Nearly Nero
The Adventures of Claudius Lyon, the Man Who Would Be Wolfe
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Based on the Nero Wolfe series—one of the longest running, critically acclaimed, and bestselling series in the crime fiction world—a collection of Nero Wolfe–inspired crime stories from one of the most prominent crime writers of his era.
From 1934 until his death in 1976, Rex Stout entertained the world with the exploits of Nero Wolfe—the eccentric, organ-breeding detective genius—as related by Archie Goodwin, his irreverent legman. Nearly Nero is an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek homage to Stout’s greatest creation.
Claudius Lyon is a fanatic admirer of Wolfe. He has retrofitted himself and his townhouse after Wolfe’s and has hired a man named Arnie Woodbine to serve as his Archie Goodwin. However, Lyon’s naiveté and Woodbine’s larcenous nature constantly put them in jeopardy—more than Wolfe and Goodwin ever faced.
Somehow the imitator manages to find a solution from every problem. But can he and his assistant keep up this pretense for long?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The conceit of this disappointing collection from Edgar-finalist Estleman (the Amos Walker series) is solid enough. A lazy, wealthy Brooklynite, who idolizes Rex Stout's detective Nero Wolfe, renames himself Claudius Lyon and hires Arnie Woodbine as an assistant, just because Arnie's name sounds like the name of Wolfe's leg man, Archie Goodwin. Arnie, an ex-con, misses no opportunity to steal from his boss, who, finding orchids too much to handle, has settled for growing tomatoes when not playing amateur sleuth. While Stout fans may be amused by the 11 short stories, one original to this volume, the caricatures and the humor aren't at the level of, say, Lawrence Block's hilarious Leo Haig and Chip Harrison series (The Topless Tulip Caper, etc.). By contrast, Estleman's characters, mysteries, and deductions are slight, with the solutions to the puzzles often obvious and repetitive, such as the whereabouts of a poetry contest winner.
