I read this book for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted over
at My
Reader’s Block from January 1 – December 31, 2016. The challenge is to read
books that you already own.
The Silent Speaker
– Rex Stout
In this 1946 Nero Wolfe mystery, the head of the federal
Bureau of Price Regulation has been beaten to death with a monkey wrench in the
green room just before he is to give a speech to his adversaries, the National
Industrial Association. Since the manufacturers disliked having their prices
regulated, due to wartime contingencies, there are scores of suspects in the
murder.
…the public, the people, had
immediately brought the case to trial as usual, without even waiting for an
arrest, and instead of the customary prolonged disagreement and dissension
regarding various suspects, they reached an immediate verdict. Almost unanimously
they convicted – this was the peculiar fact – not an individual, but an
organization. The verdict was that the National Industrial Association had
murdered Cheney Boone.
With public opinion inflamed against the captains of
industry, the PR-conscious association hires PI Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin,
his sidekick, to find the killer. In an unusual twist, Wolfe does at the beginning
of the case what he usually does at the end: he gathers all the suspects to his
office in his famous brownstone which he rarely leaves. Wolfe’s mildly
anti-business, pro-individualism stance makes him objective. Archie suspects
business, but Wolfe also considers the victim’s co-workers as potential
culprits. The first third of the book feels a little long. The gears were
grinding, perhaps because this was the first full-length Wolfe mystery written
in six years, as Stout had been doing war work.
There is a second killing, not to mention the vanishing
of the bureaucrat’s last Dictaphone roll. In the last third or so, too much
time is given to the search for the disappeared roll. However, for Stout and
his fans like us, the puzzle is not really the thing, but characters and
setting are. The interplay between Wolfe and Archie, as narrated by Archie, is
as delightful as ever. They trust each other, but they are very different people.
What Wolfe tells me, and what he
doesn’t tell me, never depends, as far as I can make out, on the relevant
circumstances. It depends on what he had to eat at the last meal, what he is
going to have to eat at the next meal, the kind of shirt and tie I am wearing,
how well my shoes are shined, and so forth. He does not like purple.
The writing and plotting may make for what at times feels
like a slow read, but this is still a satisfying addition to the series and
would be enjoyed by any confirmed fan.
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