Status
Available
Series
Genres
Publication
Bantam Books (1981), Edition: 3rd Printing, Mass Market Paperback
Description
When high-society kidnapping unexpectedly turns to very seamy murder, all concerned turn to the great detective, Nero Wolfe, for the missing piece in the puzzle. A missing typewriter, a mysterious ransom note--and a beautiful corpse. Step into the unassuming Thirty-fifth Street brownstone, and join in the astounding exploits of Nero Wolfe. Marvel at his daily beer consumption, his unsurpassed appetite, the incredible expanse of his yellow silk pajamas. Bear witness to his unwavering, often infuriating addiction to fine foods, good books, beautiful orchids and custom-made chairs. Empathize with his confidential assistant Archie Goodwin, archetypal private eye and man of action, whose primary function is prodding his immense employer into motion. See for yourself why, through a hundred million copies and seventy-two cases, the adventures of America's largest private detective and his extended family continue to captivate and enthrall readers around the world. Discover Nero Wolfe--the greatest detective of them all. "It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore."--The New York Times Book Review… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Romonko
If you are not familiar with the rotund armchair detective Nero Wolfe, here would be a good place to start. Nero is a gourmand who grows orchids, and happens to solve mysteries for a living. He and his wonderful sidekick Archie Goodwin are always in on the best cases! The setting is early sixties
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New York City, and the nostalgia alone makes each book worth it. In this book a very rich woman comes to Wolfe to have help getting her husband back who was kidnapped. Of course Wolfe does not understand women, but he makes his own deductions anyway. Archie and Wolfe find there is murder running alongside this kidnapping, and Wolfe needs to figure out what is going on. These books are great. They are intelligent mysteries with a lot of black humour to help them go down. Show Less
LibraryThing member ABVR
There’s little to say about The Final Deduction as a mystery, save that it follows the conventions of the Golden Age. The suspects are numerous, the clues abundant, the violence offstage, and the motives straightforward. Nobody’s sister is also their daughter, and nobody is doing a drag act
What sets Stout apart from the other Golden Age writers who also do it well is his bifurcation of the detective into two people. Wolfe is thought, Goodwin action, neither complete (or capable of solving the case) without the other. Their relationship is – to someone like me, who’s new to the series – engagingly weird: neither friends nor partners, but also not master and protégé or employer and employee. The closest analogue may be that of an aristocrat and his valet, which captures Wolfes’s languid certainty of his own centrality to the universe, and Arche’s intimate-yet-distant presence in his life. Their bickering and needling of one another, and Archie’s mordant asides to the reader about his employer, also suggest a couple who, after years of marriage, have neither secrets from or illusions about one another.
Stout’s join portrait of his two lead characters, combined with his richly detailed depiction of life in Manhattan at the dawn of the 1960s, helped to raise The Final Deduction out of the realm of “diverting, but not gripping” which is where Golden Age whodunits usually fall for me. It left me amenable to trying another of Wolfe and Archie’s long series of adventures sometime, but not inclined to immediately seek one of them out.
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disguised as their dead mother. Rex Stout handles it all well – suspects, clues, motives, and detection – right down to the scene where Nero Wolfe, with sidekick Archie Goodwin and the reader looking on, Explains It All. What sets Stout apart from the other Golden Age writers who also do it well is his bifurcation of the detective into two people. Wolfe is thought, Goodwin action, neither complete (or capable of solving the case) without the other. Their relationship is – to someone like me, who’s new to the series – engagingly weird: neither friends nor partners, but also not master and protégé or employer and employee. The closest analogue may be that of an aristocrat and his valet, which captures Wolfes’s languid certainty of his own centrality to the universe, and Arche’s intimate-yet-distant presence in his life. Their bickering and needling of one another, and Archie’s mordant asides to the reader about his employer, also suggest a couple who, after years of marriage, have neither secrets from or illusions about one another.
Stout’s join portrait of his two lead characters, combined with his richly detailed depiction of life in Manhattan at the dawn of the 1960s, helped to raise The Final Deduction out of the realm of “diverting, but not gripping” which is where Golden Age whodunits usually fall for me. It left me amenable to trying another of Wolfe and Archie’s long series of adventures sometime, but not inclined to immediately seek one of them out.
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LibraryThing member antiquary
Althea Vail, a wealthy woman comes to Nero Wolfe asking him to ensure the safe return of her kidnapped husband. Relying on his reputation, he puts an ad in the paper warning the kidnapper to return him safely or face Wolfe's "requital." The husband is duly returned. Meanwhile, Wolfe (and Archie)
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have deuced that the ransom note was typed by Altheas's own secretary, who is shortly found dead, run over by her own car. Show Less
LibraryThing member Carl_Alves
Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are back at it again when Althea Vail approaches them to help her retrieve her husband who has been kidnapped and is being ransomed for a half million dollars. The situation changes from kidnapping to murder when first Althea’s assistant dies and then her husband
As far as mysteries go, this one was fairly mediocre. It’s a fairly typical, by the book kind of mystery. There were no great revelations or anything shocking. On the other hand, it moved at a good pace and was pretty entertaining. The characters are what make it work. Nero isn’t an especially likable person. He’s arrogant, aloof, and if he was an actual person, he isn’t the kind of person I would want to share a beer with. Archie is far more personable and makes up for some of his boss’s shortcomings. Together, they make a good team. Although this isn’t the best Nero Wolfe book I’ve read, I still found it worth reading.
Carl Alves – author of Conjesero
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dies. The murder of the husband can only be done by one of the family members present. Wolfe and Goodwin go about solving the crimes in their usual manner. Archie does all of the leg work, and Nero never leaves the house but is able to deduce things in his head in his own mercurial manner.As far as mysteries go, this one was fairly mediocre. It’s a fairly typical, by the book kind of mystery. There were no great revelations or anything shocking. On the other hand, it moved at a good pace and was pretty entertaining. The characters are what make it work. Nero isn’t an especially likable person. He’s arrogant, aloof, and if he was an actual person, he isn’t the kind of person I would want to share a beer with. Archie is far more personable and makes up for some of his boss’s shortcomings. Together, they make a good team. Although this isn’t the best Nero Wolfe book I’ve read, I still found it worth reading.
Carl Alves – author of Conjesero
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LibraryThing member tgraettinger
Good, breezy read.
LibraryThing member leslie.98
Good entry in the Nero Wolfe series, though Archie's wisecracking was a little bit subpar. However, Wolfe's ability to reach conclusions based upon deduction is wonderful & there were some fun skirmishes with the various police agencies.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1955
Physical description
140 p.; 6.8 inches
ISBN
0553122053 / 9780553122053