Three Men Out

A trio of mystery cases not to be missed by Nero Wolfe fans. In the first, questions about a poisoning come to an abrupt end--with a blunt instrument. Then Wolfe must decode the name of a killer in a message penciled by the victim. Finally, making an uncharacteristic foray to a World Series game, Wolfe meets murder again, when a rookie's struck out before he even gets to bat.

The legendary Nero Wolfe finds himself deep in foul territory in these three baffling cases of murder and mayhem. In the first, some sharp questions about a poisoning come to an abrupt end—as in death by a blunt instrument. Then Wolfe must decode the last message of a competitor who pencils in the name of his killer before he's rubbed out with one shot in his soundproof office. Finally, the stay-at-home sleuth deigns to attend a World Series game where a rookie's struck out before he gets to bat, leaving Wolfe to prove that when it comes to detection he's in a league by himself. Introduction by Linda Ellerbee “It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”—The New York Times Book Review A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America’s greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. Together, Stout and Wolfe have entertained—and puzzled—millions of mystery fans around the world. Now, with his perambulatory man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth is back in the original seventy-three cases of crime and detection written by the inimitable master himself, Rex Stout.

In this searingly sexy anthology, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Sylvia Day, Maya Banks, and national bestselling author Karin Tabke present three stories of men in uniform—unzipped. They may enforce the rules, but when men in uniform are off duty and under the covers, they're experts at breaking them. After all, the hottest thing about a man in uniform is imagining him out of it... In Maya Banks’s “Soul Possession,” Jessie spends a hot night with two sexy-as-sin detectives, only to be accused of murder the very next day. But when Jessie becomes the target of a serial killer, her two detectives will risk everything to have her back in their arms—and in their bed... It’s time for protected witness Layla Creed to come out of hiding and take the stand in “Taking the Heat” by Sylvia Day. Layla has only three days to reconnect with federal marshal Brian Simmons—and slake the white-hot lust that has simmered between them for years... Karin Tabke’s “Wanted” follows the X-rated exploits of bad-boy cop Colin Daniels and the soon-to-be-ex-wife of a mob boss. He’s been hired to guard her body, but it drives him to distraction instead, putting his career—and his life—on the line...

Examines the key roles played by Samuel Adams, Thomas Hutchinson, and James Otis during the fifteen years preceding the American Revolution and discusses their influence on the events that led to the colonists' revolt.

The inside story of one of the country's most secretive and misruled statehouses by a former New York State senator;. "Democracy takes decades to take root and flourish. New York is learning that it takes just three men in a room to maim and seriously harm a vigorous and representative system of government."-from Three Men in a Room It might be a scene from a movie: three powerful and secretive men sit in a private corner of an exclusive New York club, imperiously making decisions that affect the lives of millions of people. But the scene takes place in Albany, New York, and the exclusive members are the governor, the senate majority leader, and the speaker of the assembly of the New York State legislature. Three Men in a Room is an insider's exposé of how one of the country's largest and most powerful governments-with the fourth-largest budget, behind only the federal government's, California's, and Texas's-has become a model of corrupt, inefficient, and undemocratic governance. Seymour Lachman ran the New York City Board of Education, taught political science, and was then elected to New York's legislature. What he found when he arrived in the halls of the state senate was a Potemkin village of government where legislators vote on bills they haven't read during legislative sessions they haven't attended. After four terms, Lachman left his safe seat in disgust, and has now written this sharp, mordant, and impassioned call for reform. Although Lachman's story takes place in one of the country's most progressive states, the problems described in this book are rampant in statehouses throughout the country.

This book is a tribute to "an incomparable triumvirate." "One was a naturalist, one a historian, and one a chronicler, but each of them was each of these. The manly love between them, a handsome thing in times and places blighted by great ugliness and banality, shone from them into their friends and contemporaries, and they shared themselves freely with those younger than they who went to them wishing to learn from them." Most of this collection of writing by friends of Roy Bedichek, Walter Prescott Webb, and J. Frank Dobie originally appeared in special editions of the Texas Observer devoted to each of the three men. Some pieces were, however, written expressly for this volume.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego survive a fiery furnace.