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 dreadully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president.  As for Wolfe, he's playing snake charmer in a case with more twists than an anaconda -- whistling a seductive tune he hopes will catch a killer who's still got poison in his heart.

WHO WAS THE FIFTH MAN? The lawyer, the jeweler, the art critic, and the oil-company man…self-possessed, independent Lora Winter has had a child with each of them. But when one of these men drives up to her house with a fifth man in the car, Lora runs to hide. That’s how this extraordinary novel opens – and by the time it ends, you’ll have pieced together a masterful psychological jigsaw puzzle that is miles from a traditional crime novel, but whose desperate characters nevertheless resort to kidnapping, blackmail and possibly even murder. Long before he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, before he created the immortal Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout wrote this gripping novel, published in 1930 and then lost for more than 90 years. Hard Case Crime is thrilled to give the book its first publication in nearly a century and to give today’s readers the chance to discover one of Stout’s richest and most unforgettable stories.

A millionaire businessman hires Nero Wolfe to snoop on his daughter's boyfriend. It seems like a simple case. Then a powerful gangland boss tries to convince Wolfe to drop the matter by shooting up his orchid room. The great detective soon finds himself in a highly complex case involving drugged drinks, man-killing debutantes and a decidedly un-American party.

A NERO WOLFE SPECIAL EDITION--TWO COMPLETE MYSTERIES IN ONE VOLUME
"Nero Wolfe towers over his rivals...he is an exceptional character creation." --"New Yorker" A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America's greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of fiction's greatest detectives. In this double helping of classic Nero Wolfe mysteries, Stout presents the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth and his trusty man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, with a pair of delectable murders that no connoisseur of the whodunit could possibly resist.
BLACK ORCHIDS
Not much can get Wolfe to leave his comfortable brownstone, but the showing of a rare black orchid lures him to a flower show. Unfortunately, the much-anticipated event is soon overshadowed by a murder as daring as it is sudden. It's a case of weeding out a cunning killer who can turn up anywhere--and Wolfe must do it quickly. Because a second case awaits his urgent attention: a society widow on a mailing list of poison-pen letters leading to a plot as dark as any orchid Wolfe has ever encountered.
THE SILENT SPEAKER
When a government power broker scheduled to speak before an influential group of millionaires turns up dead, Nero Wolfe grudgingly takes the case--even as his own financial affairs teeter toward ruin. Soon a second victim is discovered, a missing stenographer's tape causes a panic, and a dead man speaks, after a fashion. As the business world demands answers, the great detective baits a trap to net a killer worth his weight in gold.

Three witnesses hold all the clues in three crimes of passion that have even the great Nero Wolfe guessing to the very end. A dead million comes back to life, only to wind up dead again; a black Labrador retriever becomes a killer's worst enemy; and an answering service with three untalkative operators may mean an innocent man will get the chair.

A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America's greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of fiction's greatest detectives. In this pair of classic Nero Wolfe mysteries, Stout is at his unparalleled best as the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth and his trusty man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, are served two lethally appetizing cases.
Too Many Cooks
Everyone knows that too many cooks spoil the broth, but you'd hardly expect it to lead to murder. But that's exactly what's on the menu at a five-star gathering of the world's greatest chefs. As guest of honor, Wolfe was lured from his brownstone to a posh southern spa to deliver the keynote address. He never expected that between courses of haute cuisine he and Archie would be compelled to detect a killer with a poison touch--a killer preparing to serve the great detective his last supper.
Champgne for One
Faith Usher talked about taking her own life and even kept cyanide in her purse. So when she died from a lethal champagne cocktail in the middle of a high society dinner party, everyone called it suicide--including the police. But Nero Wolfe isn't convinced--and neither is Archie. Especially when Wolfe is warned by four men against taking the case. Deception, blackmail, and a killer who may have pulled off the perfect crime...it's a challenge Nero Wolfe can't resist.

When a baby is abandonded on the doorstep of a young socialite widow, the woman thinks she knows the identity of the father: her deceased writer husband, the cad But who is the mother? Reluctantly, Nero Wolfe accepts the case, and Archie identifies the first clue: unusual buttons on the baby's overalls.

