Before Midnight [Large Print] (Library Binding)

The advertising firm Lippert, Buff, and Assa (LBA) lost the creativity that made them successful when Lippert died some years ago. Their best hope was a rising young star, Louis Dahlmann, who named a new perfume for Heery Products, Inc., one of their best clients: Pour Amour. He also came up "the biggest prize contest in history": each week for 20 weeks, a new 4-line verse appeared in newspapers and magazines, describing a woman in history known to have used cosmetics. He also wrote the verses to break the first tie (72 people) and now the 2nd and last tie (5 people, who were brought to New York to receive the verses from Dahlmann personally). Unfortunately, along with his creativity, Dahlmann had a wild streak; after handing out the verses, he brandished a paper from his wallet, saying it had the answers, and he mustn't accidentally give it to anyone. Within twelve hours, he was found shot dead in his apartment, the wallet and paper both gone.

The next morning, the members of the firm arrive at Wolfe's office, and they don't care who killed Dahlmann. They want Wolfe to extract them from the wreckage this will make of the contest, by finding out what happened to the paper before midnight, April 20th (the last contestant's deadline), so they can scrap the existing questions and come up with new ones.

But of course, as Inspector Cramer points out soon afterward, it'll be difficult to catch the thief without exposing the murderer.

The idea of woman-hating Wolfe getting involved with a perfume contest is in itself worth reading. (Some of the verses are given, and the later ones are nice puzzles.) The five contestants are well-drawn characters, all quite different, some likeable, some not. The members of the firm verge on hysterical, calling Wolfe for progress reports at all hours of the day and issuing conflicting orders. And of course, the mystery: Dahlmann, a womanizer, possibly a threat to some or all of the senior partners, and (last but not least) the verses (if that's what was on the paper). All leading up to the climactic confrontation in Wolfe's office with all the suspects - which doesn't come off quite as usual.