Nero Wolfe becomes involved only when Archie Goodwin investigates a controversial professor's death in upstate New York and lands in jail.

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...

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 Nero Wolfe is given what appears to be the most hopeless case he and Archie Goodwin have ever tackled.
You need to know nothing about chess...

A bomb explodes in the desk drawer of a top TV executive. But was the death trap intended for him or for the man who opened the drawer? Each man had a host of enemies, so was it the ambitious business partner, the jealous wife, the office secretary, or the man with blood on his hands? Nero Wolfe finds himself up to his corpulent neck as he and Archie Goodwin sort their way through secrets, over-the-top ambition, and a long list of suspects to find...

Wolfe investigates a sticky matter of Cola Wars espionage For the men of Madison Avenue, the battle between soft drink giants Cherr-o-key and AmeriCherry seems heaven-sent. For years now, the firm of Mills/Lake/Ryman has fought to help Cherr-o-key become the nation & rsquo;s favorite fizzy cherry soda, but each time they come up with a new slogan, mascot, or jingle, AmeriCherry has beaten them to it. There is a mole inside the agency, and only Nero...

"Faith Usher had a decidedly morbid personality. She talked about taking her life, and kept cyanide in her purse. So when she collapses and dies from a lethal champagne cocktail in the middle of a high society dinner party, everyone calls it suicide—including the police. But Archie was watching it all, and suspects it was murder. So does Nero Wolfe, especially after he's warned by four men against taking the case. For the world's most formidable...

All 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 nest egg left by her unknown father. But when Wolfe and his able assistant, Archie Goodwin, begin to trace the money to...

"Archie Goodwin and Saul Panzer have ventured into the wilds of northern Manhattan to watch the Giants take on the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. Panzer spies state senator Orson Milbank, a silver-haired scoundrel with enemies in every corner of upstate New York, sitting in the box seats. In the fourth inning, a monstrous line drive brings every fan in the grandstand to his feet -- every fan save for one silver-haired senator, who has been shot dead...

When she is dismissed from her job without explanation, Jordan Bingham, researcher for the reclusive book collector Vera Van Alst, must save her former employer from a mysterious new visitor who has designs on her money, property and Nero Wolfe first editions. Vera Van Alst doesn't normally receive visitors without appointment, but she agrees to see the imperious Muriel Delgado upon arrival. Shortly thereafter, Jordan Bingham is told that her position...

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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