Book Description
Eleven years ago, wealthy Nebraska businessman James Herrold unjustly threw his only son, Paul, out of the family business. Now he wants Nero Wolfe to find Paul so he can make amends. But what if the young man doesn't want to be found? And what if he's the same Paul Herrold on trial for murder? This case draws the great detective and his devoted sidekick into a web of deceit, one that even the master sleuth may regret taking on. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Exemplary Nero Wolfe mystery
A murder conviction; a missing person; a beautiful woman; even a distraught family - but Nero Wolfe puts the pieces together and again solves the mystery puzzle.One of Rex Stout's most complicated and satisfying Nero Wolfe mysteries.

Getting better -- much better
This is my second Nero Wolfe book, and I'm getting the message.Wolfe's an eccentric; Archie is someone I'd love to meet; the stories carry me along.The denouement in this book is not exactly shocking, but I'm getting into the rhythm of Stout's writing and plan to keep going with more stories until I'm hooked -- or not.

Great Stuff!
Rex Stout was an amazing writer. His characters are great. The dialogue and action are crisp. And, where did he get the ideas for his stories? Some of the plotlines really draw you in. Take this book, one of Stout's best. In Might As Well Be Dead, the great detective Nero Wolfe is asked to locate a young man missing for over a decade--who turns out to have just been convicted of murder. Wolfe has to put his considerable mental prowess to work to overturn the conviction, along with his helpers--the irrepressible Archie Goodwin, and Saul, Fred, Orrie, and Jimmy. One of Wolfe's colleagues doesn't make it to the end of the story, which makes it personal for Wolfe. The cops are breathing down their necks. And, just to add to the mix, Archie falls in love with the attractive woman pining for the man on death row. Great stuff!

Another Outstanding Story
The CD edition of this just came out, and leaves us all begging for more.Michael Pritchard's restrained but agile style once again makes this one of the best stories from Rex Stout.

You can tell it's the 1950s, and that to some extent Stout is reacting to Mickey Spillane's popularity.He has Archie and Saul doing some things here that are downright over-the-top - perhaps more so than in any other Wolfe story.

A nice transition:the beneficiaries of Wolfe's services here are actually rather depressed.You sure do wish we had Prozac back in the early 50s.However, Wolfe serves up a happy ending which restores all our optimistic expectations.

What if your client fires you?Nero simply says, well, pay me a fee of $50,000.00 and we'll call it square.Of course, when the client balks, Wolfe then enumerates all the equitable theories of why Wolfe earned the fee and is not blackmailing the reluctant client into paying.

One constant element of Wolfe:he believes in earning his fees, regardless of his immobility.And he earns it here, for sure.You'll love this one...

Search for a missing son turns into a murder case
James R. Herrold threw his son Paul out of the family business 11 years ago - unjustly, it turns out, and he now wishes to set the account straight. When Wolfe and Archie begin advertising for a P.H. who's now known to be innocent, though, it attracts Purley Stebbins, wanting to know why they're interested in Peter Hays, who's on trial for 1st degree murder. Archie opts to look at Hays, just on the chance - and seeing his face in defiance at the jury's guilty verdict, with life in it, sees the kid in Herrold's college photo.

Albert Freyer, Hays' attorney, comes to Wolfe, who breaks his rule of discretion and makes common cause with him. Freyer's never seen Hays with any life in his face, and knew nothing of his past; when they first met, Hays had said he might as well be dead, being given over to despair. Archie, Wolfe, and Freyer believe he's innocent (partly because *somebody* followed Archie to court, and it sure wasn't Hays).

Hays is supposed to have shot Michael Molloy, the husband of the woman he loved, but he's been standing mute. Mrs. Molloy couldn't divorce him (this was 1956) even though he was maltreating her. An anonymous man had called Hays up with a tale of Molloy starting to beat up Selma, and the cops were tipped off to the shooting by an anonymous caller. Hmm.

Hays hasn't got enough of a personal life for the frameup to be personal, and Selma Malloy appears to have no outside interest (as well as an alibi). Archie, therefore, goes to work questioning her, partly because she used to be Molloy's secretary, and can give them a line on any interesting business dealings he may have had. (The current secretary is far less appealing to him.) The first scrap is a safe deposit box, location unknown, in the name of Richard Randall - if they can find it.

