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A review by liliales
Murder by the Book by Rex Stout
4.0
This is the second of eleven Nero Wolfe books I'm gathering this season in order to complete my collection. It was written about 15 years after the one I read a few days ago, The League of Frightened Men, and is quite different in style and tone. It's the style most people think of when they think of a Rex Stout book, that is, if they do at all. Much less prosey, much more Archie's story. In a way, this is a strength, because if Archie is telling us a story, despite his near-perfect memory, he's going to share more "goddammits" and fewer retellings of Wolfe's theories on life and the meaning of it all. And it's almost endearingly sexist in a way a book just couldn't be these days.
As to the story itself. It's a pretty good one. I could easily imagine it adapted for the screen, which for me means an organized story with good pacing, good characterizations, and just enough action to break up all the dialogue these stories are built on. The only passage I take real issue with is a nine page letter shared in full in the second half of the story. I'd have handled that in another way if I were laying out the plot myself.
If anyone reads this series of reviews, you'll notice I don't go into much or any specific detail about the plots. That's because to me, a series like this is much more about the characters than about the story. But I will say that if you have never read a Nero Wolfe story before, this one would be a fair one to begin with, keeping the time period in mind for context.
As to the story itself. It's a pretty good one. I could easily imagine it adapted for the screen, which for me means an organized story with good pacing, good characterizations, and just enough action to break up all the dialogue these stories are built on. The only passage I take real issue with is a nine page letter shared in full in the second half of the story. I'd have handled that in another way if I were laying out the plot myself.
If anyone reads this series of reviews, you'll notice I don't go into much or any specific detail about the plots. That's because to me, a series like this is much more about the characters than about the story. But I will say that if you have never read a Nero Wolfe story before, this one would be a fair one to begin with, keeping the time period in mind for context.