Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series is the first detective series I remember getting myself hooked on. The good news back then (the mid-sixties) was discovering that the series had started years before I was born (with 1934’s Fer-de-Lance), so there were already lots of Nero Wolfe books for me to enjoy. Even better, Stout kept writing new ones every couple of years right up until his death in 1975, so for a long time there was always another new Nero Wolf story to look forward to. And as I’ve just been reminded, author Robert Goldsborough added another sixteen Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books between 1986 and 2021, meaning I have even more Nero Wolfe material to explore now than I ever imagined.
As I began And Be a Villain, I had vivid memories of the Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin characters and the amusing relationship that developed between them over the years. Theirs was/is much more than an employer/employee relationship; the men respect each other, care for each other, and are real friends. That, in fact, is part of what makes their verbal sparring so much fun. But even though this is not the first time I’ve read And Be a Villain, I remembered very little about it’s actual plot, so reading it now was almost like reading it for the first time.
Nero Wolfe is almost literally an “armchair detective” — and he’s a good one. Wolfe is a large man (I picture him as someone approaching a weight of 300 pounds) who refuses to leave his New York City apartment for any reason. Archie Goodwin, considerably younger than Wolfe, and a whole lot more agile, does all of the leg work involved in a Nero Wolfe investigation. In the meantime, Wolfe happily follows his own schedule of meals at specific times and two daily sessions with his beloved orchids.
This time around, popular radio talk show host Madeline Fraser has had the unthinkable happen during one of her live broadcasts. A guest has dropped dead on-air after taking a sip of from a soda provided by one of the show’s sponsors. All the police know for certain is that someone slipped cyanide into one of the bottles, and that this particular guest drew the unlucky bottle. It is exactly the kind of case that appeals to Wolfe, and because he has a large tax bill due just when his cash flow is at a low point, he offers his services to the radio network and the show’s sponsors on a contingent basis. If he solves the case before the police do it — or if the police solve it only because of a Wolfe-provided clue — he cashes their $20,000 check. If he fails, they get the check back.
But when Wolfe gathers up all the principals involved with Madeline Fraser’s radio show, he makes his first discovery: they are all lying — maybe not all for the same reason, but each and every one of them is holding something back. And that’s a fatal mistake, because now Nero Wolfe is ticked.
Bottom Line: And Be a Villain (1948) is the thirteenth Nero Wolfe mystery, and by this time fans of the series were familiar with the Wolfe and Goodwin characters. Feature films based on the Rex Stout characters had been produced by 1948, and television was going to make Nero Wolfe a household name in various TV series over the coming decades. The Nero Wolfe novels are usually not very long, but they are always satisfying. Fans of character-driven mysteries will particularly enjoy them, I think, but the mysteries are always solidly constructed ones that readers will also enjoy trying to solve before Wolfe gives them all the answers.
 |
| Rex Stout |
Great review, Sam. You summarized just enough of the story and gave a good overview of the series and its appeal. Rex Stout is my favorite author and thus of course the Nero Wolfe series is my favorite series. I have read all the novels enough times that I usually know the villain and how it ends, but I enjoy them anyway. Some of the novellas I have read less often and can be surprised by.
ReplyDeleteHave you read any of the Robert Goldsborough books and did you like them? I read all of the ones he wrote in the 80s and 90s, and Archie Meets Nero Wolfe from 2012, but nothing since.
I really needed something nostalgic this week, Tracy, and Nero and Archie were just about perfect. They didn't manage to re-set my overall glum mood, but reading this one was like going back in time to better days...at least for a few minutes a day. I haven't read any of the Goldsborough books as far as I can remember, but I'm curious and might try to find the one that was published this year.
DeleteOMG! I knew we were soulmates! I was addicted to Nero Wolfe mysteries in my late teens/early twenties (about a century ago) and I read ALL of them and not infrequently reread them. I did not realize that another writer had picked up the series and carried it on. I'll have to take a look at some of those.
ReplyDeleteHa...Goldsborough just published a new one this year apparently. I'm going to see if I can locate that one first because I haven't read him either, far as I can tell. Nero & Archie were just what I needed. I even went back and found an episode from the Nero Wolfe Mysteries TV series in which Timothy Hutton plays Archie. It's pretty good, but the picture was kind of bad...it's on YouTube, if you're curious.
DeleteI've never read this author but certainly know his name. It's great that this fit the bill after a very sad week. I loved that you had to say about the characters and I could picture them as I read your post. I wish I was younger (not too young) as I have too much to read as the years march on.
