One of the crowning achievements in the Nero Wolfe saga, In the Best Families pits New York's most corpulent genius against
his arch nemesis in a life and death masquerade, and challenges Wolfe's intrepid assistant with the most puzzling twists of his career.
Mrs. Barry Rackham and her cousin Calvin Leeds show up on the massive 'link_id=110')">
detective's doorstep and Wolfe's right-hand man Archie Goodwin (who already checked on the woman to discover she is worth millions) ushers them into the office at the heart of their famous brownstone home in Manhattan. Mrs. Rackham is a self-proclaimed neurotic, both aware and ashamed of her homeliness; she is also aware that her second husband probably married her for her fortune. Yet when she eventually chose to cut off his funding due to his persistent, excessive "needs," she became surprised to find out that his spending habits showed no signs of abating. Unconvinced by his explanation that an investment had paid off, she wants Wolfe and Goodwin to track down the source of Barry Rackham's fun money. "I'm his wife; it's my duty to know," she insists.
Wolfe tentatively accepts the job--and her $10,000 retainer, arranging for Archie to visit the Rackham estate to look the husband over. But the ink on her check is barely dry when the detectives receive a warning in the form of a canister of tear gas--entering their home disguised as a package of Wolfe's favorite sausage! The bomb is set to go off when the package is opened, and the household chef/butler Fritz Brenner is almost as disappointed as Wolfe when the cloud of gas drives off the hoped-for aroma of sausage.
No sooner does the air clear in the brownstone than the phone rings and a cold, precise voice on the line claims credit for the demonstration--the voice of crime lord Arnold Zeck, whom Wolfe and Archie have encountered on several other occasions, never intentionally and always reluctantly. He politely informs Wolfe that he is to withdraw from any involvement with the Rackhams. Ironically and comically, both Archie and his boss feel the intense pangs of self-respect and self-preservation at the same time. Neither admits the need to back down and to thus continue doing business only at the whim of a creature like the hated Zeck. Archie elects to keep his appointment at Rackham's estate, but it is clear already that Barry Rackham is collecting money from Zeck's organization.
Archie's entree is to pretend that he's investigating a dog-poisoning at the kennels owned by Calvin Leeds, who raises Doberman pinschers. The Leeds place is next door to Rackhams' and Mrs. Rackham asks Goodwin and Leeds to dinner. Thus, Archie meets a household of heirs and suspects who will come in handy when murder comes calling. When Mrs. Rackham takes her Doberman for an evening stroll, no one accepts her invitation to join them, but as Goodwin is bedding down at Leeds' for the night, a whimpering sound gets him out of the sack, and he and Leeds find the woman's dog on his front stoop with a knife in its belly. Leeds had raised the animal for his cousin, but it came to his doorstep to die. The dog's mistress is soon sniffed out by another of Leeds' dogs; she, too has been stabbed to death.
Goodwin informs Wolfe on the phone that they are now minus a client, and after a sleepless night with the local authorities who begin their investigation, he hastens back to Manhattan to find that Nero Wolfe has vacated the premises! Not only has he disappeared, he's left notes to the effect that he is leaving the detective business, selling his house, giving away his prize orchids...and that Archie is NOT to try to find him.
Thus begins an unprecedented period in Goodwin's detective career--life without Nero Wolfe. This comic and tragic part of the story has Archie starting up his own detective business, opening his own office, and getting mixed up with several of Arnold Zeck's minions, including a repulsive-looking newcomer to the Big Apple named Pete Roeder, who, for some unknown reason, wants Goodwin to put a tail on a man named Barry Rackham!
Who killed Rackham's wife? Where is Nero Wolfe? Has fear of Arnold Zeck driven Wolfe out of the limelight and into hiding for good? Will Archie Goodwin join forces with the underworld? Why is Zeck having Rackham tailed? Who poisoned the dog?
This complicated, highly engaging story has plenty of twists and turns, features a near fist-fight between Goodwin and Inspector Cramer, whom Archie hints might just possibly be on Arnold Zeck's payroll (!), Fritz Brenner taking a job at Rusterman's restaurant, an appearance by Wolfe's old friend and fellow Montenegrin Marco Vukcic, and an ingenious denoument that will keep the reader guessing right to the end.