The Final Deduction, Rex Stout

So this lady comes to Nero Wolfe and says her husband has been kidnapped, and she wants his help. She pays the ransom, the husband is returned, and then he winds up dead. What could have happened???

The charm of these books, as always, is in Archie Goodwin's narration and voice. I'm going to start putting in cute quotes or something from these books, because the patter and the flavor is just so good, and otherwise every summary is "oh hey, another book! Wolfe ate some stuff, Archie was sarcastic, Cramer chewed on a cigar." (That is not a complaint.)

#93 in 2016
Grade: B

Too Many Clients, Rex Stout

In this book, written in 1955, Archie Goodwin describes the area around 82nd street and Columbus Ave in NYC as just about the worst neighborhood anyone can imagine. You can't imagine how loudly I sighed, pretending I could afford an apartment there now.

A man is murdered! It turns out to involve a sex attic, which I hadn't really considered as a thing. Nero Wolfe agrees to somehow solve the mystery without telling the cops about the sex attic where the murder happened. Archie barely argues with any police, nor does he spend the weekend with Lily Rowan. (Nor does he take her to the sex attic, unfortunately.)

Grade: B
#91 in 2016

And Four to Go, Champagne for One, Plot it Yourself, by Rex Stout

Three Nero Wolfe books! They are my comfort food books.

And Four to Go has four holiday-themed stories. What do I remember... Uh, the Christmas one is hilarious nonsense -- zero percent chance Wolfe dresses up like Santa Claus. Be serious. The easter one is something about cameras that shoot poison darts. Okay, what I really remember is that one of these stories gives us actual Archie backstory -- that he tried college, dropped out after 2 weeks, became a guard on the docks, shot a guy, lost his job, and got hired by Wolfe. I would swear we didn't know that before. This is also about where Doll Bonner starts showing up -- an actual female private detective! The late 50s sure were something.

Champagne for One is about someone being poisoned at a party that Archie was invited to, and even though there's an obvious solution for the police (the poisonee was suicidal and poisoned herself) Archie was watching her and knows she didn't do it. It's great.

Plot It Yourself is about books and publishing. Authors with popular books are being sued for having ripped someone off, and they need a way to prove they haven't. The book is great (Archie spends the weekend with Lily Rowan, glad to hear they're still doing well) although the ending is a little silly. It's great when a murderer decides to make a full confession just for fun.

Grade(s): B
#83, 84, 85 in 2016

Three for the chair, Rex Stout

It's so hard to remember which short stories were in which collection. Hang on. ...okay, after reading a bunch of goodreads reviews I got it. There's one here about a guy who had pneumonia and managed to die under possibly mysterious circumstances -- Wolfe is hired to decide if it was murder or just illness. The second one here is about Wolfe making dinner for some diplomats and the state department. It features Archie saying angrily, "Well, this is a great way to serve your country. Not!" Which I was not expecting in a novel from 1957. And in the third one a whole lot of private detectives have been summoned to testify about illegal wire-tapping activities. They were all tricked into it by the same guy, and that guy has just wound up dead, which looks pretty incriminating. The third one is great, mostly because Wolfe basically sends Archie off to do useless errands the whole time, while letting everyone else help him, and Archie is in suuuuuch a bad mood because of it.

I need some kind of different rating scale for these books, because they are all basically the same thing, but that's the joy of the series. In a week when I really needed a way to turn my brain off and stop looking at twitter or the news, a nice reliable murder mystery with a nice reliable set of characters and a nice reliable plot was exactly what I needed.

Grade: B
#78 in 2016

If Death Ever Slept, Rex Stout

I swear this book is a repeat of an earlier book in the series, but then again, WHO KNOWS. This is the 29th Nero Wolfe book, and a lot of those are three-story collections, so I've lost track. Anyway, I'd swear there's another book where Wolfe and Archie are in a shitty mood (this time it's over Lily Rowan, my favorite socialite) and so someone comes in with an absurd job and they both sort of dare each other into taking it, and Archie ends up going undercover to pose as someone's secretary to collect information. I think the other one was in Westchester, though (it's the book where Archie gets roofied), and this one is set in a duplex on Fifth Avenue.

I liked this one; there's lots of sassy dialogue, lots of Archie flirting and going to the Flamingo Club and being a pain to the police, and lots of suspects. On the other hand, it felt like a retread of an earlier book, and when the murderer was revealed it was pretty ".... eh. Okay, sure. Fine. Why?"

Grade: C
#76 in 2016

Three Witnesses, Rex Stout

I had a dream about Archie Goodwin so I figured I was time to finally get back to my Nero Wolfe read-through. Also, I wanted a palate-cleanser of fiction that would be comfortable and easy and charming and funny. Murder mystery series are that for me. Enough formula that I don't need to worry about how it's all going to play out, enough surprise that I want to keep reading.

