"Christmas Party" was first published in "Collier's" with the title "The Christmas-Party Murder" (also, with the same title, in "Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine") and later included in the book "And Four to Go." In "Christmas Party," Archie and his fiancée (a claim he substantiates by showing Wolfe a marriage license duly signed and executed) attend her office Christmas party, at a furniture design studio, where Archie learns he has been used only to press her employer and lover into marrying her. The trick that apparently worked, but, as he finishes giving a toast, the husband-to-be dies of cyanide poisoning, compelling a curious Wolfe to condescend to some uncharacteristic theatrics that place him under suspicion of murder.
Author
Rex Todhunter Stout (1886 – 1975) was an American crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair). The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
