<div><b>A collection of early stories from the man who created Nero Wolfe</b>Bill Farden is an experienced burglar. He gains entry to the house without effort, and his ears tell him the inhabitants are asleep. He pockets the silver and moves to the kitchen, to fill his stomach with strawberry shortcake. When the cook tiptoes downstairs, Bill disables her with chloroform. Upstairs, he ties the man of the house to his bedframe. In the next room he finds a little girl, and is touched by her helplessness until she pulls a gun on him. The nine-year-old is Major Wentworth, of the Girls&rsquo; Military Auxiliary, and the revolver is as long as her arm. In these early stories, a young Rex Stout showed the talent for comic action that would make the Nero Wolfe novels enduring classics. In Stout&rsquo;s world, there is no thug more dangerous than a determined little girl.<BR></div>

An Officer and a Lady

<div><B>An innocent young telegraph operator becomes a counterfeiter&rsquo;s target</B><BR />  Once, the Lamartine Hotel was a quiet refuge for New York&rsquo;s stuffy fashionable set. But by the 1890s, fashion has moved uptown, and the lobby of the Lamartine has been overtaken by natty young sports, who pass their afternoons with billiards or shows of noisy derring-do. Their preferred damsel is Lila Williams, a delicate young telegraph operator whose shyness so charms them that they resolve to defend her against any ill-behaved characters. They are about to face their fiercest challenger, who rides in the gleaming armor of a millionaire. His name is John Knowlton, and from the first telegram she writes for him, Lila is charmed. He has money, good looks, and a criminal secret, and his insidious charisma will demand heroic effort from the knights of the Lamartine billiard table in this novel by Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Rex Stout. </div>

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Her Forbidden Knight

<div><b>An invaluable sample of the early work of one of America&rsquo;s finest mystery writers<BR><BR></b>Decades before detective Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie Goodwin, first struck fear into the hearts of Manhattan&rsquo;s criminals, Rex Stout wrote fiction for <i>All-Stories Magazine</i>. By the time the Wolfe series brought him fame, Stout had put his early work behind him, and made no effort to preserve it. At the time of his death, these early mysteries and suspense stories were thought to be lost forever, but deep in the Library of Congress lay copies of the original magazine. Published for the first time in 1997, these early gems show a writer deploying all the humor, style, and clever plotting that would make Nero Wolfe a star. Included here are &ldquo;Secrets,&rdquo; Stout&rsquo;s first mystery, &ldquo;Target Practice,&rdquo; a story of World War I, and &ldquo;Justice Ends at Home,&rdquo; whose main characters will look very familiar to fans of Nero and Archie.<BR></div>

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Target Practice

<div><B>Eleven early tales of mystery, murder, and mayhem from the creator of Nero Wolfe.</B><BR /><BR /> 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.<BR />  <BR /> Written nearly a century ago, &ldquo;The Last Drive&rdquo; 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, <I>Fer-de-Lance</I>, and along with the other stories in this volume represents the early efforts of a modern genius.  </div>

Rex Stout
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Books By Rex Stout (4 Books)

An Officer and a Lady

Her Forbidden Knight

Target Practice

The Last Drive

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© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Rex StoutFollow this author

Books By Rex Stout (4 Books)

An Officer and a Lady

Her Forbidden Knight

Target Practice

The Last Drive

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© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Rex Stout
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