Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout

This is the first book in the Nero Wolfe series. When Maria Maffei shows up on Wolfe's doorstep, wanting to hire him to find her missing brother, Wolfe sends his sidekick Archie Goodwin to check it out. There are no promising leads until Wolfe spots an article in the newspaper about a professor who dies of a heart attack while playing golf. The usual twists and turns occur, and in spite of a deadly snake (the fer-de-lance) left in Wolfe's desk drawer, he gets his man in the end.v

304 pages