The Final Deduction by Rex Stout was first published in 1961. Althea Vail is a rich woman, married to a much younger man and when she turns up at Nero Wolfe’s door saying that her husband has been kidnapped it seemed to me that this was going to be an obvious plot to figure out, in fact I nearly rolled my eyes.
However there are plenty of twists and turns and I just love being in the company of Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe, not forgetting Fritz the chef, I wish he could come and cook for me!
I hadn’t realised until I read this one that in US-ian the word kidnapped is spelled with only one ‘p’ (apparently) unless they got it wrong all the way through my copy of the book. I found it very difficult to NOT read it kidnayped – you live and learn.
To the best of my knowledge, we in the U.S. spell ‘kidnapped’ the same way you do, with two ‘p’s. However, Merriam-Webster, my trusted dictionary, says ‘kidnaped’ is an alternative spelling. Interesting that they consistently spelled it that way in the edition you read. As an aside, the movie Horrible Bosses 2 has been running a trailer in which someone points out that ‘kidnaping’ is spelled wrong.
Joan,
It seems very strange that they should have chosen that spelling which seems to be seen as wrong now, actually I’ve just noticed that the copyright is 1955. Another one which annoys me is the word ‘connexion’ rather than the more normal ‘connection’. It’s usually in older crime fiction and some classics but I have seen it in a Michael Innes book from the 1970s.
Sorry to be so late to comment on this. Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series is one of my favorites and I am glad you like Nero and Archie and Fritz. Those unusual spellings are very interesting.
tracybham,
Yes I was amazed when Joan said that 2 ‘ps’ are usual in US, it’s definitely ‘kidnaping’ the whole way through my edition of the book.