Series
Publication
Crimeline (1991), 208 pages
Original publication date
1964
Collections
Genres
Subjects
Description
Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:When a bright young heiress with a flair for romance and one too many enemies is found brutally murdered, Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, find themselves embroiled in a case that is not as black and white as it first appears. Susan Brooke has everything going for her. Men would have killed themselves to marry her, and, in fact, one did. Susan came to New York to find love and fulfillment, and ended up dead on a tenement floor. The police say her black fiance did it, but Wolfe has other ideas. Before he's done, he'll prove that good intentions and bad deeds often go hand in hand and that the highest ideals can sometimes have the deadliest consequences.
User reviews
LibraryThing member MrsLee
This is a good follow up story to Too Many Cooks. I like it very much.
LibraryThing member benfulton
Perhaps the best 39th book in a series that I have ever read. Published in 1964, this book tackles some tough interracial issues that are still unsolved today, and it wasn't twenty years ago that I was working with folks who would have been ready to go after an interracial couple with a shotgun.
Show More
Nero Wolfe isn't prejudiced, but of course the fact of color - or gender, for that matter - in 1964 couldn't be ignored, and when the murderer is eventually unmasked the motive rings true without getting preachy about it. Archie Goodwin is always fun to read about, and the action is nonstop as it should be, but the clue that eventually leads to the denouement seems a little unlikely to me. Still, one has to make allowances for book #39 - anything that will be really logical will have already been done. But reading Rex Stout is like eating potato chips - you can't stop after just one. Show Less
LibraryThing member Bjace
When a character from Nero Wolfe's past turns up and asks Wolfe to disentangle his son from an interracial relationship, Wolfe and Archie end up investigating the young woman's murder. Not one of the better Nero Wolfe books, but Wolfe and Archie are always fun.
LibraryThing member MusicMom41
In an earlier novella (from Three for the Chair) Wolfe and Archie are stuck in the Adirondacks until Wolfe can solve a murder. In order to do that he must get a piece of information from one of the black servants and he delivers a speech to them that does convinces a young black boy he should share
This novel was to be published in 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed and his publisher was considering not publishing it because of it's “controversial” nature. Stout threatened to go to another publisher so naturally it was published by his long-time publisher and ended up being one of his best selling novels.
Show More
his information with Wolfe. That boy in snow a professor at a college and he comes to Wolfe to convince him to find some “dirt” on the white girl his son plans to marry. He convinces Wolfe to take a job that ordinarily he would never consider by quoting verbatim the speech Wolfe had delivered those many years ago.This novel was to be published in 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed and his publisher was considering not publishing it because of it's “controversial” nature. Stout threatened to go to another publisher so naturally it was published by his long-time publisher and ended up being one of his best selling novels.
Show Less
LibraryThing member WetheReaders
This follow-up to one of Rex Stout's earliest and most popular Nero Wolfe mysteries, "Too Many Cooks," is an intriguing and disturbing impression of race relations in New York society during the Civil Rights era. If you seek an "issues" novel for teens, choose "Too Many Cooks" for a deft, subtle,
Show More
multi-faceted look at race relations from many angles, wrapped up in a classic whodunit. Show Less
LibraryThing member addunn3
Nero Wolfe solves the murder of a woman engaged to a black person while both were active in the civil rights movement in New York. Excellent read - good verbiage from our favorite private investigator (not "private eye"!).
LibraryThing member antiquary
This is not one of my favorite Nero Wolfe stories. There are some of his later ones that seem to me to be self-consciously trying to be involved with issues of the day, which makes me uncomfortable. Realistically., Stout included reference to current issues since the 1930s, but the 1960s was the
Show More
first period I was old enough to be really aware of these issues.n this story, Paul Whipple, who in the 1930s as a young black college student/waiter had been a key witness in Too Many Cooks (one of my favorite stories) is now a middle-aged professor at Columbia (it that athough Wolfe and Goodwin and their regular circle never age, other character s do. Now his son is active in the civil rights movement and talking of marrying a white young woman also active ni his gorup (the imaginary Rights of Citizens Committee). The older Whipple believes she must have a flaw and asks Wolfe to find it. He has hardly begin when the woman is murdered and the younger Whipple becomes the prime suspect. Naturally Wolfe investigayes. Show Less
LibraryThing member mmoj
Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories are always enjoyable for so many reasons. I love Archie and the interactions he has with Nero, clients and suspects. The stories are quick and easy but still have me guessing up until close to the end.
In this installment Nero receives a visit from Mr. Whipple, an
Of course she does before any dirt can be dug-up and Nero must know find-out who did it so Mr. Whipple's son isn't convicted of her murder.
This is not a book for those who find race issues and the treatment of African Americans offensive. The N___ word is used many times but I think in this case and in the era it was written was necessary to show the unreasonable hatred people in these times had. I don't think we would understand the irrational and unjustified hatred one person could have if we used modern language. It astounds me that people can hate so easily and for nothing but the skin color or accent a person might have.
