Valentino, archivista cinematografico dell'Università della California a Los Angeles e cacciatore di pellicole perdute, s'imbatte per caso, in un vecchio cinema abbandonato degli anni Venti, in quella che sembra essere l'unica copia sopravvissuta della versione integrale di Rapacità di Erich von Stroheim. Uno scheletro monta la guardia alle bobine e il mistero si complica. Valentino, per salvare il film, decide di indagare sulle sorti di uno dei più celebri capolavori mutilati della storia di Hollywood. E alla fine...

Sherlock Holmes has already encountered the evil young hedonist Edward Hyde, and knew he was strangely connected with Henry Jekyll, the respectable young doctor. It was not until the Queen herself requested it, however, that Holmes was officially on the case of the savage murder of Sir Danvers Crew. Here, then is the account of that devilish crime as recorded by Dr Watson...

Scontro titanico tra due capisaldi della letteratura inglese, l'investigatore Sherlock Holmes e il conte Dracula. Una nave fa naufragio sulla costa inglese; a bordo, due soli passeggeri: un sinistro ed enorme cane nero e il corpo senza vita del capitano. Risulta evidente che gli uomini dell'equipaggio sono stati uccisi e gettati fuori bordo, ma cosa può spiegare l'espressione di orrore stampata sul volto del capitano, il suo fatale dissanguamento e lo strano carico della nave - 50 casse di terra? In Sherlock Holmes contro Dracula l'autore, Loren D. Estleman, crea una gloriosa celebrazione del thriller mozzafiato e dell'horror agghiacciante. La lettura è di Piero Baldini.

Valentino wants to keep The Oracle, his beloved run-down movie palace, from being condemned before it even reopens, but murder keeps intruding into his otherwise quiet life. He's enjoying a gala party held in memory of screen legend Greta Garbo until the host, a hotshot developer named Rankin, tells Valentino about a letter from Garbo to Rankin's late wife. She and Garbo had been ... close.
Rankin tells Val that his assistant, Akers, is using this letter to blackmail him. Val is appalled by the thought of blackmail ... but the letter sounds juicier all the time. When he goes back to Rankin's mansion to try to discuss buying - or at least seeing - the letter, Rankin is sitting at his desk with a pistol in his hand, looking at Akers's dead body on the floor. Rankin claims he killed Akers in self-defense, but Valentino doesn't know what to think.
Valentino's in a quandary. He'd love to see that letter, but he can't. He's already gotten his girlfriend, who works for the police, in trouble with her boss over it - it's evidence in a murder case, after all. Their tiff has, pardon the expression, shot his love life to hell. Worse yet, the building inspector has kicked Val out of his unfinished living space in The Oracle. So he takes his life in his hands and moves in with his eccentric mentor, the elderly, insomniac Professor Broadhead. Now he's got no love, no sleep, no letter. And if he doesn't solve Akers's murder, he may well have no future.

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 fiction’s greatest detectives. Here, in Stout’s first two complete Wolfe mysteries, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth and his trusty man-about-town Archie Goodwin solve their most baffling cases.

Fer-de-lance
The fer-de-lance is among the most deadly snakes known to man. When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, his partner, Archie Goodwin, suspects it means Wolfe is getting close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president. But this is a case with more twists than an angry rattler...and if Wolfe doesn’t handle it with extreme care, he’ll be the next one struck by a killer with poison in his heart.

The League of Frightened Men
Paul Chapin’s Harvard cronies never forgave themselves for the hazing prank that left their friend a cripple. Yet they believed that Paul himself had forgiven them—until a class reunion ends in death and a series of poems promising more of the same. Now this league of frightened men is desperate for Nero Wolfe’s help. But can even the great detective outwit a killer smart enough to commit an unseen murder…in plain sight?

As any herpetologist will tell you, the fer-de-lance is among the most dreaded snakes known to man.  When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows he's getting dreadully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president.  As for Wolfe, he's playing snake charmer in a case with more twists than an anaconda -- whistling a seductive tune he hopes will catch a killer who's still got poison in his heart.