Where There's a Will: A Nero Wolfe Mystery

Where There's a Will is the eighth Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. Prior to its publication in book form, the novel was abridged in The American Magazine with the title “Sisters in Trouble.” The magazine story was ‘reviewed’ by the FBI as part of its surveillance of Stout. Where There's a Will was the last Wolfe novel published before World War II. During the war, Stout did not write any Wolfe novels. In this story, the famous Hawthorne sisters visit Nero Wolfe to task his help in averting a scandal. At his death, their brother Noel has left them only an apple, a peach, and a pear, with the bulk of the inheritance going to a young woman by the name of Naomi Karn. As the women are in conference with Nero, Inspector Cramer of Homicide arrives at the brownstone to inform the Hawthorne sisters that the accident that killed their brother was no accident at all.