A Family Affair
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
15
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
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 a 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. - Jacket flap.
Series
44 primary booksNero Wolfe is a 43-book series with 43 primary works first released in 1934 with contributions by Rex Stout and Fernanda Pinto Rodrigues.
Reviews with the most likes.
Unusual for the crime being committed in Wolfe's home, which produces some odd behaviour from the fat detective. I enjoy these Nero Wolfe novels. Some are less good than others but they're never bad.This is certainly not in the top rank, but it's still fun.
and so my little Wolfe-a-week project ends, where Stout himself ended things. A fitting end to a great series. Unlike most of the series, I'd only read this one once–I think I was in junior high school, and figured that was enough. I honestly don't think I picked up on half of what really happened in it then, but I caught enough of it. I still understand the decision, and debated whether I should read it this year.
I'm glad I did. And not just because I got so much of what I didn't get before. This was Stout at nearly his best (there's a conversation towards the end between Archie and Saul that's almost impossible to truly track due to pronoun confusion), certainly not ready to stop. But it's impossible to read this without wondering if he knew it was his last.
The plot certainly makes it seem that way. And I know I'm not the first (and won't be the last) to note that. There's no doubt about it, this is the most emotional Wolfe novel. Moreso than even In the Best Families or The Black Mountain.
The shadow of Watergate looms over this – and not in an entirely beneficial way – but it's forgivable.
It could end no other way than it did. The climax ends quickly, almost too quickly to take in properly, but that's just how Stout works. These books are about the thinking, about the order of Wolfe's office, not action, blood, guts, or any of the other hallmarks of American Detective fiction.
Great way for a great man–no, great men, to go out.
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