Short Story Wednesday: Two Novellas by Rex Stout

 

In early October I reviewed "This Won't Kill You", a novella in Three Men Out by Rex Stout. Today I am discussing the other two novellas in that book: "Invitation to Murder" and "The Zero Clue". Both of those stories were first published in The American Magazine in 1953.

For a brief introduction to the series of books and novellas:

Nero Wolfe is an armchair detective, preferring to do all his detecting from home. He is a genius, a lover of orchids and fine food, who supports himself (and his household) as a private detective. Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories, is both his assistant and a private investigator, and he does most of the legwork. They live in a New York brownstone and share the house with Theodore, a plant expert who cares for Wolfe's orchids, and Felix, Wolfe's cook. 

"Invitation to Murder"

Herman Lewent wants Nero Wolfe to investigate Theodore Huck and the three women that he employees at his mansion. Huck was married to Herman Lewent's sister, who died a year earlier. Lewent had received $1000 a month from his sister since their father died and left his estate to her. Huck had continued to give him that money, but Lewent thinks he deserves more. However, what he really wants Wolfe to figure out is whether one of Huck's employees killed his sister, who died of Ptomaine poisoning. Lewent believes that all three women (a housekeeper, a nurse, and a secretary) would be interested in marrying Huck, and one of them murdered his sister to get her out of the way. Wolfe won't leave his home to investigate but he allows Archie to go in his mansion, to scope out the household and see if there is any basis for the accusation.

Eventually Archie decides that Wolfe really needs to be at Huck's mansion, so he tricks him into coming there. And, of course, the case is solved. 

This is an old-fashioned puzzle mystery, and in this case Stout clearly provides clues to what happened, although I am sure I did not figure out the first time I read it. In these shorter works by Stout, I primarily enjoy Archie's narration and the story telling. 

"The Zero Clue" 

Leo Heller is a professor of mathematics who specializes in probability and has made a lot of money using his talents in that area. Wolfe had some dealings with him earlier and despises the man. When Heller wants help from Wolfe to determine if one of his clients committed murder, Wolfe refuses. But Archie decides to go talk to Heller at his office, in an attempt to gather information that will convince Wolfe to take the case.

When Archie arrives at Heller's office, there are several people there waiting to see Heller either in the lobby of the building or in Heller's waiting room on the fifth floor. Archie goes into Heller's office, finds it empty, and snoops around a bit while he waits. Heller does not show up and Archie leaves. Later in the day, the police discover Heller's dead body in the closet of the office, and they find out that Archie was there. Thus, Inspector Cramer of Manhattan Homicide shows up at Wolfe's door. 

Most of this story is about Wolfe interviewing six suspects to get more information about their business with Leo Heller while Inspector Cramer listens in. Cramer is one of my favorite characters in the Nero Wolfe stories, so I always enjoy it when he shows up. This time Wolfe and Cramer get along pretty well. 

This story also has clues to the solution, but the reader has to know some obscure mathematical facts to be able to catch them, so I am not sure it counts as playing fair with the reader. Not that I think Rex Stout put much emphasis on that part of mystery plots.

I enjoyed learning more about mathematics. My major was mathematics in college but I am sure I did not know the arcane facts that Wolfe uses to make the deduction before I read that story for the first time. Regardless, "The Zero Clue" was my favorite between these two novellas, because I think it is a very clever and entertaining story.

Short Story Wednesday: "This Won't Kill You" by Rex Stout

"This Won't Kill You" is a 60-page Nero Wolfe mystery novelette by Rex Stout. It was first published in the September 1952 issue of The American Magazine. It later appeared in book form in the short-story collection Three Men Out, published by Viking Press in 1954. 

I have read this story many times and it is one of my favorite novelettes in the Nero Wolfe series. It is very different from the normal short fiction in that series. For one thing, at the beginning of the story Nero Wolfe is attending a baseball game, which means he had to leave his home, which is very unusual. And in addition the story starts out being typical detection by Nero Wolfe, and then takes a turn into an adventure segment with Archie saving the day. 

Wolfe and Archie are at a baseball game because Wolfe's friend Pierre Mondor, a famous chef from Paris, is visiting  and has asked to see a baseball game. Wolfe feels he must oblige as Mondor's host, and being Wolfe he has a grateful client who can supply tickets. It soon becomes clear that the game is going very wrong; one player is missing and several of them cannot play their usual game. I won't go further into the story because I would spoil it. 

Amazingly I have found a good number of reviews of this story, and about half agree with me that this is a excellent story and half don't like it all because it is so untypical. 

There are two other novelettes in Three Men Out: "Invitation to Murder" and "The Zero Clue". I don't remember much about those stories but I will be reading them soon.

