Curtains For Three
Rex Stout
Information about Curtains For Three
In these three baffling mysteries of motive and murder, even the great Nero Wolfe finds himself stumped.
First there is the case of the two passionate lovebirds who want to make sure that neither is a cold-blooded killer.
Then it’s off to the races, where Wolfe must choose from a stable of five likely suspects to corral a killer on horseback.
And finally the detective finds himself the confidant of a distraught, self-described grifter who claims a murderer is stalking Wolfe’s own brownstone.
Through brilliant deduction and inspired perseverance, the master of detection is determined to expose the truth behind de veils of illusion – and bring down the curtain on three all-too-clever murderers.
The Gun with Wings
Margaret «Peggy» Mion, widow of opera tenor Alberto Mion, and Frederick Weppler, music critic of the Gazette, ask Wolfe to investigate Mion’s death four months earlier. They found his body in the soundproofed studio of his apartment, with a shot through the palate. The police ruled that the case was suicide, but Peggy insists that Mion could never have committed suicide even though he was thinking of leaving Mion for Weppler. Peggy gives Wolfe a bail of five thousand dollars to discover the truth and so that she and Weppler can calm down and start a life together.
Six weeks before Mion’s death, baritone Gifford James learned from his daughter Clara that Mion had seduced her and punched him in the neck. The blow affected the larynx and needed an operation. Despite the operation, Mion was having trouble regaining full use of the voice.
On the day of his death, he had a meeting with James and others professionally affected by the incident, to discuss compensation paid by James. Among them was Dr. Nicholas Lloyd, the surgeon who performed the operation. Shortly after finishing the meeting, Weppler and Peggy go to Mion’s apartment to confess their relationship but find him dead in the studio.
Bullet for One
Wolfe and Archie investigate the murder, a week earlier, of industrial designer Sigmund Keyes. The request comes from five people who worked closely with him: Ferdinand Pohl, Frank Broadyke, Wayne Safford, Audrey Rooney and Keyes’s daughter, Dorothy. They believe that Victor Talbott, their sales agent, committed the murder, and they want the truth to be known so that the police stop harassing them.
Keyes used to ride a horse at a local park during the early morning, and Talbott sometimes accompanied him. On the day of Keyes’s death, a mounted policeman had seen him in his usual way. Shortly after, the horse left the park without a rider. Keyes’s body had been found in a thicket near the road, shot in the chest. Wolfe agrees to find the murderer, regardless of his identity
None of the six, including Talbott, has an airtight alibi, and everyone will benefit from Keyes’s death in several ways.
Disguise for Murder
Wolfe and Archie are hosting a Manhattan Flower Club meeting in the orchid greenhouse. Fritz Brenner and Saul Panzer are watching the guests in and out.
When Archie goes down a moment to the office for a break, he is followed by a young woman who enters behind him.
She identifies herself as Cynthia Brown, but admits that this is one of several aliases she uses as a con artist. She tells Archie about Doris Hatten, a friend of hers who was strangled five months earlier. And also about a man he saw entering Doris’s apartment that same day, which she didn’t tell the police at the time.
Now she has seen that man among the guests and wants Wolfe’s help to convince him to leave her alone. But Wolfe insists that Archie return upstairs to take care of the guests. At the end of the meeting, they learn that Cynthia has been strangled in the office.
Information about Curtains For Three taken from Amazon
Serie: Nero Wolfe; 18
Editorial: Bantam
Año: 1994
ISBN 055376294X
Idioma: Inglés