Showing results by author "Rex Stout" in All Categories

Jerin is a mental freak—a man capable of successfully playing a dozen simultaneous chess games against first-rate players while he himself is out of sight of any of the boards. It is while thus engaged that he is killed. A millionaire—his opponent in more realms than chess—is accused, and...

With a rich man footing the bills and a handsome lover on the side, Isabel Kerr seemed to have the perfect setup. Now the well-kept lady is stone-cold dead, and the cops have nabbed a Manhattan private eye who just happens to be an acquaintance of Nero Wolfe. Unable to refuse a friend in need...

“It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”—The New York Times Book Review Introduction by David Handler It wasn’t Leonard Dykes’s writing style that offended. But something in his unpublished tome seemed to lead everyone who read it to a very...

As any herpetologist will tell you, the fer-de-lance is among the most dreaded snakes known to man. When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows he's getting dreadfully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president. As for Wolfe...

“It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”—The New York Times Book Review Embark on a year of murder and mystery. It begins at Christmas with a party and a poisoning, then blossoms into spring with sudden death at the Easter Parade. With a killer...

Madeline Fraser, radio talk show host extraordinaire, had a natural dread of dead air. So when one of her on-air guests signed off at the mike after drinking a glass of a sponsor’s beverage, it was a broadcaster’s nightmare come true. Enter Nero Wolfe. He agrees to take the case, with his...

Nero Wolfe's last recorded case! Wolfe never works without a well-heeled client and a sizable fee, but when a bomb racks his brownstone, killing his favorite waiter from his favorite restaurant, the world's greatest gourmet takes it as a personal affront. What kind of unsavory killer commits...

Nero Wolfe, lover of fine food and prize orchids, is a genius at daring detection. But he is always on guard when it comes to women. Now murder at a fencing studio engages him and his confidential assistant, Archie Goodwin, in a dangerous duel with death. The prime suspect is a Balkan beauty who...

The aging millionairess has a problem: where is her young playboy husband getting all his money? To help find the answer, Archie infiltrates a party at her palatial estate. But her late-night murder ruins the festive mood . . . and a letter bomb from a powerful crime boss makes Nero Wolfe do the...

Pretty Amy Denovo wants to find the father she has never seen, but she can't afford Nero Wolfe's outlandish fees . . . or can she? Suddenly she's knocking on the oversized detective's door with a parcel full of bills in hand—and a quarter of a million hidden in her closet. It's all part of a...

Three clever murderers challenge Nero Wolfe in cases involving lovers who want to make sure neither is a killer, a stable full of suspects in the search for a killer on horseback, and a murderer stalking Wolfe's brownstone...

When a bright young heiress with a flair for romance and one too many enemies is found brutally murdered, Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, find themselves embroiled in a case that is not as black and white as it first appears. Susan Brooke has everything going for her. Men would have...

When Marko Vukcic, one of Nero Wolfe's closest friends, is gunned down in cold blood, the great detective takes it personally, pledging to do everything in his considerable power to bring the killer to justice. But Wolfe's reckless vow draws him to the most lethal case of his career, propelling...

When a group of publishers and writers hires Wolfe to solve a case of false plagiarism, it's time for the great detective to hit the books. Four unrelated accusers—including a down-and-out hack writer and a lady poet with a penchant for nude sunbathing—have been fleecing bestselling authors...

An automobile breakdown strands Nero Wolfe and Archie in the middle of a private pasture—and a family feud over a prize bull. A restaurateur’s plan to buy the stud and barbecue it as a publicity stunt may be in poor taste, but it isn’t a crime . . . until Hickory Caesar Grindon, the...

There's nothing like murder to spoil a good meal. That's what Archie Goodwin, the able assistant to Nero Wolfe, discovers at a lavish dinner party hosted by a billionaire. It was a casual evening among gorgeous society girls . . . until champagne became a murder weapon. Luckily for Archie, his...

There’s no one and nothing the great detective Nero Wolfe wouldn’t take on if the price was right. That’s something wealthy society widow Rachel Bruner is counting on when she writes him a check for a whopping hundred grand. But even Wolfe has a moment’s doubt when he finds out why the...

Three Doors to Death is an engaging collection of three Nero Wolfe novellas by Rex Stout, each offering a thrilling mystery that highlights the skills of the iconic detective and his loyal assistant, Archie Goodwin. The stories — Man Alive, Omit Flowers, and Door to Death — bring readers into the world of high-stakes intrigue and classic detective work, showcasing Wolfe's genius for deduction and Archie's resourceful charm. In Man Alive, Wolfe must untangle the mystery of a presumed dead man who reappears only to meet an untimely death, leaving Wolfe to solve a crime with unusual motives.

Nero Wolfe has left his comfortable brownstone for the promise of a remarkably rare black orchid at a flower show—but before Wolfe and his perennially hardy sidekick, Archie Goodwin, have a chance to stop and smell the roses, a diabolically daring murder takes place right under their noses and...

A brilliant Rex Stout murder mystery featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin A bomb explodes in the desk drawer of a top TV executive. Was it intended for him or the man who opened the drawer? They each had enemies enough to die a dozen times over. Was it the jealous wife or the ambitious...