Review of "Fer-de-Lance/The League of Frightened Men" by Rex Stout

Featuring one of the most popular fictional detectives of the 20th century, these two Nero Wolfe novels are excellent examples of why Rex Stout's work achieved that status. This is just one of a series of two-episode Nero Wolfe paperbacks from Bantam.

In the first mystery, "Fer-De-Lance", Wolfe receives an anonymous gift of a snake, which his assistant Archie believes is a warning that Wolfe should drop his investigation of a pair of murders of an immigrant worker and a college president. Since Wolfe has a $10,000 bet with the district attorney that he can prove that a young woman's mother is innocent of the crimes.

In the second, "The League of Frightened Men", a prank pulled by a group of college men went horribly wrong many years ago, and has come back to haunt them all as one of their classmates is killed at a reunion. They turn to Wolfe to solve the case and free them from their long-held guilt.