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A review by hannahstohelit
The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
4.75
It was interesting going straight from the first two Nero Wolfe books, written in the 30s, to this one written in the mid-60s, but what was most fascinating was how little seemed to have changed- not so much in the setting/characters (which I'd come to expect from having heard about the series) but in the writing and plotting. That said, it is clear that Stout developed as an author at some point over that time because this was tight, interesting, compelling, and with some really clever plotting and trickery that was always fun to read.
The FBI element here was fascinating, and I hadn't realized til afterward that The FBI Nobody Knows was a real book that was incorporated into the narrative. (Which in retrospect makes sense as I did remember reading something about a tell-all book at some point.) The FBI makes an interesting antagonist here, as they are portrayed from the start as having impunity but Wolfe is able to quickly find the exact weak spot in that impunity- that they are unable to be caught because they are not concerned with acting illegally, and so the tools of the (resentful and therefore cooperative) law may well be the best way to take them down.
The central murder here would be pretty basic if not for the FBI trappings, but that's not a criticism- it's a description of how seamlessly Stout managed to weave the story together, completely obscuring the massive coincidence that anchors the plot behind a complex web of various motivations from different characters and logical legerdemain. The final quarter, and Wolfe's plot, was spellbindingly clever and so well done. (The coincidence was, in fact, so well obscured that it took me until I was writing this review to realize how blatant it was- it's possible that there was an in-universe justification but if so I don't remember it, and also I don't care because if you blink every time there's a coincidence in a mystery novel your eyes will be closed too often for you to be able to read mystery novels.)
If this is what I have to look forward to from future Nero Wolfe books then I'm excited!
(Score probably should really be somewhere between 4.5/4.75, but on balance I'm happy to bump it up.)
The FBI element here was fascinating, and I hadn't realized til afterward that The FBI Nobody Knows was a real book that was incorporated into the narrative. (Which in retrospect makes sense as I did remember reading something about a tell-all book at some point.) The FBI makes an interesting antagonist here, as they are portrayed from the start as having impunity but Wolfe is able to quickly find the exact weak spot in that impunity- that they are unable to be caught because they are not concerned with acting illegally, and so the tools of the (resentful and therefore cooperative) law may well be the best way to take them down.
The central murder here would be pretty basic if not for the FBI trappings, but that's not a criticism- it's a description of how seamlessly Stout managed to weave the story together, completely obscuring the massive coincidence that anchors the plot behind a complex web of various motivations from different characters and logical legerdemain. The final quarter, and Wolfe's plot, was spellbindingly clever and so well done. (The coincidence was, in fact, so well obscured that it took me until I was writing this review to realize how blatant it was- it's possible that there was an in-universe justification but if so I don't remember it, and also I don't care because if you blink every time there's a coincidence in a mystery novel your eyes will be closed too often for you to be able to read mystery novels.)
If this is what I have to look forward to from future Nero Wolfe books then I'm excited!
(Score probably should really be somewhere between 4.5/4.75, but on balance I'm happy to bump it up.)