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling, Diane. It is getting easier and easier to abandon books every year that goes by. If they are not offering something worth knowing or entertaining me, I just don't have time enough to waste on them anymore. Rex Stout is one of those authors that take me back to better days fairly easily. I didn't realize how much I remembered about the two characters until I read this one.
DeleteI read Fer-de-Lance a few years ago and enjoyed it but the books are not readily available over here in libraries so I haven't read any more. It strikes me that Rex Stout is the US equivilent of Agatha Christie... she was the go-to author in the UK, years ago, for teens when they moved from children's books to adult.
ReplyDeleteHis novels are a little like hers from the little bit I know of Agatha Christie. Fairly traditional in terms of the mysteries, but the characters take over. Stout was especially good at making someone as potentially irritating as Nero Wolfe into a likable character. I think you're right in that most people I know who still love Stout first encountered him as young adults up into their mid-twenties or so.
DeleteCath, that first one is the least interesting in my opinion. The joy of the books is these characters. No one like them. I went to amazon uk and there are quite a lot of them available. I think you would like the old NYC setting.
DeleteI agree, Nan, and I'm glad that's not the first one I ended up ending or I may have not gone on with the series.
Delete:) I enjoyed some of the television series, but never read the books. Thanks, Sam!
ReplyDeleteThe books are really good, Jen. I have to admit that I was surprised at how well both the movies and the two TV series I sampled captured the "characters" of Nero and Archie. Their relationship was very much like it is in the books.
DeleteI've never read any of these books or seen any of the movies or TV shows.
ReplyDeleteSince you like the "classics," I think you'd enjoy some of these...probably the earlier ones, would be my guess.
DeleteThanks for reminding me. I read the first book in the series Fer de Lance and I really liked it. I also saw the TV series years ago starring Timothy Hutton and I was sorry it ended after only two seasons. As you say Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are very different but they are real friends, a kind of uncle/nephew relationship even though they are not related. And as someone once said these books are a real tribute to NYC where they are set
ReplyDeleteUncle/Nephew relationship is a very good way, I think, to describe what's going on between Archie and Nero.
DeleteI watched bits from the two TV series last week and found myself wishing that the Wolfe from the 80s series could have been combined with Timothy Hutton's Archie from the 2000 series.
It makes me so happy that you read this. What a lovely respite from the world and its sorrows and worries. I have read almost all the books, I think. I never wanted to read the one where everything kind of went to pot!
ReplyDeleteHow I love those characters. I think Wolfe's weight then was pretty shocking but not very much today, I am afraid.
I love reading about "old New York". And Archie is just marvelous. I bought a Nero Wolfe cookbook and use his method for corn on the cob. Here is my blog post about it if you and your wife want to give it a try! https://lettersfromahillfarm.blogspot.com/2007/08/corn-on-cob.html
Which one is the one where "everything kind of went to pot?" I'm curious. I'm reading Not Quite Dead Enough right now (1944) and finding it fun to see Wolfe actually training for the army as if he is going to be able to place himself on the front lines "to kill Germans," as he puts it. Archie is already an Army Major as this one begins.
DeleteWe're going to take a look at your corn on the cob post, Nan. Sounds good.
Years ago, I had a little paperback book that cross-referenced all the books and characters with the spots in "old" NYC that they knew so well. It was kind of a character study on Wolfe and Goodwin based on all the little things that you can pick up from the books, one minute detail at a time. I wish I still had it.
Even if you aren't on Goodreads (which I am not), you can read this write-up about the book I mean. There are spoilers! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/148936.A_Family_Affair
DeleteA Family Affair. It is the last book. I won't read it for the same reason I won't read the last Poirot book, Curtain. Maybe characters are "too real" to me. haha.
I would love to get the book. I'll try and find it.
I used to belong to The Wolfe Pack. I just went to see if it is still going, and it is. More here, if you are interested: https://www.nerowolfe.org/
I read quite a lot of these books in the early years of the 2000s. Reading your post and thinking about Nero and Archie makes me want to go back and read about them again. I did read (reread?) one in 2010 and another in 2011. I miss these books.
Thanks for those links. I'll check them out. I think I already see it coming, and I'm a little like you in that the characters can become so real to me that I really don't want to lose them.
DeleteBack in the nineties one of my favorite writers of the time decided to kill off his series lead character but he did it in a way that still managed to keep you guessing. And then, a few years later, he brought the guy back for at least one more series book. That, in a completely different way, kind of irked me, too.
Last week I went into a neighborhood used-book bookstore and found a copy (without jacket) of the 1965 edition of Stout's The Doorbell Rang for all of $3.50. Even before reading it, I already love the way it looks on the shelf.
I think the Wolfe Pack...or a similar group...is also on Facebook. I need to see what they have to offer.