Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (The First Nero Wolfe Mystery)

This was my introduction to a new author and new detective, courtesy of my good friend on Vocal, John Cox, who recommended Stout’s books. He was right to as well, as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I do love a good detective murder mystery and this was particularly quirky, mainly because of the character of Nero Wolfe but also because of the narration of Archie Goodwin, who is our guide through this whodunnit.

Nero Wolfe is an extremely intelligent man; a reader of people and behaviour but despite this skill and rather paradoxically, he is a recluse, possibly agoraphobic? Whatever his reason for it, Wolfe never leaves the house and has Goodwin as his runner, sent on information-gathering missions with a view to returning with a report on what he’s found out. Wolfe though, despite his social reticence, enjoys certain things in life so is not without some pleasures, namely beer, good food made by his resident chef, Fritz and orchids, Wolfe being something of an expert on these and tending to them with reverence and dedication. There is the suggestion that he is incapacitated in some way – through corpulence maybe but I don’t remember it ever being explained explicitly. It is of no matter, as all that is relevant is that Wolfe is eccentric, like most good detectives are, Holmes and Poirot springing to mind.

This mystery is expertly unfolded by Stout. It deals with two deaths: that of Carlo Maffei and Peter Barstow, seemingly unrelated but actually inextricably linked. To talk too much about the plot here would do a disservice as it is in its revealing and the way that Stout has Goodwin following instructions and interviewing people that the secrets are revealed. Wolfe almost has a sixth sense, seeing things from the evidence garnered that Goodwin can’t and so, as Goodwin is our guide, we learn of Wolfe’s conclusions at the same time.

Archie is a lively narrator, likeable and no slouch himself, able to wheedle facts from his interviewees with charm and no small degree of wile.

What was especially good in this story was a shocking fact which is almost casually exposed by one of the later main characters in the book and a subsequent twist linked to this that reveals much about Wolfe and his moral compass although it does not involve him at all.

A good read.