A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America's greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of fiction's greatest detectives. Here, in Stout's first two complete Wolfe mysteries, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth and his trusty man-about-town Archie Goodwin solve their most baffling cases.
Fer-de-lance
The fer-de-lance is among the most deadly snakes known to man. When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, his partner, Archie Goodwin, suspects it means Wolfe is getting close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president. But this is a case with more twists than an angry rattler...and if Wolfe doesn't handle it with extreme care, he'll be the next one struck by a killer with poison in his heart.
The League of Frightened Men
Paul Chapin's Harvard cronies never forgave themselves for the hazing prank that left their friend a cripple. Yet they believed that Paul himself had forgiven them--until a class reunion ends in death and a series of poems promising more of the same. Now this league of frightened men is desperate for Nero Wolfe's help. But can even the great detective outwit a killer smart enough to commit an unseen murder...in plain sight?

Madeline Fraser, radio talk show host extraordinare, 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 broadcasters nightmare come true. Enter Nero Wolfe. He agrees to take the case, with his sizable fee contingent on his solving the murder. But to Wolfe's surprise, everyone connected to the case now lies in unison about it.

Two Nero Wolfe novellas make for one great read in this latest addition to the Rex Stout Library. Archie Godwin is in the Military Intelligence, and is framed for murder. In the second story, Archie and Nero are embroiled in another war-time mystery, this one involving a captain whose fatal fall leads to a theft of military secrets.

"It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore".--The New York Times Book Review. Incomparable sleuth Nero Wolfe and his perennially hardy sidekick, Archie Goodwin, find themselves trying to weed out a garden-variety killer at the annual flower show.

With a rich man footing the bills and a handsome lover on the side, Isabel Kerr was taken care of well. When someone takes care of her in a more final sense, her murder is pinned on a detective friend of Nero Wolfe's. Agreeing to help clear his buddy's name, Wolfe winds up entertaining a party of fools and lovers connected with the doxy's death.

ustice Ends at Home was originally published in the Pulp magazine All-Story Weekly. It is both a legal thriller and a detective story. All scholars of Stout's work agree that its main characters, the phlegmatic, middle-aged Simon Leg and his youthful assistant Dan Culp, are Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin already living, perhaps subconsiouly, in the mind of Rex Stout eighteen years before Fer-de-Lance was written. Warner & Wife was originally published in January 30, 1915 issue of the Pulp magazine All-Story Cavalier Weekly. It is sort of a legal thriller, the story of a partnership fifteen years in the making. This is one of the novella length stories written by Rex Stout for the Pulps almost two decades before Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin were born.

Bitter End, the first novella length adventure featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, appeared in the November 1940 issue of The American Magazine. The story, which is dark and complex, explores the family, business and personal relationships of the owners and employees of a specialty food manufacturer. Wolfe has a personal encounter with one of their products that has been poisoned and feels compelled to investigate Before there was Nero Wolfe there were others, detectives such a Canby Rankin, Dol Bonner, and Tecumseh who paved the road for the most famous of Stout's detectives. The Last Drive features Canby Rankin, the "Southerner who had turned detective," in a story serialized in Golfers Magazine. The story can be viewed as a precursor of Fer-de-Lance, the first Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin novel-length mystery, in the sense that the device used here is almost identical to the murder weapon at the center of Fer-de-Lance.

Eleven early tales of mystery, murder, and mayhem from the creator of Nero Wolfe. When Colonel Phillips begins his final game of golf, his greatest problem in life is that he has begun to slice the ball. Playing with his lawyer and nephews, Phillips fights his way back into the game and is on the verge of victory when he keels over. He clutches his chest, mumbles a few words, and is dead in minutes. The doctor has no doubt: The colonel was poisoned. Finding the culprit falls to the president of the golf club, amateur detective Canby Rankin, who will do whatever it takes to find the killer on the links. Written nearly a century ago, "The Last Drive" is now available for the first time in book form. Clever, charming, and absolutely baffling, it is the tale that inspired the first Nero Wolfe novel, Fer-de-Lance, and along with the other stories in this volume represents the early efforts of a modern genius.