Based on the Nero Wolfe series—one of the longest running, critically acclaimed, and bestselling series in the crime fiction world—a collection of Nero Wolfe–inspired crime stories from one of the most prominent crime writers of his era. From 1934 until his death in 1976, Rex Stout entertained the world with the exploits of Nero Wolfe—the eccentric, orchid-breeding detective genius—as related by Archie Goodwin, his irreverent legman. Nearly Nero is an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek homage to Stout’s greatest creation. Claudius Lyon is a fanatic admirer of Wolfe. He has retrofitted himself and his townhouse after Wolfe’s and has hired a man named Arnie Woodbine to serve as his Archie Goodwin. However, Lyon’s naiveté and Woodbine’s larcenous nature constantly put them in jeopardy—more than Wolfe and Goodwin ever faced. Somehow the imitator manages to find a solution from every problem. But can he and his assistant keep up this pretense for long?