It’s back to the Nero Wolfe series for book four of the year. I suppose I should point out that I’m not making any special effort to get through books faster than usual. This is pretty much my standard consumption rate for the written word – I did use the word “voracious” when I started posting these reviews last week.
I talked a bit about the world of Wolfe back in my review of The Rubber Band, so I’m not going to recap the whole cast of characters. In this book, Rex Stout hits on a recurring note with the relationship between Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin; namely that Wolfe will frequently withhold information from Archie because he doesn’t want Archie to have to tell a lie. He claims that Archie can’t do so convincingly. As a reader it’s necessary to maintain suspense – Archie is the narrator of the stories – but it’s also kind of annoying. Archie is annoyed by it as well, which takes some of the sting out of the situation.
There is one sort of meta-plot point in this book that perturbed me: Character “A” is under huge stress and is popping aspirin constantly. Character “B” has been killed with a box of poisoned candies which, Wolfe establishes, were intended for “A”. Why does no one immediately confiscate “A”‘s aspirin supply? I don’t know if I’m just hyper-suspicious of this sort of thing, but it seems like a logical precaution.
Apart from that one quibble, the book is a lot of fun to read. Archie Goodwin’s narration is a treat to read, fast, witty and full of energy. Wolfe’s more sonorous dialogue serves as ballast, keeping things down to earth with his grumbles and complaints.
Page count: 257
Total page count: 945
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