Short Story Wednesday: "Bullet for One" by Rex Stout

"Bullet for One" is a 68-page novella in the Nero Wolfe series, and was first published in The American Magazine in July 1948, the year of my birth. It is one of three stories in Curtains for Three, published in 1950. 

As usual, Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's assistant, narrates the story. Some semi-regular characters are included: Saul Panzer and Orrie Cather, freelance detectives; and Inspector Cramer of the NYC police. Lily Rowan, Archie's sometimes female companion, makes a brief appearance.

This story features five people who are suspected of murdering Sigmund Keyes, an industrial designer who was shot while riding horseback in New York's Central Park. These five people gather at Nero Wolfe's office to hire him to prove that another person, Victor Talbott, is guilty. Victor Talbott was Keyes' sales agent, and is in love with his daughter. He also has the best alibi of all of the suspects. The five suspects that Wolfe is working for are three people who worked in the same office with Keyes, plus his daughter, Dorothy Keyes, and a stable hand at the Riding Academy near Central Park. 

This was a funny story, and I think it was more humorous because it included some of the regular characters in addition to Archie and Wolfe. Archie gets his feeling hurt because Wolfe assigns all the interesting jobs to Saul and Orrie. Wolfe is mainly concerned with food and his orchids while he sends others off to do research. Although some of the facts are hidden from the reader until close to the end, it was a clever ending.

I read another story in the book recently also, but it is a hard one for me to review. It may be my favorite story in this book.

"The Gun with Wings" is about two lovers who come to Wolfe with a problem. They know that the woman's husband was killed and they haven't told anyone what they know, because each of them is afraid that the other might be the murderer. (Her husband was a piece of work.) They want Wolfe to find out who the murderer is so that they can get married. Now that is an unusual problem. 

I reviewed "Disguise for Murder," the third story in Curtains for Three, in April of this year.

Short Story Wednesday: Nearly Nero, Part 2

 

In April, I read the first four stories in Nearly Nero by Loren D. Estleman. See my comments on those stories here. This week I finished reading the remaining six stories in the book. 

The subtitle for this book is "The Adventures of Claudius Lyon, the Man Who Would Be Wolfe." Between 2008 and 2016, Estleman wrote nine short stories about Claudius Lyon, a man who is obsessed with emulating Nero Wolfe in all ways, and his assistant, Arnie Woodbine. Six of these stories were published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. One was published by the Mysterious Press, one by the Mysterious Bookshop, and one was published by Crippen & Landru.  The last story in the book ("Wolfe Whistle") was written for publication in this book. 

The last six stories are: 

“Wolfe Trap” 

“Wolfe in Chic Clothing” 

“Wolfe in the Manger” 

“Wolfe and Warp” 

“Peter and the Wolfe” 

“Wolfe Whistle” 

Two of those stories were set at Christmas, "Wolfe Trap" and "Wolfe in the Manger." Those were my favorite stories in the book.

In "Wolfe Trap," Captain Stoddard of the Brooklyn Bunco Squad asks for Lyon's help because his niece has been accused of theft. She works at a successful bookstore and was the only person around when $200 went missing at a Christmas party. Otto Penzler is a character and the crime took place at his book store.

I found that the later stories in the collection were more imaginative, developed some of the characters to a greater extent, and had more interesting puzzles. It is also much clearer in those stories that Claudius Lyon is intelligent and a good solver of puzzles. He may be a nut case who wants to  model his whole existence around another person's life, but he is clever at the right time and place. 

The book also includes:

• An excellent introduction by the author, discussing Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries and Estleman's decision to write a humorous version of Wolfe and Goodwin in these stories.
• The introduction that Estleman wrote for the 1992 Bantam paperback edition of Fer-de-Lance.
• A Recommended Reading section.

Also see this review at George Kelley's blog. 

Books Read in March 2024

Even though I am getting my summary of reading for March 2024 out very late, I am happy because I have actually written reviews for six of the nine books I read. For me that is very good. And I enjoyed almost all of the books. So March was a good reading month. 

Of the fiction books I read this month, six were published between 2007 and 2020. Only two were published before 1960. That is a big change in the direction of my reading. I read too many exceptional books to pick a favorite for the month but I am glad I reread another book by Rex Stout. And I am in the middle of a book of three novellas in the Nero Wolfe series, Curtains for Three. 

This week I participated in the Classics Club Spin, where 20 books are listed and a random number between 1 and 20 is selected. The book that resulted from the spin for me to read for this spin was The Warden by Anthony Trollope. I am happy with that pick because I haven't read anything by Trollope before.

Here are the nine books I finished reading in March:

Nonfiction

The Book of Books (2007) by Les Krantz and Tim Knight

The subtitle of this book is "An Eclectic Collection of Reading Recommendations, Quirky Lists, and Fun Facts about Books." It has a more formal approach than the Book Lust series by Nancy Pearl, although it was published around the same time. This book is made up of lists of books about specific subjects, or genres and subgenres. Each book on the lists is summarized briefly. Some of the lists came from outside sources and some were put together by the authors.

