Nero Wolfe mysteries

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 soon-to-be-beefsteak bull, is found pawing the remains of a family scion. Wolfe is sure the idea that Caesar is the murderer is, well, pure bull. Now...

The army wants Nero Wolfe urgently, but he refuses their clarion call to duty. It takes Archie Goodwin to titillate Wolfe’s taste for crime with two malevolent morsels: a corpse that refuses to rest in peace and a sinister “accident” involving national security. It’s up to the Grandiose Master himself, Nero Wolfe, to set the traps to catch a pair of wily killers—as Archie lays the bait on the wrong side of the law.
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In these three tales of detection, a whispering opera star, a posse in New York's Central Park, and a murder weapon that reappears in the strangest places challenge the wits of master sleuth Nero Wolfe.

When Priscilla Eads, heiress to cotton-towel millions, first pleads for Nero Wolfes assistance, the portly detective decides to wash his hands of a case that has more than its share of dirty laundry. Just hours later Miss Eads and her maid are found strangled to death under circumstances that dont quite wash. Now, to the dismay of a greedy board of directors and a fortune-hunting South American ex-husband, the astute Wolfe feels, on second thought,...

When evil strikes a loved one, it can make us crazy. We can't think rationally enough to get revenge ourselves, so we shouldn't. But Nero Wolfe ignores reason when someone guns down a close friend in cold blood. He vows to collar the killer personally, and it thrusts him into the gravest danger of his career. The case takes him 4,000 miles across the ocean to the hazardous mountains of Montenegro, where Communist cutthroats have also disposed of Wolfe's...

“It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”—The New York Times Book Review
Eleven years ago, wealthy Nebraska businessman James Herold gave his only son, Paul, a very raw deal. Now he wants Nero Wolfe to track Paul down so that he can make amends. But what if the young man doesn’t want to be found . . . and what if he’s the same P.H. who’s currently on...

Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin, star in these four short tales of detection. In "The Christmas Party" Archie and his fiancee attend an office party where Wolfe condescends to uncharacteristic theatrics. His dramatic technique is good, but it isn't enough to clear him from suspicion of murder. The "Easter Parade" tempts Wolfe to commit petty larceny for an orchid. Though that crime goes unpunished, the inevitable murder doesn't. "A Fourth...

It's bad enough to steal someone's idea; but it takes real guts to claim it is your own, then sue the originator. That's just what a gang of hack writers do, ingeniously planting evidence to back up their claims. The frustrated authors call on Nero Wolfe for help. But when someone dies, Wolfe realizes it's no simple extortion scheme. He'll have to draw on his critical skills to close the book on a killer well-versed in the ABCs of murder.

It’s a wily killer who dares to strike on Nero Wolfe’s hallowed turf—and leave a corpse strangled with Wolfe’s own soup-stained tie. But no sooner does the gourmandizing sleuth clean up this first course of murder than he faces a gun-toting wife who serves up a confession of homicidal intent—only to become the sole suspect when the corpus delicti is found. It’s murder à la carte when the third course is served:...

There's no one or nothing the great detective Nero Wolfe wouldn't take on if the price was right. Wealthy society widow Rachel Bruner is counting on that when she writes him a check for a whopping hundred grand. The oversize genius and his able assistant Archie Goodwin soon find out why the prize is so generous as they lock horns with the FBI. And these highly trained G-men have a way with threats , tails, and bugs that could give even sedentary sleuth...

Twenty-two-year-old Amy Denovo needs Nero Wolfe's help. She is determined to learn the identity of her father, a secret her mother scrupulously guarded -- and took to her grave when struck by a hit-and-run driver. Now Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, have just one clue to go on: a note from Amy's mother and a box with over $250,000. Seems every month since Amy's birth, her mother received $1,000 from an unknown source and saved it for Amy's future....

A Mets fan with a phony name and a millionaire client arrive just in time to provide a case for Nero Wolfe to pay the rent. The bizarre visitors are in a frenzy about a death trap explosion in the discreet whiskey drawer of a top TV executive. To crack this case of bombs and bourbon, the indolent genius and his energetic assistant must pick their way though corporate chicanery, vile ambition, and a healthy swig of murder

Murder strikes thrice in these three baffling mysteries of crime and detection. First, Rex Stouts great detective, Nero Wolfe, develops an appetite for the sweet taste of revenge when someone slips something most foul into his lunch. Then, a couturiers beautiful sister uses Archie Goodwin, Wolfes man about town, as her ready-made alibiand maybe her fall guyunless Wolfe can spot the loose ends in a nearly seamless crime. Finally, Wolfe has a run-in...

To save his favorite newspaper, Wolfe steps into the crossfire of a tabloid war Master sleuth Nero Wolfe's small circle of friends is limited to his assistant Archie Goodwin, his chef Fritz, and Lon Cohen, the head man at the New York Gazette. Cohen knows more about the city's power structure than any man in Manhattan, and for years he happily passed Wolfe information in return for the odd exclusive scoop. But now Cohen needs Wolfe's help, for the...

After the heir to a frozen-food fortune gets iced, Wolfe's right-hand man, Archie Goodwin, becomes a suspect When Lily Rowan doesn't laugh at his jokes, Archie Goodwin knows something is wrong. Her niece Noreen has been running around with Sparky Linville, a club-hopping bad boy who is the terror of Manhattan nightlife. And the last time she went out with him, Noreen wasn't herself when she came home. All she would tell her aunt was that she had been...

When a fellow shamus gets charged with murder, Wolfe comes to his rescue. Staten Island would be forgettable were it not for the gleaming Tabernacle of the Silver Spire, where thousands of congregants come every Sunday to hear the sermons of Barnabas Bay. Millions more tune in on television, giving the good Reverend international fame, and a chance to spread the gospel from New York City's harbor all the way to South Korea. But threatening notes have...

Archie Goodwin comes to New York City hoping for a bit of excitement. In his third week working as a night watchman, he stops two burglars in their tracks, with a pair of hot lead slugs. Dismissed from his job for being "trigger-happy," he parlays his newfound notoriety into a job as a detective's assistant, helping Del Bascom solve cases like the Morningside Piano Heist, the Rive Gauche Art Gallery Swindle, and the Sumner-Hayes Burglary. But it's...

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are tasked with protecting the most hated columnist in New York City There are few people Nero Wolfe respects, and Lon Cohen of the New York Gazette is one of them. So when Cohen asks for a favor, the famously brilliant-and notoriously lazy-detective is inclined to listen. According to Cohen, someone wants to kill the Gazette's gossip columnist, Cameron Clay. Death threats are a regular hazard for Clay, who's hurled insults...

An art hoarder's suspicious death paints a nasty picture for Nero Wolfe. No matter how fabulously he's being courted, infamously dour "art hog" Arthur Wordell isn't keen on favoring the new Guggenheim Museum with his extensive collection. Even at the urging of his beloved daughter, Nadia. Then, the night after the museum's fête, Arthur takes a twenty-story plunge from the window of his Times Square office. Nadia thinks it's no mere coincidence. Eccentric,...

Archie Goodwin is not overly fond of Theodore Horstmann, who takes care of the orchids on the rooftop of Nero Wolfe's West Thirty-Fifth Street brownstone. But as loyal assistant to the legendary private detective, Archie will put his animosity aside when the surly orchid-keeper stumbles through the front door beaten within an inch of his life. While the gardener lies in a coma, Nero sends Archie to poke around his apartment near the river. The place...