Family Affair
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4.6 • 78 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
What could make Nero Wolfe so determined to solve a crime that he would be willing to work entirely without fee or client? What would it take to put him, for the first time, at a loss for words? What would make him so angry about at case that he would refuse to speak to the police, even if he has to spend fifty-one hours in jail as a result? Never before in the Nero Wolfe books has Rex Stout shown us the extremes to which the greatest detective in the world can be pushed, but never before has a bomb blown up in the old brownstone on West 35th Street, murdering someone right under Wolfe's nose.
When in October 1974 Pierre Ducos, one of Wolfe's favorite waiters at Rusterman's, Wolfe's favorite restaurant, dies just down the hall from Archie's Bedroom, Wolfe is understandably eager to find the perpetrator, but when that murder somehow becomes connected with tape recorders, Washington lawyers, and maybe even a conspiracy to obstruct justice, his fury becomes so intense that even Archie is puzzled. Not only is this a great chapter in the Nero Wolfe legend; A Family Affair is a splendid mystery novel that should capture many new fans and will delight (and amaze) the long-standing admirers of Wolfe and Archie.
Customer Reviews
Unsettled
The narrator was quite good. The writer was quite good. The problem is the narrator is English nut the characters are all American. It was jarring to hear all the Virginians speaking as if they were all in the English countryside. This could have been solved any making the police from Scotland Yard and the county East Anglia. The main. Character kept making mistake after mistake in lunging after wrong suspects. The subplots were good but there were too many of them.
Why didn’t Riley just ask the sister of the fourth victim where she got the doll in the photo? She would have known. She would have saved about thirty pages to find Dirk.
Why didn’t Riley make a bigger deal about the unlocked door of the paranoid friend who supposedly suicided. Nope the next book is better.
A bit of sad farewell
I know quite a few critics and friends who don't like this one. I disagree with them.
This is the last Wolfe story Stout wrote. In fact it was published the year of his death -- and it does have the feeling of finality. Especially when you see who the killer is. But, the beauty in this story lies in how the characters of Wolfe, Archie, Saul and Fred all react and deal with the unpleasant and unwelcome revelation.
It's worth the read.