Fiction

My Name is Lucy Barton (2016) by Elizabeth Strout

While Lucy Barton is in a hospital in New York City for many weeks due to complications following an appendectomy, her mother visits her and they have some strained conversations about the past. The story is set in the 1980s, and Lucy narrates it, years after it happened. See my review. 

The Glass Hotel (2020) Emily St. John Mandel 

This story revolves around Paul Smith and his half-sister Vincent Smith, and starts when they are teens. Many other characters that they interact with then and later in their lives are important to the plot. Set in Canada. See my review. 

Crime Fiction

The Silver Swan (2007) by Benjamin Black

Set in Ireland in the 1950s, this is the 2nd book about Quirke, a pathologist working in a hospital in Dublin.  Benjamin Black is a pseudonym of John Banville. See my review.

Defectors (2017) by Joseph Kanon

This is the first book I have read by Joseph Kanon, and it definitely won't be my last. I have six more of his books on my shelves. The Defectors focuses on a group of American and British spies living in and around Moscow during the Cold War, after defecting. My focus was on the relationship of the two brothers in the story, Frank, the US spy who defected to Russia in 1949, and Simon, his younger brother, who had to leave his job in intelligence to work in publishing after Frank's defection. In 1961, Simon has been allowed to come to Moscow to work with Frank on publishing his memoirs. He has not seen or heard from Frank in the years since his defection. I loved the exploration of family relationships, but the story has plenty of action also.

Your Republic is Calling You (2006) by Young-ha Kim

The story takes place over the course of one day in the life of Ki-Yong, a South Korean with a wife and teenage daughter. Except that he is really a North Korean spy who has been living in Seoul, working as a film importer, over 20 years, and has now been recalled to North Korea. See my review.

A Beautiful Place to Die (2008) Malla Nunn

This is a historical mystery, set in a very small town on the border between South Africa and Mozambique in 1952. New apartheid laws have recently gone into effect. The protagonist is an English police detective who is investigating the death of an Afrikaner police captain. See my review.

A Scream in Soho (1940) by John G. Brandon

This was one of the earlier books in the British Library Crime Classics series, and it was the only book this month that I was disappointed with. It is not a bad book, it is just that it is more a thriller than a mystery, along the lines of Edgar Wallace's novels, per the introduction by Martin Edwards. Published during the war, the plot centers around a spy hiding in Soho. It also had a good bit of overt racism and sexism which was distasteful, although not that unusual for book of this period. 

Plot It Yourself (1959) by Rex Stout

This book is part of the Nero Wolfe series; Wolfe is a private detective and his assistant is Archie Goodwin. In this case, the story revolves around authors, publishers, and accusations of plagiarism. The first novel, Fer-de-Lance, was published in 1934. See my review.

Currently reading

I started The Mistress of Alderley by Robert Barnard last night, and surprised myself by reading 100 pages. Caroline Fawley has given up her acting career quite willingly to live in an elegant home in the country. Her wealthy lover Marius purchased a country house for her to live in, but her children worry that she is depending too much on his generosity, with no promise of marriage. This book has a surprise appearance by Inspector Oddie and Detective Charlie Peace from Barnard's Charlie Peace series; I have read all except the last two books in that series.

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken in late March in our back yard after we had a good bit of rain. The lighting was perfect. We had a lot of weeds in the back at the time, and we still do. Lots of work to be done. 

The photos were taken and processed by my husband. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

 

Short Story Wednesday: "Disguise for Murder" by Rex Stout

 

Rex Stout's "Disguise for Murder" is an 80-page story in the Nero Wolfe series. It is one of three stories in Curtains for Three, published in 1950. 

The introduction to the book describes the contents as three novelettes, although I think 80 pages is more like a novella. No matter, it is an entertaining story. It was first published in The American Magazine, September 1950, as "The Twisted Scarf". 

As usual, Archie Goodwin narrates the story. Some semi-regular characters are included: Saul Panzer, a free lance detective; Fritz, the cook; and Inspector Cramer of the NYC police.

As the story begins, the Manhattan Flower Club has been allowed to visit Nero Wolfe's greenhouse at the top of his brownstone, to view his orchid collection. Saul and Fritz are vetting all the attendees and Archie is mingling and otherwise keeping an eye on the crowd. 

While mingling he notices an attractive young woman. Later in the afternoon she meets with Archie in Wolfe's office, and tells him that she can identify the murderer in a case that has plagued the police department for months. She seeks an audience with Wolfe, but before that happens she is found dead in Wolfe's office, after most of the guests have departed. 

