Sun, Jan 30, 1977
The recipient of a Man of the Year award is at a banquet in his honor when the lights suddenly black out and he's stabbed to death in the mêlée. There are no fewer than 200 suspects, the number of guests at the banquet, many of whom have motives. Rabbi Small wonders, though, if any of the guests really did commit the crime. When Lanigan puffs indignantly that there are 100,000 people in the city and that thus leaves him with 98,800 suspects, Rabbi Small suggests he try to narrow it down by checking outsiders who might have had a beef with the dead man and somehow could have sneaked into the banquet hall.
Sun, Mar 20, 1977
Gunfire coming from the home of two elderly, eccentric brothers leads Lanigan to the dead body of the older brother, and the younger brother injured in a fall when he fired a huge revolver at the assailant while precariously balanced on a flight of stairs. The surviving brother lets it slip that one of his nieces came to visit on the night of the murder, leaving her the prime suspect. Everyone suspects that the dead man had a huge fortune stashed somewhere in the house, which the younger brother denies. But when an octagonal box turns up missing, people suspect it was the key to the treasure and the niece is in serious trouble. Lanigan and Rabbi Small, tipped off by the surviving brother's odd behavior, wonder if greed wasn't the primary motive for the murder.