Although Inspector Cramer of the NYPD is a supporting character in the majority of Nero Wolfe's novels and short stories, in "Red Threads" he is featured alone as the main investigator of case.

Yal Carew, a millionaire in the habit of visiting the elaborate tomb of his beautiful Cherokee Indian wife one hour after sunrise to ask the dead woman for guidance on matters of love or money, is murdered the morning he wants to ask her permission to take a new bride. Someone crushes his skull with a war club and takes his scalp with an old hunting knife.

Carew's son has the best motive of anybody in the long list of suspects, but he also has the best alibi, and when a hotheaded young fashion designer teams up with Inspector Cramer to find the killer, they find a very cold trail where a peach pit, a red thread, and the call of a whippoorwill are the only clues.