After the police are done examining the scene and interviewing witnesses, Inspector Cramer refuses to allow Wolfe access to his office for an extended period of time. This infuriates Wolfe, and he decides to solve the case himself rather than collaborate with the police. He has spotted a clue that Cramer obviously missed in the witness statements. He proposes that Archie take on a dangerous assignment to unmask the killer. Saul Panzer is Archie's back up but the plan goes awry, and in the end it is all up to Archie.  This one has a little more action than usual and less humor.

I did have a quibble with the last part of the story (and it bothers me every time I read it), but I still consider this one of the most memorable of the novellas. 

The other two novellas in Curtains for Three are "The Gun with Wings" and "Bullet for One".

Plot It Yourself: Rex Stout

I had not planned to review this book, but then I realized that this is a bookish book, with the plot revolving around authors, publishers, and accusations of plagiarism. Rex Stout gets to poke some fun at publishers, authors, and even himself in this book.

Rex Stout wrote 33 novels and 41 novellas about the private detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin. The series began in 1934, with Fer-de-lance, and the last book in the series, A Family Affair, was published in 1975, shortly before Stout's death. I have read all of the novels and the shorter works several times over the years, so this was a reread for me.

In Plot It Yourself, four authors have been accused of plagiarism over four years. The four incidents have been similar, and looking back it is clear that they were carefully planned and have similarities. In most of the cases, the publishers have settled before the case went to trial. When a fifth author is accused of plagiarism, a group of authors and publishers band together to get help with this issue. They ask Nero Wolfe to solve the mystery of who is behind the false plagiarism claims.

Wolfe takes some time evaluating the situation, reading the books of the people who claim to have been plagiarized, and comes up with a plan to identify the culprit. When a death occurs as a result of his investigation, Wolfe realizes he has made an unpardonable mistake. Now that there is a death, the police are investigating that crime, but the publishers group asks Wolfe to continue working on the plagiarism case. 

Nero Wolfe has many quirks. He doesn't like to leave his house; he is a confirmed armchair detective. He lets Archie do much of the leg work and pulls in a team of freelance investigators when needed. He spends most of his time on gourmet food, cooking, beer, and orchids. While working on this case, he is so enraged by the mistake he made that he vows to eat no meat and drink no beer until the murderer is caught.

See my post about Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Series for an overview of the series.

This is actually a very good book for someone new to the Nero Wolfe series to start out with. It is a straightforward mystery. Some of Rex Stout's novels can be fairly convoluted and seem to involve intuition just as much as detection, which doesn't bother me, because I am reading more for characters than plot in this series. 

This book counts for the Bookish Books Reading Challenge hosted by Susan at Bloggin' 'bout Books.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Bantam, 1989. Orig. pub. 1959.
Length:      208 pages
Format:     Paperback
Series:      Nero Wolfe, #32
Setting:     New York
Genre:      Mystery
Source:     A reread.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Lonely Planet's Best Ever Photography Tips to ....

 

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Usually Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point, but for April's Six Degrees the instructions were to find a travel guide such as a Lonely Planet title or an Eyewitness title.

So the first book in my Six Degrees chain will be Lonely Planet's Best Ever Photography Tips. It features "45 practical tips and ten golden rules from award-winning travel photographer Richard I'Anson." My husband is and always has been interested in photography and he has many books on the subject.

1st degree:

My first book is also from my husband's shelves: A Wandering Eye: Travels with My Phone by Miguel Flores-Vianna. The book is filled with photos taken with his smart phone while traveling. There are some really gorgeous pictures in this book.

2nd degree:

Continuing the theme of photography, my next book is Plates + Dishes: The Food and Faces of the Roadside Diner by Stephan Schacher. This is a fantastic book, following Schacher's travels from New York up into Canada, starting with Ontario, going across to the Yukon, into Alaska, back down through British Columbia into the US. In the US he covered the western coast states, then some midwestern states, through the deep South, and back up to New York. His plan was to document the diners he visited. Per Publishers Weekly, he visited  "70 highway eating establishments, and photographed the food he ate and the women who served it to him." He made the trip using various vehicles: a Volkswagen van, a motor home, and a motorcycle. This edition was published in 2005, and Schacher's travels appear to have taken place between 2002 and 2004. There isn't much text in this book, just an introduction. The focus is really on the photos.

3rd degree:

The next link is one of our cookbooks, Retro Diner: Comfort Food from the American Roadside by Linda Everett. The book contains recipes for diner food and also includes photos of the exteriors and interiors of some old diners. We have used at least one of the recipes because we have notes in the book on suggested changes. 

4th degree:

At this point I will move toward fiction. In The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, Cora and Nick Papadakis own and operate a small diner in rural California, not far from Los Angeles. Cora is sick of her husband and tired of running the diner. Frank Chambers, a drifter, has just arrived in the area and does some odd jobs for Nick. Frank wants Cora to leave her husband behind and drift around the country with him. The book is very well written, but too dark and dreary for me. 

