Three Aces – 1971 – Book Club Edition

The Viking Press
Copyright 1956, 1960, 1961 by Rex Stout

Contents:

Too Many Clients
Might As Well Be Dead
The Final Deduction

Inside Cover:

Three Aces
Happiness is a Nero Wolfe mystery for so many aficionados of civilized crime stories that the Omnibus has become a valued tradition; there have been five before this, each gathering a few previously published Rex Stouts in one volume. Three Aces is the first to include three complete full-length novels, and will prove a treat as special as a dish from the kitchen of Nero’s unique cook, Fritz.

In Too Many Clients, three different clients clamor for Nero’s help when a big businessman is murdered in his $81,000 love nest. Archie Goodwin must use some of his best talents to sort them out before Nero can even begin the case. Might as Well Be Dead involves, along with much mayhem and imperiled missing persons, a great national scandal. The Final Deduction puts Nero and Archie in the saddle in pursuit of a kidnap for half a million dollars, with murder on the side.

The team is in top form in all three of these, a prize for any fan who missed them before or who wants them on hand in one handsome superStout volume.

Rear Cover:

“Not two characters alone, but a palpable atmosphere exists in that brownstone house on West 35th Street. And what sinewy, pellucid, propelling prose tells those tales – allegories of the human pilgrimage, rather – in which there is little or no blood, but rather the play of the mind. . . . In this sublime duet of Don Quixote and a glamorized Sancho Panza who go tilting together against evil, there is no mystery, nothing but matter for admiration, edification, and (if desired) self-identification. the true mystery is in their inspired creator, Rex Stout.” -Jacques Barzun

Seven Complete Nero Wolfe Novels

Seven Complete Nero Wolfe Novels

Copyright 1983 by Pola W. Stout,
executrix of the estate of Rex Stout
This edition is published by Avenel Books

Contents:

THE SILENT SPEAKER
MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD
IF DEATH EVER SLEPT
3 AT WOLFE’S DOOR
Poison a la carte
Method Three for Murder
The Rodeo Murder
GAMBIT
PLEASE PASS THE GUILT
A FAMILY AFFAIR

Dust Jacket Text:

Nero Wolfe is an overweight misanthrope and an avid orchid grower
who almost never leaves his comfortable Manhattan brownstone-
hardly the description of a crackerjack detective. Yet Nero Wolfe is one
of the best. Aided by Archie Goodwin, who does his legwork (and a fair
amount of the brain work), Nero Wolfe cracks every case, usually
while sitting comfortably in his study.

When is an after-dinner speaker never boring? When he is mur-
dered before he gets a chance to speak. In The Silent Speaker, Cheney
Boone from the Bureau of Price Regulation is murdered before
addressing the National Industrial Association. Nero Wolfe and
Archie Goodwin unravel the tangled hatreds among those who enforce
government regulations, free enterprise advocates, and greedy civil
servants to ferret out the killer.

In Might As Well Be Dead, a simple missing-person case leads Wolfe
and Goodwin to an accused killer with a mysterious past-a man on
trial who doesn’t want to be acquitted. Convincing the innocent not to
plead guilty becomes as difficult a task as finding the real murderer in
this complicated case.

Otis Farrell comes to Wolfe and Goodwin in If Death Ever Slept with
an urgent request to get his daughter-in-law out of his posh duplex
apartment. But before too long, family squabbles turn to murder and
the case that Wolfe took on a whim becomes deadly serious.

Death comes to Nero Wolfe in three unique ways in 3 at Wolfe’s Door.
Poisoned caviar in the blinis spoils Wolfe’s dinner in “Poison a la
Carte”; death comes by taxi to his brownstone in “Method Three for
Murder”; and a rodeo roping contest held on a balcony one hundred
feet above 63rd Street in New York is the scene of a murder in “The
Rodeo Murder.” But no matter how different or disturbing, Wolfe
solves each case with his usual brilliant deductions.
Ordinarily chess isn’t considered a dangerous game, but for Paul
Jerin a night of play meant murder in Gambit. His hot chocolate was
poisoned at the Gambit Chess Club, and Sally Blount, daughter ofthe
accused murderer, hires Wolfe to clear her father.

Everyone knows corporate politics are vicious, but putting a bomb
in a vice-president’s desk drawer is going too far. In Please Pass The
Guilt, a bomb kills Peter J. Odell, vice-president in charge of develop-
ment at Continental Air Network, and Nero Wolfe enters the corpo-
rate jungle to find the murderer: frustrated secretary, bored wife,
ambitious colleague, or someone else altogether.

ln A Family Affair, a friend of Wolfe’s is killed in Wolfe’s own
brownstone, and he takes the case as a personal vendetta, going
so far as to leave the house to investigate and to jail to avoid
giving the police informgtion. The disturbing case leads Wolfe
and Goodwin to facts they would rather not know and
conclusions they would rather not make.
The seven Nero Wolfe mysteries collected here highlight the
rare genius and detective ability of Nero Wolfe and his able
assistant, Archie Goodwin.

Might As Well Be Dead – January 1967 – Second Printing

Might As Well Be Dead - January 1967 - Second Printing - Front Cover

Might As Well Be Dead - January 1967 - Second Printing - Rear Cover

A Bantam Book
Copyright 1956 By Rex Stout
2nd Printing…January 1967

Contents:

Might As Well Be Dead

Rear Cover Intro:

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE CONDEMNED MAN DOESN’T WANT TO BE PROVEN INNOCENT?

You’re up to your thick neck in a case of murder, embezzlement, murder, national scandal, and much more murder…

Might As Well Be Dead – 1995 – Seventh Printing

Might As Well Be Dead - 1995 - Seventh Printing - Front Cover

Might As Well Be Dead - 1995 - Seventh Printing - Rear Cover

A Bantam Book
Copyright 1956 By Rex Stout
Bantam Reissue… January 1993
Published By The Readers Digest Association, Inc. 1995 – Seventh Printing

Contents:

Might As Well Be Dead

Rear Cover Intro:

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 trial for cold-blooded murder? It’s a case that will draw the great detective and his dedicated sidekick into a sticky wave of deceit, one that will tax their resources to the utmost, and even cost them one of their own.