Publication
Crimeline (1994), 256 p.
Original publication date
1948
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Description
Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:Madeline Fraser, radio talk show host extraordinaire, had a natural dread of dead air. So when one of her on-air guests signed off at the mike after drinking a glass of a sponsor�??s beverage, it was a broadcaster�??s nightmare come true. Enter Nero Wolfe. He agrees to take the case, with his sizable fee contingent on his solving the murder. But to Wolfe�??s surprise, everyone connected to the case now lies in unison about it. And as the portly detective soon discovers, the secret worth lying about only hides another worth killing for. Introduction by Maan Meyers �??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… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Eurydice
With its setting in radio, satire on advertising, subtlety, tightly-written scenes, and cast of interesting, distinct female characters, this is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe mysteries. The villain is one of his best. And to top it all, Arnold Zeck is introduced, and used with a controlled menace I
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still admire. Show Less
LibraryThing member thornton37814
A radio show guest is murdered live on the air, poisoned after drinking some of the sponsor's beverage. Was the guest the intended victim or did the bottle end up in the wrong person's hand? What was the motive? While there were a few places the plot bogged down, it rarely did so while Nero Wolfe
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was in the detecting mode. We listened to this on audiobook downloaded from Overdrive and were amused every time it told us to change the cassette or to flip the cassette or hit reverse. Could these directions not be edited out? Still, it provided a laugh every thirty minutes or so, and the rating is unaffected by this oddity. Show Less
LibraryThing member jburlinson
Any impulse to abandon this tale after the first couple of chapters should be resisted stoutly. This early section is loose to the verge of incoherence, but that is wholly attributable to an overabundance of Archie Goodwin's literary jejunity. There is marked improvement as the central character
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assumes his proper position, "at the helm" of the proceedings, to borrow a phrase. An ingenious extortion scheme is detected in short order and Goodwin so far redeems himself as to submit a most satisfactory performance. The imbecility of the city's officialdom is depicted and appropriately reprehended. All is reavealed by the protagonist in a scene that is carefully prepared for and admirably begun. Regrettably, the ultima, as it were, is hurried and huddled, detracting somewhat from the brilliance of the solution. Pfui! Show Less
LibraryThing member ShanM816
Wolfe's bank accounts are getting low, and he proposes to a radio personality to solve a murder she was unfortunately involved in. First he must sort out whether the victim was the intended victim, or whether he was accidentally murdered by someone who wished to kill the popular host of the radio
I always enjoy Nero Wolfe mysteries - it always feels like I'm visiting old friends, because nothing ever changes. This one is no different.
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show he was a guest on at the time. And he must work out how, or if, the betting tip sheet published by the victim figures into it.I always enjoy Nero Wolfe mysteries - it always feels like I'm visiting old friends, because nothing ever changes. This one is no different.
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LibraryThing member mmyoung
A return to earlier form with a murder and a solution that are well executed. There are a few moments of stunning misogyny but since the world in which the murder takes place revolves around a highly intelligent and emotionally strong woman those moments feel less annoying than they do in other
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books. Show Less
LibraryThing member wildbill
I felt this was an above average Nero Wolfe mystery. It begins with Wolfe soliciting a client, which is unusual. Someone drank the sponsor's product on a radio show and died. It was murder by cyanide poisoning. Bad publicity for everybody. Wolfe comes up with a clue and then turns it over to
Wolfe gets a phone call and according to other sources this is the first time we hear from "Zeck". The plot turns 180 degrees and then Wolfe invites all the usual suspects over to his office.
The end (without naming anyone) is the classic question all around the room and then name the murderer.
The dialogue was very good and once Wolfe got back to work so did the plot. Four Stars
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Cramer. Archie doesn't like Wolfe being so lazy so he stirs things up a bit.Wolfe gets a phone call and according to other sources this is the first time we hear from "Zeck". The plot turns 180 degrees and then Wolfe invites all the usual suspects over to his office.
The end (without naming anyone) is the classic question all around the room and then name the murderer.
The dialogue was very good and once Wolfe got back to work so did the plot. Four Stars
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LibraryThing member addunn3
A talk show guest is poisoned and Nero Wolfe needs money so he injects himself into the case. The plot is a bit intricate and at times confusing to a light reader, but enjoyed the usual quips from Archie.