In this installment Nero receives a visit from Mr. Whipple, an
Show More
African American Anthropology Professor who is worried about his son. Nero owes Mr. A Whipple a favor and he's calling it in. Mr. Whipple's son is engaged to a white woman and Mr. Whipple thinks there must be something wrong with her.Of course she does before any dirt can be dug-up and Nero must know find-out who did it so Mr. Whipple's son isn't convicted of her murder.
This is not a book for those who find race issues and the treatment of African Americans offensive. The N___ word is used many times but I think in this case and in the era it was written was necessary to show the unreasonable hatred people in these times had. I don't think we would understand the irrational and unjustified hatred one person could have if we used modern language. It astounds me that people can hate so easily and for nothing but the skin color or accent a person might have.
Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
The beginning of this entry in the Nero Wolfe series brought to my attention something that I had not really considered much before (unrelated to the plot). This book was published 30 years after the first book in the series & in all that time, none of the inhabitants on the brownstone on 35th
Now, if Paul Whipple is somewhere between 45 and 50, Archie should be 60 and Wolfe even older. One would think that Stout would have struggled with this dilemma but in true Nero Wolfe style, he dismisses it as beneath notice. By nary a word is this breach in logic even hinted at. And he pulls it off!
As for the plot of this book - I vacillated between 3.5 and 4 stars. I thought that the mystery was 3.5* but the social commentary about the Civil Rights movement and race relations during the early 1960s made it worth the extra half star. Wolfe truly does not care what color a man's skin is - just what his character and intellect are. Ironically, several of the black suspects feel that he is treating them badly because of their race, not realizing that he acts that way with everyone!
Show More
Street have really aged (none of the regular or semi-regular characters have). Archie is still going out dancing and flirting with the women he meets as he did in the early books. What brought this to my notice was that the client in this book was Paul Whipple, someone who had, as a very young man, helped Wolfe in "Too Many Cooks" (book 5 of the series). Now he is a middle-aged man with a son in his 20s engaged to be married. Now, if Paul Whipple is somewhere between 45 and 50, Archie should be 60 and Wolfe even older. One would think that Stout would have struggled with this dilemma but in true Nero Wolfe style, he dismisses it as beneath notice. By nary a word is this breach in logic even hinted at. And he pulls it off!
As for the plot of this book - I vacillated between 3.5 and 4 stars. I thought that the mystery was 3.5* but the social commentary about the Civil Rights movement and race relations during the early 1960s made it worth the extra half star. Wolfe truly does not care what color a man's skin is - just what his character and intellect are. Ironically, several of the black suspects feel that he is treating them badly because of their race, not realizing that he acts that way with everyone!
Show Less
LibraryThing member ritaer
Nero Wolfe investigates death of young white woman engaged to marry black civil rights worker. Her fiancé is accused and Wolfe owes his father a favor.
LibraryThing member leslie.98
2020 review of audiobook edition, narrated by Michael Pritchard:
The beginning of this entry in the Nero Wolfe series brought to my attention something that I had not really considered much before (unrelated to the plot). This book was published 30 years after the first book in the series & in all
Now, if Paul Whipple is somewhere between 45 and 50, Archie should be 60 and Wolfe even older. One would think that Stout would have struggled with this dilemma but in true Nero Wolfe style, he dismisses it as beneath notice. By nary a word is this breach in logic even hinted at. And he pulls it off!
As for the plot of this book - I vacillated between 3.5 and 4 stars. I thought that the mystery was 3.5* but the social commentary about the Civil Rights movement and race relations during the early 1960s made it worth the extra half star. Wolfe truly does not care what color a man's skin is - just what his character and intellect are. Ironically, several of the black suspects feel that he is treating them badly because of their race, not realizing that he acts that way with everyone!
The beginning of this entry in the Nero Wolfe series brought to my attention something that I had not really considered much before (unrelated to the plot). This book was published 30 years after the first book in the series & in all
Show More
that time, none of the inhabitants on the brownstone on 35th Street have really aged (none of the regular or semi-regular characters have). Archie is still going out dancing and flirting with the women he meets as he did in the early books. What brought this to my notice was that the client in this book was Paul Whipple, someone who had, as a very young man, helped Wolfe in "Too Many Cooks" (book 5 of the series). Now he is a middle-aged man with a son in his 20s engaged to be married. Now, if Paul Whipple is somewhere between 45 and 50, Archie should be 60 and Wolfe even older. One would think that Stout would have struggled with this dilemma but in true Nero Wolfe style, he dismisses it as beneath notice. By nary a word is this breach in logic even hinted at. And he pulls it off!
As for the plot of this book - I vacillated between 3.5 and 4 stars. I thought that the mystery was 3.5* but the social commentary about the Civil Rights movement and race relations during the early 1960s made it worth the extra half star. Wolfe truly does not care what color a man's skin is - just what his character and intellect are. Ironically, several of the black suspects feel that he is treating them badly because of their race, not realizing that he acts that way with everyone!
Show Less
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0553240323 / 9780553240320
Physical description
208 p.; 4.19 inches
Pages
208