Oliver Quade, the Human Encyclopedia — Frank Gruber

A collection of stories starring one of the most unique sleuths ever to crack a case

Oliver Quade knows the record for most eggs laid by a single hen. He knows which state has the longest coastline. He knows why cats purr, who signed the Magna Carta, and who won the two-hundred-twenty-meter race in the 1896 Olympics. Oliver Quade is the Human Encyclopedia, with an answer to every question save one: “When are you going to pay the rent?”

Hoping to solve this tricky problem, Quade heads to a poultry convention to sell some encyclopedias, and is just starting his sales pitch when a dead man is found in an incubator. It's a puzzle that Quade will have to solve if he wants to escape the convention -- and hopefully scrounge up some rent money along the way.

In this volume of stories, the Human Encyclopedia tangles with poisoned darts, dog show killers, and Civil War forgeries, but nothing proves quite so troublesome as the most dangerous villain of all: the landlord.