LibraryThing member ecw0647
I am in the process of rereading (listening to the perfectly matched Michael Pritchard) many of the Rex Stout Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin mysteries. They hold up very well; in fact, as each novel takes place contemporaneous to its writing, many could be considered period pieces. And be a Villain
The usual marvelous characters are in place: Inspector Cramer, Fritz (the incomparable cook,) Sgt. Stebbins, and delightfully the Asst. police commissioner O’Hara who, because the case is high-profile insist on horning in. (“Wolfe said to tell you. you’re a nincompoop but I’m too polite to mention it.”) For those not familiar with the series, Nero Wolfe (pay absolutely no attention to the execrable TV series with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin - they make me gag) is an enormously fat and brilliant detective who never leaves his house (well, almost never) and his wise-cracking side-kick, Archie who follows Wolfe’s directions and reports conversations verbatim.
The language is precise and clever replete with comments such as “Someday, sir, you’ll get on the wrong train by trying to board yours before it arrives,” and “there was no finger pointed without wavering,” and finding a solution by “tramping down the improbabilities.”
One could argue that the books are formulaic and I suppose they are, but when you have such a perfect combination, what’s not to enjoy?
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takes place in 1948 so there are no cell phones, everything is typed, etc. Commercials were done live on the radio, and that features prominently in the mystery as one of the murders is committed on-the-air during a live broadcast, the featured product being spiked with cyanide.The usual marvelous characters are in place: Inspector Cramer, Fritz (the incomparable cook,) Sgt. Stebbins, and delightfully the Asst. police commissioner O’Hara who, because the case is high-profile insist on horning in. (“Wolfe said to tell you. you’re a nincompoop but I’m too polite to mention it.”) For those not familiar with the series, Nero Wolfe (pay absolutely no attention to the execrable TV series with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin - they make me gag) is an enormously fat and brilliant detective who never leaves his house (well, almost never) and his wise-cracking side-kick, Archie who follows Wolfe’s directions and reports conversations verbatim.
The language is precise and clever replete with comments such as “Someday, sir, you’ll get on the wrong train by trying to board yours before it arrives,” and “there was no finger pointed without wavering,” and finding a solution by “tramping down the improbabilities.”
One could argue that the books are formulaic and I suppose they are, but when you have such a perfect combination, what’s not to enjoy?
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LibraryThing member regularguy5mb
I've been watching a lot of private investigator television and films lately on Netflix, which put me in the mood to go back and read some of the great detective fiction from the 40s. This one has been sitting in my to-read pile for too long, so I figured it was time.
Nero Wolfe, armchair detective
In this adventure, a guest of a radio show is murdered live on air, and from the start it is obvious that the cast and crew of the show are hiding something, but what?
This is my second Nero Wolfe read, and I felt this one got a little bogged down in the middle. There was so much extemporaneous excitement regarding another, seemingly unconnected murder, the myriad secrets of the radio program staff, a game of cat and mouse with a young girl who is a member of the radio host's fan club and always around the set helping out, and a mysterious caller who advises Nero to drop the case for his own good. It all connects, of course, but it certainly takes its time with it. Even Archie, who works as narrator for these cases, gets fed up with how long it takes for things to come together.
Still, a fun read and definitely recommended if you like the classic detective tale.
Nero Wolfe, armchair detective
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extraordinaire. The man solves crimes without ever leaving his home. Instead he relies on his associate, Archie Goodwin, to seek out all pertinent information and report back for Wolfe to put his mind to it and solve the case.In this adventure, a guest of a radio show is murdered live on air, and from the start it is obvious that the cast and crew of the show are hiding something, but what?
This is my second Nero Wolfe read, and I felt this one got a little bogged down in the middle. There was so much extemporaneous excitement regarding another, seemingly unconnected murder, the myriad secrets of the radio program staff, a game of cat and mouse with a young girl who is a member of the radio host's fan club and always around the set helping out, and a mysterious caller who advises Nero to drop the case for his own good. It all connects, of course, but it certainly takes its time with it. Even Archie, who works as narrator for these cases, gets fed up with how long it takes for things to come together.
Still, a fun read and definitely recommended if you like the classic detective tale.
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LibraryThing member wormread
This is one of the best Wolfe books. It is very well written and although the crime is not a very complicated one you still enjoy joining Archie and Wolfe on the trip. I stronly recommend this book.