The usual supporting players are deployed to the fullest: Saul, Fred, and Orrie (naturally), and even the more rare Johnny Keems. They have the joyous task of sorting through Molloy's associates and poking into holes, trying to stir something up without being bitten. ... Read more

Book Description
Deemed one of Stout's "All Time Best," this mystery is unique in the series in that for the first time, Nero Wolfe, who rarely even leaves his house, breaks all precedent by leaving the country to discover the murderer of his best friend. Post World War II politics are woven into the plot as Wolfe and his assistant Archie experience grueling adventures in the mountainous region of Yugoslavia. 6 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Best for those who have already read many of the other Nero Wolfe novels
While I greatly enjoyed reading the Black Mountain, it was, in part, the fact that it was so different from the other novels that I found it fascinating. Throughout the series there are somewhat vague references to Wolfe's life before coming to the U.S. This novel fills in much of that back-story, and gives the avid fan a better idea of what makes Wolfe tick. However, I would have to agree with reviewers who don't recommend this book to someone new to the series. It is not consistent with the rest of the novels in the series in setting or tone, and is best enjoyed by those who appreciate the difference, as well as the additional insights into Wolfes character and background.

For True Nero Fans, Only
If you're new to Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe, you couldn't pick a worse place to start.However, if you already have an appreciation for the Nero/Archie banter and the nuances of the relationships with the minor characters, then you'll enjoy seeing them painted on a very different canvas, as far from the brownstone as they ever got.

This book is neither as bad as the 1- and 2-star reviews suggest, nor as good as the 5-star reviews (including that of the audiobook's narrator, oddly) claim.I enjoyed it, but only because I've made my way through 80% of Stout's Nero Wolfe novels and novellas. As others have noted, Mr. Pritchard's voice and flat accent doesn't match up to those in the late, lamented A&E series.

Away from the comforts of home, Nero not quite as interesting
It takes the murder of his closest friend to get Wolfe up; not only out of his chair but out of the country. Returning to Montenegro, Wolfe pursues the killer, amidst political intrigues and endless travels across unfriendly territory. The problem is what should prove to be a thrilling tale of vegeance becomes a travelogue from hell. Archie is along for...I'm not quite sure why he's there. He does a lot of standing around in the middle of a lot of dialogue he needs to have translated. The reversal of Archie's role is incredibly ineffective and this one once again proves that Wolfe is best behind his desk.

Lack of Credibility
So much disbelief must be suspended to enjoy Nero Wolfe.In this story, even more than usual has to be thrown out the window.

That Nero would be loyal to Marko Vukcic is understandable.That he would personally endure the events of this book is a lot less easy to swallow.

It's almost hard to read (or listen to) this one.While you appreciate Wolfe's passion and commitment, the setpieces Rex creates for him are beyond Wolfe's described capabilities.

So, OK, even if you accept these sudden shifts, you then have to cope with a really hackneyed plot and very contrived and stereotypical situations "behind the iron curtain."If you wanted that, you could read John LeCarre and get much better writing.

Skip it.However, Michael Prichard (see spotlight review) does his customarily thorough and convincing job reading it.

Okay, I'm an addict.
There are more flaws in the plot than in my golf swing, but because of the theme, the setting, the emotion, and the close constant interaction between Wolfe and Archie I loved it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Rex Stout: A biography
I have read quite a few of the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. I always enjoy going into the old brownstone with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. From reading the blurbs on the books, I gathered that Rex Stout had lived a very interesting life. John McAleer does a wonderful job with Stout's biography. He begins with his ancestry, and gives an account of his family, his first and second marriages, and the births of his daughters. He also follows Stout's early career as a writer, and tells us about Stout's EBS, a thrift banking system he invented in the late 1910's. Stout began to write the Nero Wolfe mysteries in 1934, and wrote 72 Nero Wolfe stories until his death in 1975. The thing I found fascinating was that Mr. McAleer gives us the time when each novel was written, with how many days Stout wrote and days he didn't write. This book is extensive, but I was captivated reading about the life of one of my favorite authors, Rex Stout. This biography is highly recommended.

Biography? Rather, A Hagiography of Rex Stout
John McAleer's massive biography, or rather hagiography, of thelate, brilliant Rex Stout, nowadays best remembered for his creation of the fictional detectives Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, goes all the way back to Stout's maternal and paternal ancestors who arrived in America in the 17th century.

While McAleer's volume has been criticized as "one of the most trivia-crammed and uncritical works ever written by a Professor of English" (David Langford, Million Magazine, 1992, reproduced at ...l), nonetheless it is the only complete biography of one of the most astonishing figures of the 20th-century American literary landscape.

Stout, of Quaker ancestry for five generations on both sides of his family, was the embodiment of both the puritan work ethic and the true heir of his distant relation Benjamin Franklin, in that no moss grew on the man: he kept busy from the day he was born until the day he died, originating and becoming independently wealthy from business enterprises, founding and managing literary and charitable foundations, and producing a prodigious literary output which was at once entertaining and also reflecting a liberal and world-federalist social conscience in a fashion acceptable to most Americans even at the depths of the Nixon-Jenner-McCarthy anticommunist hysteria of the late 1940's and early 1950's.

