The sexes battle, the head feuds with emotions it cannot control, and crime extorts and strikes and kills but does not pay in this collection of stories by Rex Stout at the outset of his celebrated career in mystery and suspense. Again and again in these tales taken from the pages of the pulps that first published him, Stout proves himself a master of the sudden reversal and unexpected revelation as he probes the thwarted heart and criminal mind. An officer and a lady—Excess baggage—Annuncio's violin—The infernal feminine—A professional recall—Pamfret and peace—A companion of fortune—A white precipitate—The mother of invention—Methode Americaine—A tyrant abdicates—And agacella or—A little love affair—Art for art's sake—Another little love affair—The strong man
Author
Rex Todhunter Stout (1886 – 1975) was an American crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair). The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