LibraryThing member antiquary
A guest on a popular radio show is poisoned with the sponsor's soft drink, and Wolfe is called in. It turns out that the motive for murder was blackmail, and the blackmailer was an agent of Arnold Zeck, Nero Wolfe's Dr. Moriarty. So, oddly enough, in their first encounter Wolfe and Zeck are on the
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same side --Wolfe 's actually avenging one of Zeck's men. However, as the murderer killed two other people, one of whom was genuinely innocent, justice was served. I note this is another Wolfe story in which the poison of choice is cynanide, Show Less
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
When a radio talk show guest is murdered during a live broadcast, Nero Wolfe is hired to investigate.
The fee will come in handy to pay the IRS the large sum he owes. Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin uncover additional criminal activity as they investigate the murder. As usual, they beat
I borrowed the audio version from OverDrive, and it has not been updated for the digital era. Every 30-40 minutes, the reader instructed us to either flip the cassette over or insert the next cassette. The reader's voice also reminded me very much of radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. If you think either of these things would annoy you, I suggest sticking with the print version.
The fee will come in handy to pay the IRS the large sum he owes. Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin uncover additional criminal activity as they investigate the murder. As usual, they beat
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Inspector Cramer to the solution of the crime and the identification of the criminal.I borrowed the audio version from OverDrive, and it has not been updated for the digital era. Every 30-40 minutes, the reader instructed us to either flip the cassette over or insert the next cassette. The reader's voice also reminded me very much of radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. If you think either of these things would annoy you, I suggest sticking with the print version.
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LibraryThing member breic
Interesting. There is a lot of personality, and quick dialog. The characters are a bit cartoonish for my taste, and don't feel real. I can see how one could grow into them. I like the bits of humor, but in the mystery genre I'd rather see keen observations of humanity, and those were just missing.
LibraryThing member BooksForDinner
Another excellent Wolfe mystery, this may have been my favorite so far in the series.
LibraryThing member SamSattler
Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series is the first detective series I remember getting myself hooked on. The good news back then (the mid-sixties) was discovering that the series had started years before I was born (with 1934’s Fer-de-Lance), so there were already lots of Nero Wolfe books for me to
As I began And Be a Villain, I had vivid memories of the Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin characters and the amusing relationship that developed between them over the years. Theirs was/is much more than an employer/employee relationship; the men respect each other, care for each other, and are real friends. That, in fact, is part of what makes their verbal sparring so much fun. But even though this is not the first time I’ve read And Be a Villain, I remembered very little about it’s actual plot, so reading it now was almost like reading it for the first time.
Nero Wolfe is almost literally an “armchair detective” — and he’s a good one. Wolfe is a large man (I picture him as someone approaching a weight of 300 pounds) who refuses to leave his New York City apartment for any reason. Archie Goodwin, considerably younger than Wolfe, and a whole lot more agile, does all of the leg work involved in a Nero Wolfe investigation. In the meantime, Wolfe happily follows his own schedule of meals at specific times and two daily sessions with his beloved orchids.
This time around, popular radio talk show host Madeline Fraser has had the unthinkable happen during one of her live broadcasts. A guest has dropped dead on-air after taking a sip of from a soda provided by one of the show’s sponsors. All the police know for certain is that someone slipped cyanide into one of the bottles, and that this particular guest drew the unlucky bottle. It is exactly the kind of case that appeals to Wolfe, and because he has a large tax bill due just when his cash flow is at a low point, he offers his services to the radio network and the show’s sponsors on a contingent basis. If he solves the case before the police do it — or if the police solve it only because of a Wolfe-provided clue — he cashes their $20,000 check. If he fails, they get the check back.
But when Wolfe gathers up all the principals involved with Madeline Fraser’s radio show, he makes his first discovery: they are all lying — maybe not all for the same reason, but each and every one of them is holding something back. And that’s a fatal mistake, because now Nero Wolfe is ticked.
Bottom Line: And Be a Villain (1948) is the thirteenth Nero Wolfe mystery, and by this time fans of the series were familiar with the Wolfe and Goodwin characters. Feature films based on the Rex Stout characters had been produced by 1948, and television was going to make Nero Wolfe a household name in various TV series over the coming decades. The Nero Wolfe novels are usually not very long, but they are always satisfying. Fans of character-driven mysteries will particularly enjoy them, I think, but the mysteries are always solidly constructed ones that readers will also enjoy trying to solve before Wolfe gives them all the answers.
