Reading Those Classics #11

Classic American Mystery. Rex Stout was an American writer best known for creating the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe. Stout wrote a total of 33 novels and 39 collected novellas or short stories, and is often accused of being a weak plotter, poor at characterization and too formulaic. While this may be true of too many of the novels, many of his novellas are entertaining, well plotted and contain good characterization.

Might as Well Be Dead - Rex Stout

In this 1956 mystery hardware titan James Herold comes all the way from the Gateway to the West – Omaha - to the Big Apple to hire famous PI Nero Wolfe and his wingman Archie Goodwin. The mission is to find his son Paul Herold. Paul was unjustly accused of theft by his father James. Taking the injustice to heart, Paul left home and maintained contact with this mother and sister only by sending birthday cards.

James Herold has the guilts now that the real thief has been discovered and wants to make amends. He thinks Paul is someplace in the New York City area. Finding somebody in the Apple that doesn’t want to be found is like finding a white cat in a blizzard. So Wolfe resigns himself to placing an ad for a P.H. How ordinary! Or better – how quotidian, as the big-word loving Stout may say but doesn’t in this case thought he does have the woman-hating Wolfe use “hoyden” (rowdy girl) in another connection.

Commonplace or not, the ad shakes the tree. Wolfe finds a P.H., who unhappily happens to be one Peter Hayes, convicted of first-degree murder on day two of Wolfe’s investigation. Hayes’ lawyer thinks that he has been framed but does not have the resources to do any sleuthing. Hayes’ girlfriend, also the murder victim’s wife, suspects he is indeed the culprit and this colors her thinking and actions. Archie Goodwin thinks Peter Hayes could be Paul Herold.

Wolfe’s ego is on the line because one of his employees was killed on this job. So, this makes it personal, as the tried and true line goes. This is better than average Wolfe novel, even to me who prefers the novelettes over the novels. The creative dialogue is a draw because Stout is a master of the wisecrack and quip. An ex-insurance guy, Stout has a strong sense of rules and procedures in the business world and the default settings of business executives that give the mysteries verisimilitude.

Coincidences play a bigger role in this one than I like, but what the hay because the scenes we enjoy are in place. What makes Wolfe stories especially cheering are his confrontations with police nemeses like Cramer and Stebbins and his inevitable gathering of suspects in the office in the brownstone. I don’t know why sending Cramer on his way in a rage or plunking persons of interest in the red leather chair is so soothing and entertaining. But there it is.

Click on the title to go to the review.

Prize Winning Classic: The Moviegoer – Walker Percy

Classic Novella: Old Man – William Faulkner

Classic Epistolary Novel: Augustus – John Williams

Classic Comic Novel: Thank you, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse

Classic Short Stories: New York Stories – John O’Hara

Classic Air Pilot Memoir: Wind, Sand, and Stars - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Classic Set in the Big Apple: Manhattan Transfer – John Dos Passos

Classic 19th Century Novel: Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite – Anthony Trollope

Classic Police Procedural: Wolf to Slaughter – Ruth Rendell

Classic War Memoir: Flight to Arras - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry