A Prize for Princes – 1994

A Prize for Princes – 1994

Published by Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.

First Carroll & Graf edition 1994

Rear Cover Text:

Rex Stout

A Prize for Princes

Serialized in All Story Magazine, this is the first time A Prize for Princes has appeared in book form.

Beautiful and deadly, Aline Solini is a study in pure evil. First encountered in a Balkan convent about to be sacked by marauding Turkish forces, she is rescued by Richard Stetton, a wealthy American who becomes totally captivated by her. His wealth aids her to escape from Vasili Petrovich, the husband she tried to poison and enter the highest social circles to meet men of power, where she continues to ply her sensual talents in intrigue and murder.

REX STOUT (1886-1975) was a detective story writer and the creator of the immortal Nero Wolfe, possibly the best, probably the most eccentric, and certainly the largest detective in America.

Foreword:

A Prize for Princes is the first Rex Stout novel to broach three subjects associated with Nero Wolfe: the country where he spent his youth, how his marriage ended, and his feelings in general toward women.

Set in 1914, A Prize for Princes concerns Balkan intrigue. Nero Wolfe was from that neck of the woods, growing up in Lovchen, Montenegro, and he was named after Monte Nero, located there.

Aline Solini, the title subject of A Prize for Prince, tried to end her marriage to Vasili Petrovich by poisoning him, which Nero Wolfe mentioned was a crowning touch of his.

Referred to as “that most dangerous thing in the world – a woman with the face of an angel and the heart of a demon,” Aline Solini further becomes the example in the extreme of Nero Wolfe’s thoughts on women: “the vocations for which they are best adapted [are] chicanery, sophistry, self-advertisement, cajolery, mystification, and incubation … Astonishing and successful animals”

Bad For Business – A Tecumseh Fox Mystery – April 1968

Bad For Business – A Tecumseh Fox Mystery

A PYRAMID BOOK – published by arrangement with the author

PRINTING HISTORY – Farrar & Rinehart edition published 1940
Pyramid edition published September 1965

Copyright, 1940, 1968 by Rex Stout

Rear Cover Text:

Poison in the Pate

Someone was doctoring cans of Tingley’s Tidbits right in the factory. The doses weren’t lethal to the customers – but they would be to Tingley’s reputation if the sabotage didn’t stop. It looked like a case of cutthroat competition when private detective Tecumseh Fox took on the job –

– and then a throat was really cut!

With his own client the prime suspect, Fox hunts a killer through a maze of murder, scandal and blackmail.

“An exciting bout of deduction with one of Nero Wolfe’s closest rivals on the job. What more could you ask?” – Will Cuppy, The New York Herold Tribune

Cover Design: Lembit Rauk

Cover Illustration: Len Goldberg

Inside Cover Text:

The Defective Detective

– that’s what private investigator Amy Duncan felt like after she’d botched a romance… bungled her first important assignment… and been fired in disgrace.

Then Amy found a body – and also found herself neatly framed for murder. And the one man who could save her was the rival detective who’d helper land her in the mess…

… Tecumseh Fox.

The Sound Of Murder – Feburary 1974 – Fifth Printing

The Sound Of Murder - Feburary 1974 - Fifth Printing - Front Cover

The Sound Of Murder - Feburary 1974 - Fifth Printing - Rear Cover

The Sound Of Murder – Original title: Alphabet Hicks

A PYRAMID BOOK – published by arrangement with the author

Pyramid edition published January, 1965
Fifth Printing, February 1974

Copyright, 1941, 1969 by Rex Stout

Rear Cover Text:

Meet the amazing Alphabet Hicks…

Disbarred lawyer, uncommon cabby and investigator extraordinary, who confronts cynical cops and conniving corporations as he pieces together a complex series of confusing clues to trap a cold-blooded killer.

“A slick snoop and an entertaining fellow.” – Herald Tribune

“… has well earned the right to place alongside Nero Wolfe and Tecumseh Fox in the Rex Stout detective agency.” – The New York Times

Inside Cover Text:

An Intimate Problem

There was proof positive that Judith Dundee was double-crossing her industrialist husband – and that she’d been involved in a brutal murder.

Private Detective Alphabet Hicks had the secret that would prove her innocence… but why was he keeping it hidden?

Bad For Business – Tecumseh Fox – June 1982

Bad For Business – Tecumseh Fox

A Bantam Book Printed June 1982 – 1st printing

Rear Cover:

IN THE RED

Ann Duncan was a beautiful working girl who had a strong attachment to her job, an affection for her boss, and a frightening way of attracting trouble. Private investigator Tecumsch Fox met her when she literally walked into the bumper of his car. She promptly sped him off into the most puzzling case of Fox’s brilliant career. It all involved her family’s food enterprise called Tingley’s Tidbits. The firm was in an uproar because their appetizers were suddenly very unappetizing. This, of course, was bad for business. Profits dropped, but it was murder that kept them in the red.

Inside Cover:

BAD FOR BUSINESS

The agony was so dull that it was not agony. For some moments Amy was still not in any real sense a live creature, but mearly an incoherent and distant buzz of nerve impulses. Then something happened; namely, her eyes opened; but she hadn’t quite reached the level of knowing it. Soon, though, she did; she groaned adn made a mighty effort to lift herself with her arm as a lever; but her hand slipped and she was flat again just as enough consciousness returned for her to know that what her hand had slipped in was a pool of blood, and the object there on the floor an arm’s length away was the face and throat of Uncle Arthur…

The President Vanishes – September 1977

The President Vanishes - September 1977 - Front Cover

The President Vanishes - September 1977 - Rear Cover

The President Vanishes

Copyright 1934,1962 by Rex Stout
Published by arrangement with the Author

Farrar & Rinehart edition published 1943
First Jove/HBJ edition published September 1977

Rear Cover Text:

PRESIDENT KIDNAPPED!

Washington was in the grip of hysteria and treason. The Vice President was a virtual prisoner, and the Army threatened revolt. Hour by hour, the country reeled toward disaster.

The entire burden of the search for the President rested on Secret Service Agent Chick Moffat, the one man with the nerve and vision to follow an incredible trail of conspiracy to its deadly end!

Double for Death – A Tecumseh Fox Mystery – June 1964

Double for Death – A Tecumseh Fox Mystery

A PYRAMID BOOK – published by arrangement with the author

PRINTING HISTORY – Farrar & Rinehart edition published 1939
Pyramid edition published June 1964

Copyright, 1939 by Rex Stout

Rear Cover Text:

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Fox could handle a murder case, all right – that was his job. But the Ridley Thorpe killing looked like too much of one private detective – there were two of everything:

TWO Ridley Thorpes – and one not even dead!
TWO beautiful suspects
TWO very good motives
TWO hot-headed suitors
TWO murder weapons
… and finally
TWO murders!

It’s double trouble for Tecumseh Fox – and double enjoyment for readers, in one of Rex Stout’s most ingenious and thrilling mysteries!

Cover: Paul Bacon Studio

Inside Cover Text:

THE GUN

That had killed Thorpe lay on the desk.
The D. A. and the state cop waited for Fox to speak.
It was going to be tough. Fox’s client was dead…

…killed by Fox’s own gun!

The Broken Vase – A Tecumseh Fox Mystery – March 1968

The Broken Vase - A Tecumseh Fox Mystery - March 1968 - Front Cover

The Broken Vase - A Tecumseh Fox Mystery - March 1968 - Rear Cover

The Broken Vase – A Tecumseh Fox Mystery

A PYRAMID BOOK – published by arrangement with the author

PRINTING HISTORY – Farrar & Rinehart edition published 1941
Pyramid edition published March 1965
Second Printing March 1968

Copyright, 1941 by Rex Stout

Rear Cover Text:

Suicide or Murder

Jan Tusar walked off the Carnegie Hall stage, put down his violin, wrote a note, and put a bullet through his head – in front of two witnesses.

A clear case of suicide, the cops said – but detective Tecumseh Fox didn’t go for the easy answer.

Tusar was murdered, Fox claimed – and uncovered the diabolical trick that proved it. The next move was up to the killer – and it came fast.

The worlds of music and murder meet in this fast-paced adventure of Rex Stout’s sardonic sleuth.

Cover Design: Lembit Rauk
Cover Illustration: Len Goldberg

Inside Cover Text:

POISON ON PARK AVENUE

Someone drove Jan Tusar to kill himself. Detective Tecumseh Fox had all the suspects on hand – and no leads. Park Avenue playboy Perry Dunham knew more than he was telling, but Fox knew he could break Dunham –

– until someone slipped him a poisoned highball in front of eight witnesses!

The Hand In The Glove – A Dol Bonner Mystery – September 1964

The Hand In The Glove - September 1964 - Front Cover

The Hand In The Glove - September 1964 - Rear Cover

The Hand In The Glove – A Dol Bonner Mystery

A PYRAMID BOOK – published by arrangement with the author

PRINTING HISTORY – Farrar & Rinehart edition published 1937
Pyramid edition published September 1964

Copyright, 1937 by Rex Stout

Rear Cover Text:

Who hanged the host?
It could have been the “mystic” he’d threatened to expose…
It could have been the scientist who wanted two million dollars from him…
It could have been the reporter who’d threatened to kill him…
It could even have been Dol Bonner – and that gave the lethal lady detective a double reason for clearing up the case – fast.

Here’s Rex Stout’s most unusual detective – lovely to look at and hard as nails – in a mystery which is “sophisticated – surprising – ingenious” New York Times

Printed in U.S.A. A PYRAMID BOOK Cover: Paul Bacon Studio

Inside Cover Text:

Countdown for a Killer

“I know you killed Storrs,” Dol said calmly.
“Now you tell me why. You have until I’ve counted twenty, then I will shoot you. One . . .”

Dol Bonner’s methods were unorthodox – it’s certainly unusual to use a pistol as a lie detector – but they had led her through a tangle of false clues and well hidden motives to a showdown with the murderer. The case was closed. . . .

But who was moving behind her on silent feet?

The Sound of Murder – July 1973

The Sound of Murder - July 1973 - Front Cover

The Sound of Murder - July 1973 - Rear Cover

The Sound of Murder – Original Title: Alphabet Hicks

A Pyramid Book

Copyright 1941, 1969 By Rex Stout

Pyramid Edition Published January, 1965

Forth Printing July, 1973

I haven’t read this one yet. Still have several more of the non Wolfe books to read that I own. Taking my time with these last few, as he ain’t writing any more… 😦

Bad For Business – April 1968

A Tecumseh Fox mystery.

This is one Rex wrote or at least was published in 1940. He also used the same basic story line in a Nero Wolfe mystery named The Bitter End which was first published in the November 1940 issue of The American Magazine, later in a limited edition volume by the name of Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe, and then after he had died, in Death Times Three in 1985.

This cover is a second printing Pyramid edition printed in April of 1968.