In “Bullet for One,” a man with a lot of enemies is shot dead while riding his horse in the early morning in Central Park; five of the six suspects believe the sixth man is the culprit, but he’s got an ironclad alibi...

Paul Chapin’s college cronies have never completely forgiven themselves for the tragic prank that left their friend a twisted cripple. Yet with their Harvard days behind them, they thought it was all in the past — until a class reunion ends in a fatal fall, and mysterious poems swearing deadly retribution begin to arrive. Now this league of frightened men seeks Nero Wolfe’s expert help. But are Wolfe’s brilliance and Archie’s tenacity enough to outwit a most cunning killer?

Wolfe and Archie investigate the death of a model who ate a piece of poisoned candy. One of the suspects begs Wolfe to handle his estate and especially the contents of a certain red box. Wolfe is at first concerned about a possible conflict of interest, but feels unable to refuse when the man dies in his office before telling Wolfe where to find the red box. The police naturally think that he told Wolfe somewhat more before dying.This novel presents the series’ first instance of a murder taking place in Wolfe’s office.

Investigating the bizarre will of late multimillionaire Noel Hawthorne — who left the bulk of his estate to his mistress and nearly nothing to his three sisters — astute sleuth Nero Wolfe stumbles upon a legacy of murder.

Wolf’s lust for a unique black orchid combined with his envy of the orchid fancier who hybridized it impel him to attend the annual New York flower show. A nursery/seed company employee is murdered at the show. Wolfe offers to solve the murder in exchange for the rare plant; and he does solve it with some clear thinking and a dramatic stratagem.

Wolfe’s cook is in bed with the flu which is a total disaster for the corpulent Nero, estimated to weigh between 310 and 390 pounds. He opens a can of pate, takes a bite and promptly spits it out assured that he has been poisoned. Archie Goodwin, his do-it-all assistant and the story narrator, proceeds to investigate only to find the owner of the company murdered and his relatives suspected.

Wolfe is hired by a society party planner to find out who is writing poison pen letters about her and sending them to her clients and potential clients. Since it appears that the letters are coming from a member of the party planner’s household, Archie is sent up to her Riverdale mansion to investigate. The client dies a few days into the investigation. Was it an accident or murder? Is there a connection between the death and the letters? If it was murder how was it done?

The U.S. army wants Nero Wolfe urgently, but the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth refuses the call to duty. It takes his perambulatory confidential assistant, Archie Goodwin, to titillate Wolfe’s taste for crime with two malevolent morsels: a corpse that won’t rest in peace and a sinister “accident” involving national security. So as Goodwin lays the bait on the wrong side of the law, Wolfe sets the traps to catch a pair of wily killers.

In this story Nero working for the War Department. The case presented to him involves widespread industrial sabotage, and without much in the way of clues, Nero, with Archie’s help, sets his own “booby traps” to catch a murderer and a traitor.

In this story Nero Wolfe investigates the murders of Ben Jensen, a well-connected publisher.

In this story Nero Wolfe investigates the murders of Eugene R. Poor, an inventor of novelties.

In this story Nero Wolfe investigates the murders of Dazy Perrit, an underworld kingpin.

A high-fashion designer consults Wolfe after she sees her uncle — believed to have committed suicide a year before — in disguise and in the audience at one of her shows.

As a favor for his oldest friend Marko Vukcic, Nero Wolfe takes the case of Virgil Pompa, a chef who traded his genius for a high-paying job as the supervisor of a restaurant chain. He is in jail, charged with murder. Archie begins the story with the statement, "In my opinion it was one of Nero Wolfe's neatest jobs, and he never got a nickel for it."

When orchid nurse Theodore Horstmann leaves the brownstone indefinitely to tend to his sick mother, Nero Wolfe goes out — in the snow and on foot — into the raging wilds of Westchester to find a replacement. He and Archie find a corpse in the greenhouse, as well.

The Second Confession by Rex Stout in which Nero Wolfe is retained by a tycoon to expose an alleged Communist... has his home tommy-gunned and his orchid collection destroyed, and actually stirs himself and leaves his house.

A young couple deeply in love comes to seek Nero Wolfe’s help because the young woman’s husband has died. She believes he was murdered but because of her affair is afraid to go to the police. The mystery clue seems to concern the movement of the murder weapon. It takes much persuasion by Wolfe to get the young man to admit that he moved the gun, placing it next to the body. Both he and she were afraid that that the other had committed the crime. Would Wolfe help them uncover the truth? He consents and begins to interview all who may have a motive to kill the husband, a famous singer.

“The Twisted Scarf” finds Nero Wolfe having a gardening group and their guests visiting his orchid collection. During the event, a young woman confides in Archie that she has recognized one of the guests as having killed a good friend whose murder has gone unsolved. She gives him no more details and Archie is called to assist with the guests. While he is gone someone murders the young woman. Wolfe has little to go on to discover who murdered the young woman. His only clue is that it had to have been a guest and he believes that the murderer did not leave the scene of the crime.

Archie Goodwin attempts to help two scared illegal immigrants only to learn that they are prime suspects in the murder of a policeman. The man nearly breaks Archie’s back in trying to get away from Nero Wolfe’s before homicide cops come for him. A star-struck girl gets bopped with a bottle and tries to frame Sgt. Purley Stebbins, but Wolfe solves the case as he gets his hair cut.

Both Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are at their furious best when a murder is committed with Archie’s gun and the client lies to the cops, indicating that Goodwin is the prime suspect. Inspector Cramer threatens to cancel Wolfe’s detective license and arrests Archie. Wolfe is so angry that he works during an orchid session, begins a million dollar suit against the client, and reveals Cramer’s threat to the newspapers before finally exposing the culprit; Archie merely slams the client against a wall.