Not Quite Dead Enough by Rex Stout

The army wants Nero Wolfe urgently, but he refuses their clarion call to duty. It takes Archie Goodwin to titillate Wolfe’s taste for crime with two malevolent morsels: a corpse that refuses to rest in peace and a sinister “accident” involving national security. It’s up to the Grandiose Master himself, Nero Wolfe, to set the traps to catch a pair of wily killers—as Archie lays the bait on the wrong side of the law. Introduction by John Lutz “It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”—The New York Times Book Review A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America’s greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. Together, Stout and Wolfe have entertained—and puzzled—millions of mystery fans around the world. Now, with his perambulatory man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth is back in the original seventy-three cases of crime and detection written by the inimitable master himself, Rex Stout.

Very entertaining, with two stories in one novel and the added extra of the unusual circumstance of Archie being in the army and Wolfe in training. Lots of fun.

This installment in the series always leaves me feeling...eh. It's not like I don't enjoy parts of it, but it's not Stout at his best. A lot of it feels forced actually, as if Stout felt compelled to write something in support World War II and just couldn't find a way to work it into the series naturally.

Let me say upfront, I don't blame Stout for falling a little flat here–while he wrote this he was working a lot to support FDR and the war effort through various means. If you haven't read McAleer's biography of Stout, I'd highly recommend it, particularly over this period. It makes sense that he wasn't at his best here.

Like Black Orchid, Not Quite Dead Enough is made up of two novellas. In the first, we are introduced to Major Archie Goodwin, of Army intelligence. He's sent to NYC to recruit his once and future boss to the effort. Wolfe's far more interested in joining the infantry (see the quote below), and has given up the detective business and his assorted comforts and indulgences in order to train. The description of his training and his appearance at this time are worth the effort alone.

Archie uses a case that his long-time friend, Lily Rowan, was trying to get him involved with to rekindle Wolfe's dormant detective skills as a way to move him from his focus on the infantry to intelligence. The case isn't that interesting, really, but there are some fun characters.

The second novella, Booby Trap shows us the Major acting as Wolfe's handler while he acts as a civilian consultant to the intelligence service. In this particular instance, Wolfe gets to play to his strength, dealing with a couple of murders of Intelligence officers investigating some fraudulent arms sales. I find it disappointing, really, but I do read it occasionally.

My lukewarm feeling toward these stories carries over to the quotes I jotted down:

Not Quite Dead Enough
[Wolfe speaking:] “I am going to kill some Germans. I didn't kill enough in 1918.”

Wolfe pronounced a word. It was the first time I had ever heard him pronounce an unprintable word, and it stopped me short.

Booby Trap
“Indeed,” I said. That was Nero Wolfe's word, and I never used it except in moments of stress, and it severely annoyed me when I caught myself using it, because when I look in a mirror I prefer to see me as is, with no skin grafted from anybody else's hide, even Nero Wolfe's.

[Wolfe speaking:] “Archie. I submit to circumstances. So should you.”