: If Death Ever Slept
Author: Rex Stout
I’m starting to get a feel for these Nero Wolfe novels now. Though I’ve only read a few, they do seem to have certain things in common: 1. The crime is always murder; 2. Nero never leaves his house and hates working. 3. The group of suspects is small and we know one of them is guilty; 4. There are no real clues; 5. Extra murders are always done to cover up the first murder, and it is these murders that help break the case (and Stout is oddly dispassionate about murder — death is extremely casual in his stories); 6. Nero solves the murders using logic about human behavior (pyschology, if you will), instead of traditional crime detecting techniques (for instance, he can deduce that so-and-so wouldn’t have done a particular murder because it wasn’t done in their “style”); 7. Archie Goodwin, Nero’s assistant and narrator of the stories, is really the main character as Wolfe just makes grand cameo appearances as necessary; 8. Wolfe is highly motivated by money but always seems to turn down fees or fire clients, which is rather odd.
This particular novel is more about Archie as he leaves Wolfe to live with a family as a spy for their client, and when murder happens, he’s right in the middle of it. While this one is well-written and has some good characters, the mystery part of it — including the conclusion — is weak and boring. Wolfe does nothing extraordinary except fire his client. It’s my least favorite of those I read so far.
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