Not gonna lie; I had to check goodreads to see what stories were in this book, and I just finished it yesterday. They are all very standard fare; in one a soldier who was presumed dead in Korea comes home to find his wife has remarried, and then he is murdered (for real this time). One of them is all about switchboard operators. And one of them involves Nero Wolfe adopting a dog, which was great from start to finish. Archie, of course, thought he'd make Wolfe mad by bringing the dog home, only then Wolfe wanted to keep the dog, and it was just adorable.

One fun thing about these books is that Archie and Wolfe stay roughly the same age but the books are set in the year they're written. Archie was a Captain in World War II, and now here he is, still about 30, during the Korean War. Another fun thing is that they are really of their time. I knew switchboards were a thing, and I knew sort of how they operated, but a mystery set around ladies and switchboards was super fun to read, since I got a much clearer and more vivid idea of how they worked.

Grade: B
#75 in 2016

Three Men Out, Rex Stout

Eh. As Nero Wolfe trilogies go, you can skip this one. Only one reference to a date with Lily Rowan, and the mysteries are mostly things you couldn't possibly guess or solve -- someone just confesses at the end. Eh.

Grade: C
#59 in 2016

The Black Mountain, Rex Stout

Normally when the Nero Wolfe books go outside the standard formula I love it. This one, though, removed all the mystery elements and turned it into a travelogue. It ended up being "Archie and Wolfe go on an international adventure," which was so different that it threw me off. Because of a murder, Wolfe has to go home to Yugoslavia, and Archie goes with him. It's a lot of description of airplanes and hiking and boats, and almost no actual mystery.

Here's what I liked: I liked that Archie thinks about Lily Rowan four separate times. (Just get married.) I liked reading what it was like in Yugoslavia under the Tito regime. Archie was funny as always, although severely hampered by only speaking English, so he couldn't argue with anyone. I liked Wolfe's secret plan that comes to fruition in the last couple of paragraphs of the last page.

Otherwise.... eh. Not a lot happens except walking around the mountains.

Grade: C
#53 in 2016

The Golden Spiders, Rex Stout

I gasped out loud at a plot twist in this book. 22 books into the series I am pretty delighted that they can still surprise me this much. The villain, when they are revealed, turns out to be someone we haven't spent much time with, which sucked, but this is one where you really feel the murder victim and care about Wolfe solving the mystery.

Grade: B
#52 in 2016

Triple Jeopardy, Rex Stout

I have the worst book hangover. How does one get past the end of the Lymond Chronicles? Last night me and a couple of friends, whom I've made read Game of Kings, went out and drank, and basically performed an episode of Drunk History about Scotland in the 1500s. But they haven't read the whole series and there are a lot of things I can't yell about yet. Sigh. Makes getting excited about other books hard.

Anyway. This Nero Wolfe collection of short stories was published in 1952, and wow, is it VERY 1952. In the first short story, a family finds out their murdered son was a Communist, but he claimed to have been undercover for the FBI, infiltrating Communists. In the second, Wolfe helps two illegal immigrants escape the police. The immigrants met in a concentration camp in Russia, which is why they don't have papers. And in the third, a man who writes comic books frames Archie for murder. Commies, concentration camps, and comics. You'd guess this was published in the 50s, for sure.

Anyway, I guessed the answer to the first mystery, I really liked the second one (Archie does some spectacular lying) and I loved the conceit of the third, with Archie framed for murder, and Wolfe so angry about it that he sort of loses his mind, briefly. Rex Stout writes a very satisfying short story.

Grade: A
#48 in 2016

Prisoner's Base, Rex Stout

It's always fun when these books break formula. In this one a woman comes to Nero Wolfe and asks if she can stay in his brownstone for a week. He says no, and she gets murdered, and Archie is so guilty-slash-mad about it that he essentially quits and tries to solve the mystery himself. He can't, because he's not Nero Wolfe, but when he gets arrested, Wolfe lets Archie hire him as this book's client.

The mystery is very satisfying, and I solved it at about 94% on my kindle, when Wolfe gave Archie and Inspector Cramer the final clue. I was very proud of myself. Also: Archie went away for the weekend with Lily Rowan. This is important to me, and maybe only me.

Grade: A
#44 in 2016

Murder by the Book, Rex Stout

It's not this book's fault it's getting a medium "I liked it okay" grade. The vast majority of Nero Wolfe books have been B's because they are exactly the distraction that I need from something else. This book was fine, but I read it to try and get over my The Ringed Castle hangover, and... nothing could have held my attention then, honestly.

There's a murder, but no one knows what it means. There's another murder but no one's sure why. Archie has to date ten different secretaries, which is too many for me to keep straight, before he can even figure out who the suspects might be. Archie flies out to California where he meets some great other characters, but at that point I was overwhelmed with people to keep track of. By the time I found out who the murderer was I barely remembered what was going on. I did, of course, notice the throw away line about Lily Rowan, because Archie looooooves her.

It's not Archie's fault that my heart was still in Tudor England, thinking about heart break and friendship and pining.

Grade: C
#41 in 2016

Curtains for Three, Rex Stout

I told you. Rough weekend = all the Nero Wolfe books. This is another set of three novellas, so even though I finished it last night I have only the vaguest recollection. Let me check. Goodreads says: "Three clever murderers challenge Nero Wolfe in cases involving lovers who want to make sure neither is a killer, a stable full of suspects in the search for a killer on horseback, and a murderer stalking Wolfe's brownstone."

Okay, yes, I do remember this. In the first one there's a dead guy but the gun wasn't there and then it was; Wolfe is hired by two lovers who want to get married but both kind of believe the other one murdered her ex-husband so they can be together. That one's good. The second one is actually, for a Nero Wolfe mystery, pretty simplistic, and as soon as the guy had an iron-clad alibi I was like, "Well, he probably did it and set up that alibi somehow."

The third story I think I remember reading as a kid, because it involves Archie letting himself be tied up and beaten by bad guys briefly, and man. If there's a scene guaranteed to get a reread from teenage me, tie up your cocky protagonist and have someone slap him around a little. (The only other scene I've vividly remembered in 18 books is one where Archie was drugged and passed out. I am very predictable.)

Grade: B
#39 in 2016

Three Doors to Death, Rex Stout

I had a terribly stressful weekend, so I retreated into reading formulaic murder mysteries. It's so comforting. And for whatever reason there are volumes and volumes of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas. They're all collections of threes -- Three Doors to Death, Trouble in Triplicate, Curtains for Three.

Luckily Stout can write a great novella. Short mysteries are great, and they make for very relaxing reading. I know exactly when all the problems will be solved.

...of course, if you asked me which three stories, specifically, were in THIS volume, I'd have to admit I have no idea. Goodreads says: "a man unsuccessfully attempts suicide just before he is killed, a murder victim's family hides the identity of the killer, and a horticulturist discovers his girlfriend's body."

I have no idea what that first one is talking about, that second one could be literally ANY BOOK in this series, and the third one I do remember, and it was great. Thumbs up! I think!

Grade: B

#38 in 2016

In the Best Families, Rex Stout

THIS IS THE BEST NERO WOLFE BOOK YET.

It's the payoff of the vague ~big bad guy that was set up in a couple of books before this one. Nero Wolfe accepts a job that brings him into direct confrontation with that bad guy, and so while Archie is out investigating  a murder, Wolfe vanishes. Seriously; he finds new jobs for Theodore the orchids guy and Fritz his cook, and puts the brownstone on 35th street up for sale. (GIVE IT TO MEEEEE.) Archie kind of thinks he's bluffing, until weeks and then months go by. After a while Archie quits and starts his own private detective company.

It's such a delight seeing the books break out of the normal formula. No one sits around in Wolfe's office while he considers who's lying. Archie doesn't wine and dine any pretty young ladies. It's like a season finale; everyone is on their own, everything is terrible, and Archie is just barely coping. (His sarcasm is delightfully monstrous by the end.)

And just when I thought it couldn't get better, Lily Rowan shows up. She's the best. Don't try and tell me she and Archie aren't madly in love. He plans a vacation and then later in the book grudgingly admits he was MAYBE, KINDA, SORTA gonna take her. She's also the woman he always turns to when he needs one for a set-up to catch a criminal. She's smart and he trusts her. (He loooooves her.)

This book was such a delight. I'm still not sure the conceit of having an arch nemesis for Wolfe works, nor did I ever think Mr. X was ever bad or smart enough to really match wits with Wolfe. But this book was so much fun because it was different from start to finish, and the twists are really great, and Archie is SO grumpy. I loved this.

Grade: A
#37 in 2016

Trouble in Triplicate, Rex Stout

When I get stressed about too many book choices, I end up reading Nero Wolfe. For a while I was stressed about what to do when I run out of Nero Wolfe, but I think I'll just move on to Amelia Peabody books. Anyway.

This is a collection of three novellas; in each, someone wants to hire Wolfe to stop him from being murdered. In each, Wolfe is basically like "No, if someone wants to kill you it's super easy to do, go away," and then the person is murdered, and Wolfe figures out who did it and why. You can tell that these are republished from earlier publication because Archie is in the Army again in two of them, which I always enjoy.

I one of these, a well-known gangster wants to hire Wolfe to protect his daughter. There's a great twist. In the second, Wolfe hires someone to impersonate himself so no one can murder him. That one has a pretty okay twist, but does require Wolfe to temporarily not be a genius. The third one has a man who makes fake cigars come to Wolfe and announce that his business partner is trying to kill him (and then he's killed by an exploding cigar). This one has a GREAT twist.

In all of them, Archie is a sarcastic monster. He hits on a lot of ladies and yells at Nero Wolfe. Each of these novellas is long enough to be satisfying and short enough to read in a single sitting. I don't normally like short stories but I do like these mini mysteries.

Grade: A

#35 in 2016

And Be A Villain, Rex Stout

I went away for the weekend and read and read and read (three books and 3/4 of a non-fiction book). One, because I needed a break, was the next Nero Wolfe. They are always easy and delightful.

On the other hand, two days later it's a little hard to remember which book was which, so let me try... Right, a lady works for a radio station, her guest gets poisoned. This one's a little weird, because Wolfe basically gives up and just tells the cops what he's figured out and Archie waits around impatiently. So there isn't a ton of detecting, although Archie does get to be great in one scene. There are barely even any ladies for him to hit on. The villain kind of comes out of nowhere, and it's the introduction of Wolfe's Moriarty (whom I don't care about) so.... ehhhhhhh. Nothing's wrong in this book, but it's not a must-read.

Grade: C
#31 in 2016

Too Many Women, Rex Stout

At some point while reading this book I started reading the women's dialogue out loud, trying to do the right kind of "sassy, snappy 40's broad" voice you hear in screwball comedies of the era. Not the Marilyn Monroe breathy baby voice, more like the voice Mary Wickes is doing in White Christmas (she's the housekeeper). Eventually I realized I wanted to sound like Rosalind Russell, but I'll never be as good at any of those voices as Paget Brewster is when she's Sadie Doyle in the Thrilling Adventure Hour.

Anyway. Wolfe gets hired to figure out if someone was murdered or just hit by a car by accident, and solving the crime involves Archie going undercover in a business and dating as many women as possible. He also wins a fist-fight at one point, which was when I said out loud to my Kindle, "Boy, Archie Goodwin really is Rex Stout's Mary Sue, isn't he?" But it's cool, I'm in; I'd let him take me to a restaurant and grill me for info on whether or not I'd murdered anyone.

Loved the villain reveal in this one, loved the twist at the end. What a satisfying comfortable read.

Grade: B

#27 in 2016

The Second Confession, Rex Stout

I'm reading through the entire Nero Wolfe series for a bunch of reasons. First, because I love them and Archie makes me laugh, especially when he's in a snit. Second, because I haven't been sleeping well lately, and a book where I don't know what happens keeps me awake, but these books have a very specific rhythm and don't. That's not a knock on these books, I swear. Sometimes when I can't sleep I listen to my favorite podcast over and over. Only favorites will do.

Another reason these books are so much fun to read is because Archie and Wolfe are always having adventures appropriate to the years they were written. A few books ago Archie had a bad feeling about that Hitler fellow, and then he joined the Army, and now he's back to civilian life and worried about Communists. (Published in 1949.)

This is also one of the books where there was an attempt to give Nero Wolfe a Moriarty and... eh. Wolfe's impassioned speech about the only! man! he! fears!! was a little tonally odd and failed to make me feel like the stakes were any higher here than in any other book. Especially because after that scene someone is killed, and it goes back to being exactly the same kind of plot as any other Wolfe book. Archie is sassy to the police and hits on a pretty girl who calls him a louse at one point. The couple of plot twists are great. It always cracks me up when there's a moment that Wolfe gets grumpy and sends Archie to his room and won't tell him what's going on with solving the mystery. I know it's to keep the readers in suspense, because in-world it barely makes sense. It's always sort of implied that Wolfe thinks Archie would tell someone or ruin catching the murderer somehow, but also Archie is the person Wolfe relies on most completely. But it does always make Archie sulky, which I always love.

(Full disclosure, the new way the kindle front page looks threw me off and I skipped two books and jumped up to this one. There is one plot point it affects, but I think it's a silly one, so I'm not letting it bother me.)

Grade: B

#22 in 2016

The Silent Speaker, Rex Stout

I read Nero Wolfe books between other books; they are a palate cleanser for my brain. I liked this one a lot, because Archie is in a rotten mood for most of it (there's a pretty girl who's smart and who he actually likes). When Archie's in a bad mood he's unbearably sarcastic and obnoxious, which I love. The scene in this one where he talks a woman into going on a date with him by insisting he's not to be trusted and she'd be an idiot to go with him is classic. There is a twist after the twist, as well, which is always fun in these books.

As a kid I thought Inspector Cramer was a bad guy and dreaded him showing up. As an adult I am awfully fond of him, and clearly so are Wolfe and Archie, although they hate to say so. It's nice that my critical reading skills have improved since I was reading these by the armful in the Large Print section of the library.

Grade: B

#24 in 2016