5th degree:

Even though the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout feature a lot of gourmet foods and situations focused on food and eating, Archie Goodwin often visits diners to eat, when he just wants to eat plain food, or when he isn't getting along with Wolfe, or he is out doing some errands for Wolfe. In Plot it Yourself, a mystery about authors, publishers, and plagiarism, Archie twice mentions going to Bert's Diner around the corner on Tenth Avenue near Wolfe's brownstone. Early in the book, Archie says: "I eat in the dining room with Wolfe, except when we are not speaking; then I join Fritz and Theodore in the kitchen, or get invited somewhere, or take a friend to a restaurant, or go to Bert’s diner around the corner on Tenth Avenue and eat beans." Towards the end of the book, when he thinks he will be having a meatless dinner with Wolfe at home, he considers going to Bert's to "eat hamburgers and slaw and discuss the world situation for an hour or so." Thinking about these connections motivated me to reread this book in late March.

6th degree:

I decided to stick with a novel by Rex Stout in this last link. Black Orchids collects two novellas, "Black Orchids" and "Cordially Invited to Meet Death." As I noted above, food is very important in the Nero Wolfe stories. Usually Wolfe doesn't like to have anything to do with women, but somehow, in "Cordially Invited to Meet Death," he ends up with one in his kitchen, where he is experimenting with making corned beef hash. She offers to help. 

"... corned beef hash is one of my specialties. Nothing in there but meat, is there?”

“As you see,” Wolfe grunted.

“It’s ground too fine,” Maryella asserted. 

Wolfe scowled at her. I could see he was torn with conflicting emotions. A female in his kitchen was an outrage. A woman criticizing his or Fritz's cooking was an insult. But corned beef hash was one of life's toughest problems, never yet solved by anyone. To tone down the corned flavor and yet preserve its unique quality, to remove the curse of its dryness without making it greasy—the theories and experiments had gone on for years. He scowled at her but he didn't order her out.

"Cordially Invited to Meet Death" is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe stories.

My Six Degrees took me from traveling and photography to roadside diners, to mysteries with an emphasis on food.  If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on May 4th, 2024 and the starting book will be The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop.

Short Story Wednesday: More Christmas Stories

I have now read 17 of the 26 stories in Murder for Christmas, edited by Thomas Godfrey. I did not read all of those this month; some of them I had read previously in other anthologies.

These are the last four stories I read in this book.

"Back for Christmas" by John Collier 

This is a short but effective story with a very clever ending. Dr. Carpenter and his wife are going to America for a lecture tour. Mrs. Carpenter has told all her friends that they will be back in England for Christmas, but he has other plans.  This story was broadcast on television in 1956 as part of the first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

"A Christmas Tragedy" by Baroness Orczy 

This is the first piece of writing by Orczy that I have read. This short story tells how Lady Molly solves the mystery of murder of Major Ceely on Christmas Eve. She and her maid Mary were staying at Major Ceely's home, Clevere Hall, when the murder occurs. The introduction to the story by Thomas Godfrey indicates that there are a series of Lady Molly of Scotland Yard stories; the stories are told by Mary, her faithful maid. Twelve stories in the series were published in Lady Molly of Scotland Yard in 1910.

"Dancing Dan's Christmas" by Damon Runyon

This story was a lot of fun and had a great ending, but as usual when I am reading Damon Runyon's prose, I was confused by the street talk and many quirky characters. The story was originally published in Collier's Magazine in 1932.

"Christmas Party" by Rex Stout

I have read all of the mystery fiction by Rex Stout, multiple times, and this story was no exception. But it has been nine years since I read it last, and I have always enjoyed it. "Christmas Party" features Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie and is one of four stories in And Four to Go by Rex Stout. The story is 70 pages long, so it is really a novella.

The story starts with Archie refusing to accompany Wolfe to a meeting with a well-known horticulturalist because he already has plans to attend a Christmas party at a ex-client's business. I reviewed "Christmas Party" in 2014 in this blog post. 

If you are interested in a list of all the stories in Murder for Christmas, check out George Kelley's review at his blog. 

I do have a bonus Christmas story, from the Guardian. My husband sent me a link to the story and I read it immediately. It was just the right length.

"Yankee Swap" by Jonathan Escoffery

This story is set during the Christmas season, on a snowy day in Boston. The main character, Nathan, occasionally drives his car for a rideshare company, and on this day he does it because he needs extra money to fund his airplane flight to South Florida to visit his family for Christmas. The person who called the car for a ride is his ex-fiancee’s husband. Nathan is curious about this man, the man he blames for blowing up his world nearly three years earlier. I loved the way the story is told, how more about each of the characters is revealed during the ride. A very nice story, and a good story to read any time of the year.

