawer, the kidnapper will give himself away. However, that same evening one of the artists was shot, not with the missing pistol, but with Goodwin's pistol. Of course, he is arrested. Wolfe's private investigator's license is revoked, but he masterfully identifies the true killer. The police, represented by Inspector Kremer, are once again being fooled.