One woman, four men, countless temptations on the streets of New York. This lost novel from legendary "Nero Wolfe" creator Rex Stout—unpublished for more than 90 years—presents a gripping psychological puzzle and a heroine you’ll never forget.
WHO WAS THE FIFTH MAN?
The lawyer, the jeweler, the art critic, and the oil-company man…self-possessed, independent Lora Winter has had a child with each of them. But when one of these men drives up to her house with a fifth man in the car, Lora runs to hide. That’s how this extraordinary novel opens – and by the time it ends, you’ll have pieced together a masterful psychological jigsaw puzzle that is miles from a traditional crime novel, but whose desperate characters nevertheless resort to kidnapping, blackmail and possibly even murder.
Long before he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, before he created the immortal Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout wrote this gripping novel, published in 1930 and then lost for more than 90 years. Hard Case Crime is thrilled to give the book its first publication in nearly a century and to give today’s readers the chance to discover one of Stout’s richest and most unforgettable stories.
Rex Todhunter Stout (1886 – 1975) was an American crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe and assistant Archie Goodwin. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century. Rex passed away in 1975.
One woman, four men, countless temptations on the streets of New York. This lost novel from legendary "Nero Wolfe" creator Rex Stout—unpublished for more than 90 years—presents a gripping psychological puzzle and a heroine you’ll never forget.
WHO WAS THE FIFTH MAN?
The lawyer, the jeweler, the art critic, and the oil-company man…self-possessed, independent Lora Winter has had a child with each of them. But when one of these men drives up to her house with a fifth man in the car, Lora runs to hide. That’s how this extraordinary novel opens – and by the time it ends, you’ll have pieced together a masterful psychological jigsaw puzzle that is miles from a traditional crime novel, but whose desperate characters nevertheless resort to kidnapping, blackmail and possibly even murder.
Long before he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, before he created the immortal Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout wrote this gripping novel, published in 1930 and then lost for more than 90 years. Hard Case Crime is thrilled to give the book its first publication in nearly a century and to give today’s readers the chance to discover one of Stout’s richest and most unforgettable stories.
Creators
Rex Todhunter Stout (1886 – 1975) was an American crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe and assistant Archie Goodwin. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century. Rex passed away in 1975.
