Where There's a Will: Rex Stout

Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's secretary and leg man, often takes it upon himself to badger Wolfe into taking a case because the bank account is getting low. Wolfe's hobbies and lifestyle are very expensive. In this case, he is convinced to take on an unappealing case, that of dealing with the problems of a disputed will.

Noel Hawthorne has died in a shooting accident at his country home, and he has left most of his huge estate to his mistress, Naomi Karn. His wife, Daisy, whose face was disfigured due to an accident, is bitter and plans to contest the will. Noel's sisters are all famous for their diverse talents: June is a writer who is now married to John Dunn, the Secretary of State of the United States; May is a scientist and president of a college; April is an actress on the stage. They are also shocked at being written out of the will, but their main aim is to avoid a scandal. They show up at Wolfe's office requesting his help in persuading the mistress to take less money to appease the wife.

Shortly after Wolfe gets involved in the case, it turns out that Noel Hawthorne was murdered and the police consider the family members to be the most likely suspects.

As usual, I will point out that Rex Stout is my favorite author and I am very fond of all the books in the Nero Wolfe series. This one is not at the top level, it is not one of my top 10 books in the series. Yet, even so, it has few flaws.

The plot is very complicated and there are a lot of characters, more than usual. But the story still moves at a good pace, and all the twists and turns make sense. Many of the characters are eccentric, but they are depicted in a convincing way.

But most of all, I like visiting with Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, and their extended family. Archie is Wolfe's employee, but they look out for each other and form a good partnership.   Fritz, the cook, and Theodore Horstmann, the orchid expert, also live in Wolfe's brownstone, and there is a regular group of private investigators who help out when needed.

This was the last novel that Stout published before the US entered World War II. There are hints relating to the time period, but they are not explicit or prominent, and you could easily miss them. If I remember correctly he only wrote a few novellas during the war, and only two of those actually mention the war.

I would also like to emphasize that the Introduction to the Bantam Crime Line paperback edition by Dean R. Koontz is very, very good. He is complimentary of Rex Stout's writing, but he also has interesting things to say about writers in general and reading.

Noah at Noah's Archives goes into even more detail on the plot, his opinions of the book, and various editions (which I am always interested in) in his review.

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Publisher:  Bantam, 1992. Orig. pub. 1940.
Length:     236 pages
Format:     Paperback
Series:      Nero Wolfe, #8
Setting:     New York
Genre:       Mystery
Source:     I purchased my copies.