While McAleer's compendium of the minutiae of Stout's existence predicated upon long personal acquaintance, friendship with and love for Stout and his works may not be to the casual reader's taste, those of us who have dimly glimpsed the soul of one the masters of American letters reflected in his witty and amusing detective fiction can savor Stout's genius in this remarkable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The First, The Best
I read this book shortly after it first came out and loved it.Baring-Gould, the man who deconstructed Sherlock Holmes so well and creatively, takes on Sherlock's "illegitimate son" here.

The speculations (like the above) are extravagant but great fun.The characterizations are better, though.As much loved as Archie is throughout the series, he is even livlier here.

Despite "proportional inaccuracies" about the brownstone's floorplan, Baring-Gould really makes us feel like we've walked through the front door.

In order to tell the Wolfe story well, you just have to have a hyphenated last name!

Flawed by a Bad Floor Plan
This is, of course, the seminal book on everybody's favorite fatty.Even 35 years ago, however, when scholarly studies of Nero Wolfe were in their infancy, I was stuck by how badly proportioned the page-192 first-floor plan of the brownstone house was. It had all the correct rooms, true, but the scale was clearly grotesque -- for instance, the dining room was apparently 3 times the size of the office. Compare it to the infinitely more exact (and realistic) plan on page 100 of Ken Darby's book "The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe."Perhaps Baring-Gould merely had a bad draftsman; if not, he clearly had no understanding of the elements of architecture -- or of what was fairly clearly spelled out by Stout in the Canon....

"Nothing corrupts a man as deeply as writing a book"
The title of this review is the lead quote from chapter 27, "The Philosophy of Nero Wolfe." :)

Originally published in 1969, the bibliography, though not the internal chronology, are complete up to _The Father Hunt_ (i.e., the last 4 novels and _Death Times Three_ had not been published as yet), and naturally Rex Stout's own name graces the top of the dedication list. Both Stout and Baring-Gould were noted Baker Street Irregulars; Baring-Gould gave the world his excellent Annotated Sherlock Holmes, while Stout authored the infamous "Watson Was a Woman" theory.

It's a pity that Baring-Gould couldn't give Wolfe the full annotation treatment that he gave Holmes; apart from the problem of copyrights, Wolfe has a far larger canon than Holmes did. Part Two of this volume devotes chapters 12 - 26 to Wolfe's cases in chronological order, up to _Death of a Doxy_. Each case's salient points are briefly outlined without giving too much away; those which weren't explicitly dated are analyzed to place them in time. I personally found this of less interest than the rest of the book; some extra material giving the flavour of the time in which the stories were set would have seasoned it more to my taste.

The rest of the book, though, gives Baring-Gould more scope. Chapter 1, "The Private Detective", lovingly analyzes the quirks that make Wolfe fun to watch (e.g. "Contact is not a verb under this roof"; as you may recall, a client once paid an extra $1000, though he never knew it, for using it that way in the office). This is followed, of course, by "The Man of Action" (analyzing Archie), "An Old Brownstone House" (hey, it's practically a character itself, and a floorplan is provided at the end of the book), and "The Major Domo" (Fritz, of course; we also get "Wining and Dining with Nero Wolfe" later on).

Theodore never got enough time on stage to provide enough material for a chapter of his own, but we do get "A Wolfean Guide to the Orchidaceae" (I wish the publisher had sprung for colour illustrations). Zeck, however, does get a chapter, as do the homicide squad and the irregulars (Saul, Fred, Orrie, et al.)

Chapters 9 - 11 - Baring-Gould's theories about how Wolfe might be a blood relative of Holmes, Wolfe and Marko might be brothers, and Archie might be Wolfe's nephew - can be best appreciated if you think about them as poetic justice for that "Watson Was a Woman" business Stout pestered the Baker Street Irregulars with; I don't take them seriously, myself.

All in all, good stuff, as any serious treatment of Wolfe should be. The final case-by-case chronology (starting with Wolfe's probable birthdate, and including cases mentioned by Archie but never published) is *very* nice.

A Must For Any Wolfe Fan
Baring-Gould has written the essential reference book for any and all fansof Rex Stout's wonderful creation. Not only does he provide a superb careersummary of Wolfe's adventures, he gives a plan of the first floor of thefamous Brownstone on West 35th Street, a summary of each of the mysteriesand a chronological sequence for the mysteries. This book tells youeverything you want to know about the great detective, his assistant (andgadfly) Archie Goodwin, and all of Stout's wonderful cast of characters.

Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-Fifth Street
Excellent "bed-side" companion to anyone interested in Nero Wolfe "history."This "biography" is told in three parts:the characters, the stories, and a short, final part, with thephilosophy & library of Nero Wolfe and other random thoughts "fromthe files of Archie Goodwin."I especially like the map of the groundfloor of Wolfe's house and the chronology time-line at the end. ... Read more