Four novellas: Christmas Party: Archie Goodwin is invited to an office Christmas party. The bartender is dressed as Santa Claus, a guest winds up poisoned, and Santa disappears leaving his outfit behind in the elevator. Easter Parade: An orchid grower's wife is going to display a one-of-a-kind orchid on her outfit at a Fifth Avenue church on Easter Sunday. Nero Wolfe wants to get the orchid, but as his sketchy hireling "Tabby" reaches for it, the woman falls down dead. Fourth of July Picnic: Nero Wolfe is invited to be one of the speakers at a union picnic. Just as begins his speech, one of the other speakers is found stabbed to death behind the stage. Murder in No Joke: A woman and calls on Nero Wolfe, makes a phone call from his office, and hands the phone to Wolfe just in time for him to hear the woman on the other end of the call killed. Was it real or was it staged? The woman is dead, and another woman who may have been a conspirator is found dead also. RM