Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout

A woman wanders into the house and says that she is a Montenegran. She demands to talk to Wolfe, wanting help for her friend. Archie leaves her alone in the office for a bit and she hides a piece of paper in his office saying that the bearer is the wife of the current prince. Oh, and also, she says she's Wolfe's

daughter. And Wolfe doesn't deny that it's a possibility. 

However, what starts as an accusation of theft ends up with two murders. There are the usual twists and turns that come in a Wolfe case, including at the end.

Three stars

This book came out January 3, 1940

Follows Some Buried Caesar

Followed by Where There's a Will

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout

Rachel Bruner is wealthy so when she reads a book she likes, she buys ten thousand copies and sends one to everyone she knows... and then some. That wouldn't bring her to the door of Nero Wolfe except that the book disparaged the FBI and now they are on her doorstep. And monitoring her phone line. And following her friends, family, and staff. So she's come to retain the great detective to get the FBI off her back. Normally Wolfe wouldn't be interested but it's the start of a new ear and his coffers are empty. And Mrs. Bruner is offering enough to more or less make it through the whole year. But can Nero Wolfe really stop an entire government group? 

Well, eventually, yes. And he'll solve a murder along the way.

This was an okay story but not particularly gripping. Was great for data entry.

Three stars

This book came out October 8th, 1965

Follows A Right to Die

Followed by Death of a Doxy

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout

An incredibly rich man has died and only Nero Wolfe seems to think that it is murder. And is it connected to the disappearance of a Greek engineer? He starts working on finding a client. And it gets even murkier when the police learn that Wolfe is right and that a man who seemingly had no enemies has been killed by an ingenious device.

The case becomes murky and gets twisty and turny. It's much better read as a physical book rather than an audiobook as it did get very confusing even as a book I was re-reading.

Three stars for audio

This book came out October 1934

Followed by 

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Not Quite Dead Enough by Rex Stout

I borrowed this book on a whim and was surprised to find out it was actually two longer novellas. When the first story wrapped up halfway through, I really thought it was a red herring. 

Both stories are set during WWII with the first having Archie return to the brownstone as a major in the army. It seems that Intelligence is in need of Nero Wolfe's skills and he is ignoring their requests. Archie is confident that he can change Wolfe's mind. On his way back to New York, Lily Rowan sits next to him on the plane having figured out his schedule. She wants help for her friend Ann Amory and can't get Wolfe to agree.

The reason that Wolfe didn't agree is because he is "training" in order to join the war. He is working hard to lose weight and get fit so that he can shoot Germans. Archie is shocked to see the great detective so deflated and even further shocked to figure out he can't change Wolfe's mind. So when Ann Amory is murdered, Archie frames himself in order to induce Wolfe to refocus on solving crimes. I didn't exactly get the end but it was an interesting story.

The second story is shortly afterward because Wolfe is now helping the war effort by working with Army Intelligence. He is even (gasp) leaving the brownstone and going to their offices. While there, he has Archie return the prototype of a new kind of grenade that Archie had had in their house. Wolfe, rather understandably, doesn't want it there. And it turns out that he is probably right to be worried since the grenade goes off in the army offices the next day, killing Archie's boss. There is a woman involved who Wolfe actually meets with an almost respects but otherwise it is a book about industrial espionage happening while the war is going on. 

Three stars

This book came out September 7th, 1944

Follows Black Orchids

Followed by The Silent Speaker

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Father Hunt by Rex Stout

Lilly Rowan is a good friend of Archie's. One day, her secretary, Amy, asks Archie if he (not Nero) can help track down her father, a man whose name she never knew. Archie demurs, saying he only works for Nero and that Nero is very expensive. Well, Amy comes up with the money to pay Nero's salary and the boys are off on a case that tracks back twenty years and overlaps with the death of Amy's mother.
A good Nero Wolfe book. 

Three stars

Follows Death of a Doxy

Followed by Death of a Dude

This book came out May 28th, 1968

Audiobook borrowed from Libby

Opinions are my own

Three Witnesses by Rex Stout

Three stories all hinging on the clues provided by one significant witness. In "The Next Witness," a man bribes an answering service to listen in on his wife's phone calls. When one of the women at the service ends up dead, the man is put on trial. It is during the trial that Nero Wolfe (who seldom leaves his home), has an inkling towards the truth and actually joins Archie in the field, interviewing the other women of the answering service.
"When a Man Murders..." features a man who makes it back from the war, only to be murdered in a hotel. Was it the man's wife who has now married another man? She also used her rather large inheritance to purchase her new husband's business though they both claim to be ready to give back the money if only they can stay together. Of course, it could also be the man's aunt or her two children  who mutually inherited the other half of the man's estate.
The last story, "Die Like a Dog" relies on some rather interesting coincidences for Archie to end up with a black lab whose owner has just been murdered.
A fun read and nice to have short stories that are easy to get through.

Four stars

Follows Before Midnight

Followed by Might as Well Be Dead

This book came out March 10th, 1956

Hard copy I kept 

Opinions are my own

Three at Wolfe's Door by Rex Stout

Poison a la Carte
One of the stories pulled for the 90s TV series, this story was not told beat by beat but the idea was there. A group of men like to eat the finest foods and they wish to borrow Fritz for this year's occasion. It's just too bad that one of the men dies. It had to be one of the twelve actresses hired as servers but which one?
  Method Three for Murder 
Archie has quit but as he's walking out of Nero's house, there's a woman walking up. She had a bet with a friend concerning women taxi drivers but wasn't expecting a dead body to show up in the cab she was driving. Especially not the woman her husband was having an affair with.
  The Rodeo Murder
This one was hard to read because of all of the "western speak." Basically, there's a rodeo in town and one of the backers, a man who was known to be handsy with the ladies, is killed.

Read this one because of the review on Classic Mysteries podcast. It was fine but not my favorite collection.

Three stars
This book came out April 29th, 1960
Bought on Nook
Opinions are my own

Stop the Presses by Robert Goldsborough

This was an ARC so I didn't count against it that there was a really weird back and forth of whether  contractions are used. On one page, you'd have "you are" and a few pages later it would be "you're" with no rhyme or reason. Very distracting.
I requested this book because a)I love Nero Wolfe and b)I was excited that Lon Cohen, our favorite press junkie, is featured. Specifically, he's very worried that one of their more... contentious reporters seems to be getting increasingly threatening letters. Muddling the issue is the fact that Clay has pissed off so MANY people. But he's narrowed it down to five people who are the most likely to want him dead.
And then... Cameron is found shot to death. The police say it's suicide but the newspaper's owners aren't so sure.
Close to the Rex Stout voice and certainly better than "Black Coffee" but the mystery was a bit week and the characters didn't... seem like themselves (can you say that about fictional characters?) I did  really like page 35 ,the juxtaposition of loath and loathe.

This book came out March 8
Three stars