The link to this story is here.

Books Read in September and October

 

I am late in reporting on my reading for the previous two months. I read 7 books in September and 6 books in October. Most of the books were crime fiction, but I did read one nonfiction book and three non-genre fiction books. All in all it was two months of good reading. 

Nonfiction

Something Wholesale (1962) by Eric Newby

This is a memoir by Eric Newby, a renowned British travel writer. It is mostly about the years he was working in the family garment business. I plan to read more books by this author. My review here.

General Fiction

The People on Platform 5 (2022) by Clare Pooley

I first saw this book at Cath's Read-warbler blog. Her review was posted in early September and I had read this by September 17th, so I must have purchased it almost immediately. This book is contemporary fiction about a group of people who commute to work by train at the same time every day. They never talk to each other, until one day there is an event that brings them together, eventually. The central character is Iona Iverson, 57 years old, working for a magazine as an advice columnist. She is treated abysmally at work, although at one time her writing for the magazine was in different areas and in very much demand. The remaining characters were of various ages, including a teenager in school and adults of various ages in different work environments. I loved this book. Each person has their talents that they end up sharing  with others, and each has a problem that needs to be solved. Some of the results were predictable, but not all. The US title of this book is Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting.

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories (2020) by Hilma Wolitzer

This short story collection contains 13 stories by Hilma Wolitzer. Eight of the stories in the book are vignettes of events in the life of a couple, Howard and Paulie (Paulette), starting with a story about the birth of their first child. Some of these are funny, some are sad, and all are told from the point of view of the wife. My review here.

I Capture the Castle (1948) by Dodie Smith

Rose (20), Cassandra (17), and Thomas Mortmain (15) live with their father and stepmother in a decrepit old house that is attached to an equally decrepit castle. The setting is the English countryside in the 1930s. This book is beloved by many and has many good points but I did not enjoy reading it. My review here.

Crime Fiction

The Eighth Detective (2020) by Alex  Pavesi

This is a mystery with an unusual structure. Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, wrote a mathematical theory of the structure of mystery stories and published a book in the late 1930s with seven short stories to illustrate his theory. He then moved to a remote island and retired. Thirty years later a company wants to republish the book of short stories and sends an editor to review the stories with him. This book includes the text of all seven stories, so it is almost like reading a short story book. See my review.

Death in the Fifth Position (1952) by Edgar Box

From 1952-1954, Gore Vidal wrote three mystery novels as Edgar Box. They all featured public relations specialist Peter Sargeant. This first book in the series is set in the world of ballet in New York. I liked the characters, the picture of a ballet production, and the time setting. I also read the third book in the series, Death Likes it Hot.

Generation Loss (2007) by Elizabeth Hand 

This is the first of four books in the Cass Neary series. The main character is a photographer who was famous for one book she published in the 1970s, but she has gone downhill since, and has mostly spent her time working in a bookstore, not pursuing her photography. An old friend offers her the opportunity to interview her idol, Aphrodite Kamestos, who now lives on a secluded island in Maine. The setting is fantastic, dark and cold and threatening. My review here.

Messenger of Truth (2006) by Jacqueline Winspear

This is a series that many readers love but I did not get past the third book. After 11 years I tried the fourth book; I liked it better than the first three books but still did not like it that much. I didn't connect with any of the characters, but I do like the picture of life in the UK in 1931. I am not giving up and I have several more books in the series that I got at the book sale in September.

Greenwood (2019) by Michael Christie

This is a multigenerational family story with a focus on nature and ecology, especially trees. The author is Canadian and the story is set in various parts of Canada. It starts in a dystopian future in 2038 but soon travels back to follow the previous generations of the Greenwood family. This book was nominated for Best Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada in 2020, and it won, but I have yet to figure out why it was considered crime fiction. There are crimes that take place, and mysteries that run through the story, but it is not like any other crime fiction I have read. It is a great read in any case. My review here.

Gambit (1962) by Rex Stout

Rex Stout is my favorite author, so of course I loved this book. I had not read it in years because I can remember the ending. The Nero Wolfe series is fun to read because Wolfe has so many quirks. He hates to leave his home, thus he needs Archie Goodwin to do the legwork for him. He loves spending time caring for his orchids and eating good food. However, this book has one of the most straightforward plots of the 33 novels that Rex Stout wrote. Less of the quirks are evident or emphasized. My review is here.

Something Wicked (1983) by E.X. Ferrars

This is the first in the Andrew Basnett series.  This book is set around Christmas although the Christmas setting is not a focal point. Andrew Basnett is a retired botanist, widowed, in his mid-seventies. He is living in his nephew's house while his nephew is away; all the neighbors in the surrounding area are strange, and many of them are unlikeable. I have liked everything I have read by Ferrars, including this book. However, I would not start here if you have never read anything by this author. She is known as Elizabeth Ferrars in the UK. 

