**"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in his unpublished tome seemed to lead everyone who read it to a very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 think Nero Wolfe is the only man who can
close the book on this novel killer. So the genius sleuth directs his
sidekick to set a trap . . . and discovers that the truth is far
stranger--and far bloodier--than fiction.
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 the
greatest fictional detectives of all time. Together, Stout and Wolfe
have entertained--and puzzled--millions of mystery fans around the
world. Now, with his perambulatory man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, the
arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth is back in the original
seventy-three cases of crime and detection written by the inimitable
master himself, Rex Stout.