Frank Carlson Library

An innocent young telegraph operator becomes a counterfeiter's target Once, the Lamartine Hotel was a quiet refuge for New York's stuffy fashionable set. But by the 1890s, fashion has moved uptown, and the lobby of the Lamartine has been overtaken by natty young sports, who pass their afternoons with billiards or shows of noisy derring-do. Their preferred damsel is Lila Williams, a delicate young telegraph operator whose shyness so charms them that...

Presents two novels by Rex Stout featuring detective Nero Wolfe, including "Fer-de-Lance", in which Nero crosses paths with a vengeful killer while investigating the deaths of an immigrant and a college president, and "The League of Frightened Men", a story about Nero's attempts to help a frightened man who is being stalked by a vicious killer.

Rex Stout - famous as the creator of the Nero Wolfe mysteries - published this early, golf-themed mystery in 1916. Featuring death on the links, this tale is full of golfing, red herrings, and a detective determined to run down the villain. A great read for Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe fans alike! Originally published as a 6-part serial in Golfers Magazine (July to December, 1916).

A collection of early stories from the man who created Nero Wolfe Bill Farden is an experienced burglar. He gains entry to the house without effort, and his ears tell him the inhabitants are asleep. He pockets the silver and moves to the kitchen, to fill his stomach with strawberry shortcake. When the cook tiptoes downstairs, Bill disables her with chloroform. Upstairs, he ties the man of the house to his bedframe. In the next room he finds a little...

The scent of murder is in the air at the great Pour Amour perfume contest, and the incomparable Nero Wolfe is intent on sniffing out the killer. The foul deed is committed during the contest’s final round. Only five riddles separate the contestants from the million-dollar cash prize when someone finds the sweet smell of success too intoxicating to leave to chance. Now the contest creator is dead and the answers stolen from his wallet, and it’s...

Don’t tempt Nero Wolfe to find the culprit. When foul play’s the game, he always wins—and in these three crime puzzles, the stakes are high.
 
Home to Roost
Somebody at the dinner table dropped a poison pellet into the vitamin addict's pill-box.
The Cop-Killer
The murdered cop carried the clue inside his folded newspaper.
The Squirt and the Monkey
The monkey was the only witness...

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 puts a blight on the proceedings. Now Wolfe's fancy turns to thoughts of weeding out a murderer—one who's definitely not a garden-variety killer....

“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 unhappy ending. Now four people are dead, including the unfortunate author himself, and the police...

They all thought they were about to die . . . and they were right. Dazy Perrit was an underworld kingpin until a hail of bullets sent him into early retirement. Ben Jensen was a well-connected publisher until a determined gunman severed all his connections. Eugene R. Poor made novelties like exploding cigars until one of them blew him to kingdom come. Only the gourmet sleuth, Nero Wolfe, and his sidekick, Archie Goodwin, can solve the deadly equation...