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (2023) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong is sixty years old, widowed, and lives alone above her tea shop in San Francisco. One morning when she goes downstairs to start on her walk, there is a dead body of a man on the floor of her tea shop, a man she does not recognize. See my review.

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) by Stuart Turton

This book is a roller coaster ride that takes the reader to a world that doesn't make sense. The author describes it as a "time travelling, body hopping murder mystery novel."  A man wakes up with amnesia, and when he finds a decrepit old country house nearby, complete with butler and guests, he is told that he is Sebastian Bell, a doctor. Later in the day, he wakes up in another body and realizes that this is not just a case of amnesia. Along the way he finds out that he has a mission to find out who is going to kill Evelyn Hardcastle, and only by doing this can he be returned to his previous life, which he has no memory of. The entire story was very confusing but I enjoyed it. I was disappointed in the ending. It wasn't that it wasn't a satisfying solution, but there was not enough explanation of the machinations of body hopping. The journey was wonderful, but the destination was not, at least for me.

The photos in this post are of some flowers we planted together in a pot in early summer. The one below is a geranium (or pelargonium) but the plant at the top I can't identify. The geraniums in the pot are still blooming beautifully, in the back, even with no sun. The other plants don't last so long.

Photos taken and processed by my husband. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

#1962Club: Gambit by Rex Stout

 

Rex Stout wrote 33 novels and 41 novellas about the private detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin. The novellas were published in 14 books; each book has two, three or four novellas.  The books are narrated by Archie. The series began in 1934 and the last book in the series, A Family Affair, was published in 1975, shortly before Stout's death. Over the forty plus years in which this series was published, the protagonists did not age at all, but they were always placed within the context of the time that the book was written. 

I read Gambit for the 1962 Club hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. This is a reread. I have read all of the books in the Nero Wolfe series multiple times. 

A man has been murdered at a chess club, during a special event. Paul Jerin, a chess maven, was playing chess games against multiple players at the same time. The men playing against him were in one room and he was in a room by himself. Matthew Blount arranged the event, and four men, friends of his, were messengers supplying each opponent's moves to Jerin. Shortly after the event begins, Jerin begins feeling ill. Soon he is taken to the hospital and ultimately he dies of poisoning. Blount, an important business man, is arrested for the crime because all the evidence points towards him. 

Sally Blount, 22-year-old daughter of the accused man, hires Wolfe to clear him because she doesn't believe that his lawyer can do the job. She has to scrape together her own money to hire Wolfe because her family doesn't want Wolfe involved.

The Nero Wolfe series is fun to read because Wolfe has so many quirks. He hates to leave his home, thus he needs Archie Goodwin to do the legwork for him. He has a strict routine every day, including four hours each day (9am-11am) and (4pm-6pm) in his plant rooms on the top floor of his brownstone caring for his orchids. He never discusses business when eating. And eating and good food are very important to him. He has a cook (who also keeps the house clean) and a full-time expert in charge of the orchids. But his biggest quirk is that he does not like to work and only takes a case when he needs the money. Part of Archie's job is to prod him into accepting cases and make sure they keep an adequate balance in the bank to live on and pay his employees.

However, this book has one of the most straightforward plots of the 33 novels that Rex Stout wrote. Less of the quirks are evident or emphasized. The plotting is intricate and the mystery is especially challenging.

One of the many things I love about the Nero Wolfe novels is the beginnings. Usually the first paragraph or two provides a very good introduction. In this case, Wolfe is burning a dictionary in the front room; a prospective client (with an appointment) shows up but Wolfe doesn't want to be interrupted. He is burning the dictionary because he strongly objects to some of the definitions. The dictionary being burned is Webster's New International Dictionary, Unabridged (Third Edition), published in 1961. This third edition did cause some controversy when it first appeared, so I guess that Stout was commenting on that. I am sure that I was a bit dismayed by the thought of burning a book even when I first read the book in my teens or twenties, but Wolfe explains to Archie that he is allowed to burn his own personal copy.

There are often literary references in the books. In most of the Nero Wolfe novels, Wolfe is reading a book, usually a recently published book. In this book it is African Genesis by Robert Ardrey, published in 1961. I remember reading that book, but I probably read it in the early 70s. Because Sally stays in an extra room at Wolfe's brownstone for a few days due to friction with her family, Wolfe allows Sally to read any book off his shelves, and she picks a book by Voltaire. Twice, during a meal, Wolfe and Sally discuss topics involving Voltaire, his writing and his life. 

All in all, Gambit by Rex Stout was an exceptionally good read, as I expected. It is entertaining, and funny at times, but towards the end it gets darker as Wolfe and Archie close in on the murderer. Even knowing who did it, I did not remember how Wolfe fulfills his mission to clear Matthew Blount. And I have only scratched the surface of this plot, even though the book is short, around 150 pages.

