Stout, Rex - Triple Jeopardy (1952)

Three novellas: Home to Roost, The Cop-Killer and The Squirt and the Monkey. None are outstanding, but together they provide a good introduction to the Nero Wolfe approach.

Home to Roost: Arthur Rackell is poisoned at a restaurant. Was he a Communist, or an FBI agent spying on Communists? Wolfe and Archie have to bamboozle not just Cramer but the FBI to find the killer.

The Cop-Killer: two illegal immigrants working in a barber shop come to Archie when a NY patrolman starts taking too much of an interest in them. When the patrolman is found dead they are the prime suspects. The airheaded manicurist Janet does her best to throw a spanner in the works.

The Squirt and the Monkey: Archie goes out to the home of Harry Koven, creator of the comic strip Dapper Dan, to investigate a missing gun; but the gun is swapped for Archie's and a man is killed with it. Wolfe is obliged to go through years of comic strips looking for clues, but he nails the killer at last.

Jon.