A review by hannahstohelit
And Be a Villain by Rex Stout

4.25

Who did it was never actually much of a mystery- only two and a half people really got the necessary backstory to allow them to be realistically considered as murderers, and one of them ended up the second victim* under circumstances which made the murderer EXTREMELY obvious. In some ways, the trimmings here were more entertaining than the actual mystery- the blackmail subscription racket was VERY clever, and I loved the detail that part of the big secret was that Madeline hated the sponsor product- but those trimmings did make it a good read. A lot of fun, and was definitely curious what the idea was with this Arnold Zeck character- the setup successfully fooled me, someone who is not by and large reading these in order, into thinking that Zeck had previously showed up in a Nero Wolfe book. 

*I'm... not so sure what I think about the second victim. I'm not sure how

Madeline counted on Deborah being the one to specifically eat the chocolate, and while Wolfe points out that it was a tiny chance, it felt more like handwaving the way that it was there for shock value over actual logical behavior for a murderer- surely Madeline could have come up with something less risky? And if it had failed, I can't imagine Deborah wouldn't have gotten immediately suspicious after a second death and gone to the police/Wolfe.