Six Degrees of Separation: From I Capture the Castle to The Six Iron Spiders

 

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is I Capture the Castle (1948) by Dodie Smith. I had never read this book and it is on my Classics list, so I decided to get a copy and read it right away. This book seems to be almost universally loved, but I was disappointed, although I didn't really have any expectations. Nevertheless, I am glad I read it.

From I Capture the Castle I move on to another book with Castle in the title, The Man in the High Castle (1962) by Philip K. Dick. This book is in the alternate history subgenre. Philip K. Dick creates a world in which the Axis countries won World War II and the United States has been split into three sections. The Western coast is under Japanese rule, the East coast is governed by the Germans, and in between is a neutral zone, sort of. The year is 1962 and the story starts out in the Japanese sector. 

Again linking via a word in the title, my next link is to The High Window (1942), by Raymond Chandler.

Chandler's novels feature the private investigator Philip Marlowe. In The High Window, Marlowe is called in by a wealthy widow, Elizabeth Bright Murdock, because a coin in her late husband's coin collection is missing. She thinks that her daughter-in-law took it, and she wants Marlowe to find it. You would think that she could ask her son about it, but apparently no one in this family talks to anyone else. The coin that is missing is a Brasher Doubloon, in mint condition and very valuable. This novel was not as good as the previous two books in the series, The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely, but it is still an excellent book. Where this novel does live up to the earlier promise of the two previous ones is in the beauty of the writing. Cover art is by Tom Adams, who also illustrated the covers for many Agatha Christie paperbacks.

Using the word Window in the title, I next link to Bedrooms Have Windows (1949) by Erle Stanley Gardner. A.A. Fair is a pseudonym used by Erle Stanley Gardner for the Bertha Cool and Donald Lam series. They are private investigators. Flamboyant, fast-talking Bertha Cool is the boss; Donald Lam works for her. I have not read this book in the series. My copy has a lovely cover illustration by Darryl Greene. 

I have read another book by Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A.A. Fair. Gold Comes in Bricks (1940) is about the same private investigator team. This is the second book in the series and Bertha Cool is still trying to mold Donald Lam into the employee she wants him to be. At the beginning of the book, Donald is studying jujitsu with a master named Hashita. Bertha wants him to be able to protect himself. He is not a tall, handsome, beefy detective. He is short and lean, brains not brawn. Henry Ashbury happens upon the training session and contracts with Bertha to hire Donald to find out how his daughter, Alta, is spending her money. He is concerned that it might be gambling or payments to a blackmailer. He brings Donald into his home as a physical fitness trainer and potential business partner so that he can get to know his family. While following Alta, he also uncovers a scheme to sell gold mine shares which Ashbury's stepson is part of. A very complex plot. The cover of my edition has an illustration by Robert McGinnis, my favorite illustrator for novels of this period.

Using Gold in the previous title leads me to The Golden Spiders (1953) by Rex Stout. Rex Stout is my favorite author. I have read all of the Nero Wolfe titles multiple times. This is a good one, although not in my top ten list for his series. In this novel, Nero Wolfe uncharacteristically agrees to work with a young boy from his neighborhood on a potential case of possible kidnapping. Before long, Archie and Wolfe and his pack of freelance detectives are investigating a group of people taking advantage of poor immigrants who are seeking help in getting settled in this country.

Spiders in the previous title leads me to my last book in the chain, The Six Iron Spiders (1942), by Phoebe Atwood Taylor. This book is a later entry in the Asey Mayo series. Taylor wrote 22 Asey Mayo mysteries between 1931 and 1951. This one was published in 1942, set during World War II. Asey has a job in the Porter Motor Tank Plant but has returned to his home on Cape Cod for two days. I haven't read this book, although I did read the first book in the series, The Cape Cod Mystery. See Kate's review of this novel at Crossexaminingcrime.

My Six Degrees took me from the UK in the 1930s to various locations in the US. The Man in the High Castle covers from the West Coast to the East Coast and two characters take a road trip though the middle of the US. Most of Raymond Chandler's and Erle Stanley Gardner's books are set in California, on the West Coast. Nero Wolfe lives in New York City, and Asey Mayo lives in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, both on the eastern side of the US. Not only that, but all of the books, including the starting book, were published between 1940 and 1962.

Have you read any of these books? I am especially interested in any one who has opinions on Bedrooms Have Windows or The Six Iron Spiders, since I haven't read those yet, and I am motivated to do so soon.

If you are participating in the Six Degrees meme this month, where did your links take you? 

The next Six Degrees will be on November 4, 2023, and the starting book will be Western Lane by Chetna Maroo, a novella that is part of the read-along for Novellas in November 2023.