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enjoy. Even better, Stout kept writing new ones every couple of years right up until his death in 1975, so for a long time there was always another new Nero Wolf story to look forward to. And as I’ve just been reminded, author Robert Goldsborough added another sixteen Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books between 1986 and 2021, meaning I have even more Nero Wolfe material to explore now than I ever imagined. As I began And Be a Villain, I had vivid memories of the Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin characters and the amusing relationship that developed between them over the years. Theirs was/is much more than an employer/employee relationship; the men respect each other, care for each other, and are real friends. That, in fact, is part of what makes their verbal sparring so much fun. But even though this is not the first time I’ve read And Be a Villain, I remembered very little about it’s actual plot, so reading it now was almost like reading it for the first time.
Nero Wolfe is almost literally an “armchair detective” — and he’s a good one. Wolfe is a large man (I picture him as someone approaching a weight of 300 pounds) who refuses to leave his New York City apartment for any reason. Archie Goodwin, considerably younger than Wolfe, and a whole lot more agile, does all of the leg work involved in a Nero Wolfe investigation. In the meantime, Wolfe happily follows his own schedule of meals at specific times and two daily sessions with his beloved orchids.
This time around, popular radio talk show host Madeline Fraser has had the unthinkable happen during one of her live broadcasts. A guest has dropped dead on-air after taking a sip of from a soda provided by one of the show’s sponsors. All the police know for certain is that someone slipped cyanide into one of the bottles, and that this particular guest drew the unlucky bottle. It is exactly the kind of case that appeals to Wolfe, and because he has a large tax bill due just when his cash flow is at a low point, he offers his services to the radio network and the show’s sponsors on a contingent basis. If he solves the case before the police do it — or if the police solve it only because of a Wolfe-provided clue — he cashes their $20,000 check. If he fails, they get the check back.
But when Wolfe gathers up all the principals involved with Madeline Fraser’s radio show, he makes his first discovery: they are all lying — maybe not all for the same reason, but each and every one of them is holding something back. And that’s a fatal mistake, because now Nero Wolfe is ticked.
Bottom Line: And Be a Villain (1948) is the thirteenth Nero Wolfe mystery, and by this time fans of the series were familiar with the Wolfe and Goodwin characters. Feature films based on the Rex Stout characters had been produced by 1948, and television was going to make Nero Wolfe a household name in various TV series over the coming decades. The Nero Wolfe novels are usually not very long, but they are always satisfying. Fans of character-driven mysteries will particularly enjoy them, I think, but the mysteries are always solidly constructed ones that readers will also enjoy trying to solve before Wolfe gives them all the answers.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
Archie & Wolfe were up to their standard forms and this book introduces the criminal mastermind Arnold Zeck (Stout's version of Moriarty) who appears in several other later books in the series.
LibraryThing member brone
Not his best but better than most of that genre
LibraryThing member tuckerresearch
I was introduced to Nero Wolfe through the amazing Nero Wolfe A&E series, so I see Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin, et al. So, after a hiatus of several years, I got a hold of And Be a Villain and liked it, so I decided to get them all so I could read them in order
This one is number 13: And Be a Villain. Always in need of money, big spending Nero Wolfe, the team takes on a possible case at another of those big businesses that could only really exist in New York City. Someone has died on a radio show and was it murder? Wolfe, for money, seeks to find out. More deaths, blackmail, some good meals, and Archie wisecrackery.
This is the one that made me want to read them all, so it did a good job. I re-read it recently, in order with the others, to see how it fit in to the Wolfe timeline: pretty good.
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(from 1934 to 1975).This one is number 13: And Be a Villain. Always in need of money, big spending Nero Wolfe, the team takes on a possible case at another of those big businesses that could only really exist in New York City. Someone has died on a radio show and was it murder? Wolfe, for money, seeks to find out. More deaths, blackmail, some good meals, and Archie wisecrackery.
This is the one that made me want to read them all, so it did a good job. I re-read it recently, in order with the others, to see how it fit in to the Wolfe timeline: pretty good.
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Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9780553239317
Physical description
256 p.; 4.19 inches
Other editions
And Be a Villain by Rex Stout (Digital audiobook)
Pages
256