This is the first book in Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series which was handy for me as I haven’t read any of his books before. Fer de Lance was first published in 1934 and is set in New York. Given the time and place I thought it would be all prohibition, gangsters and speak-easies, which would have suited me fine but it was nothing like I expected it to be.
Luckily I did still enjoy it, the book is narrated by Archie Goodwin who is the private detective Nero Wolfe’s right hand man. Archie is a likeable character, he does all the running around town because Nero Wolfe rarely leaves his home. His vast bulk stops him from getting around much and puzzling over a mystery often takes a back seat when his love of good food and beer takes precedence. Fritz the Swiss chef is a very important member of the staff. Wolfe is always trying to limit himself to five quarts of beer a day, with no success.
Although this is the first in the series, you wouldn’t guess it because Archie is always mentioning things which happened in the past, old cases and people they helped out of trouble so you get the feeling of a long standing relationship, there’s a shared history.
The amount of booze consumed was a surprise to me, I think prohibition must have just made people more determined to get a hold of it.
In this story a golfer falls down dead on the course, supposedly it was a heart attack but Nero Wolfe knows differently and proves it. That’s as much as I’m saying about that!
However – I haven’t seen any dramatisations of Nero Wolfe, I suppose some must exist but we’re steeped in Poirot and Marple here and I don’t remember anything American apart from Ellery Queen way back in the year dot. I did wonder though if the person who wrote the 1960s/70s Ironside with Raymond Burr had based the whole thing as an updated version of Nero Wolfe. There are lots of similarities I think. Ironside didn’t get about much because he was confined to a wheelchair and he relied on his staff to do the leg work for him. As I recall, Ironside was rather fond of his food too, I seem to remember they were often all gathered around a dining table. Ironside didn’t have a penchant for orchids though, which is Wolfe’s other passion apart from food and beer.
I haven’t read much in the way of vintage American mystery/crime. Does anyone have any suggestions as to who else I should give a go?
I love mysteries so I will definitely have to check Nero Wolfe out.
Have you ever read any of the Walter Moseley’s Easy Rawlins mysteries? Easy is a self-trained African-American detective. He and his crazy sidekick Mouse work to solve cases in Los Angeles of the fifties and the sixties. One thing is for sure; you will never forget Mouse.
It can be raw. Sometimes I have to skip over the explicit sexual parts of the book.
Judaye,
Thanks for the info, I haven’t heard of Walter Moseley but I’ll definitely try him out, a black detective is different. The thing I like about vintage crime is that you don’t get the sex, blood and gore but as you say – I can just skip those bits. Thanks for dropping by.
Katrina
I’ve never really cared for Nero Wolfe mysteries. They sort of leave me ‘meh’.
BUT I will whole heartedly recommend Ellery Queen if you haven’t tried him. Great mysteries & a whole lot of style!
Debbie,
Of course Nero Wolfe is different for me a bit exotic, as is the language, for one thing I don’t know exactly what a roadster is – apart from a vehicle! I seem to remember that I read a couple of Ellery Queen books years ago but I haven’t seen any for ages. Maybe they’re out of print now, I’ll have a look at book seller websites.
I have read a few Ellery Queen when I was younger. We did have a TV show run for two years of Nero Wolfe. It was very good and stuck pretty close to the books. It ran on A&E a channel over here. We had one other before this one but this second one is the best. here is another link you might find interesting. There was also an Ellery Queen TV Show that was pretty good. You can purchase these at amazon. Not sure if they will work in UK but here is the http://www.amazon.com/Nero-Wolfe-Complete-Classic-Whodunit/dp/B000CRR3CE Some authors are: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James Cain, Ross MacDonald, Erle Stanley Gardner (he wrote the Perry Mason books) Martha Grimes, My favorite Mary Roberts Rinehart. That will give you a start!
Sorry that last hyperlink didn’t work out:( still takes you wher you need to go just not pretty! also I forgot to add Elizabeth Daly she is a great mystery writer from here!
Peggy Ann,
Thanks for the website info and for jogging my brain, I’d forgotten that you mentioned Mary Roberts Rinehart to me before but I hadn’t heard of Martha Grimes before and didn’t realise Ross MacDonald was from the US. So many authors to try out, I’ll have to set aside more reading time!
Carolyn Wells is another vintage American Mystery writer I just posted about her today with a link to free digital books by her!
Peggy Ann,
I just hopped over, she was certainly a very busy lady. I’m going to have to get a Kindle as I don’t fancy reading from my Netbook.