Today we visit one of the most popular detectives of the Golden Age: Nero Wolfe, that inscrutable and eccentric investigator who seldom leaves his New York City brownstone and yet manages to find the truth behind some of the most baffling mysteries. The Wolfe novels are beloved by fans the world over, but this book - the very first Wolfe novel - is only my second encounter with the corpulent detective. Does it live up to the hype? Let's take a look at Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout.