Death of a Doxy (Nero Wolfe)

Nero Wolfe expressed that sentiment to, of all things, a woman, a young, attractive nightclub singer who was helping expose the murderer of her best friend (the doxy) and clear sometime Wolfe operative, Orrie Cather, of the crime. The woman, Julie Jaquette, was neither hysterical (as Wolfe assumed all women to be) nor in awe of him (as he expected everyone to be). Not only did she stare down murder suspects and police detectives but she dared refer to Wolfe by his first name, barge into the rooftop gardens and take up residence in the South room. Despite all this, or perhaps because of it, Wolfe did indeed wish her well and then set about helping her to do well in life. Fans of this long running series will not want to miss this story, set and written in 1966 but those new to the series will miss most of the fun. The mystery itself is clever but nothing really out of the ordinary for the series, the true attraction here is the interplay between Wolfe and Julie Jaquette. Wolfe has long been established as a total misogynist yet in Julie he has met his match. Usually it is the repartee between Wolfe and Archie that provides the humor, but in this one Julie shows herself an equal to the men. Too bad that she doesn't take up permanent residence in the brownstone.

Death of a Doxie was the first Nero Wolfe mystery I read. Sure, I saw the films and watched the TV series years ago but reading Stout for the first time made me a fan and now I have three more on my coffee table to read. I wonder why it took me so long to 'discover' Rex Stout. There is a certain delightful and three dimensional quality (no pun intended given the size of Nero Wolfe) about the characters. Sometimes you like Wolfe and sometimes he grates on you but you always admire him and his loyalty. Archie Goodwin is a constant, and a rather interesting character as well. He is the legs of the operation while Wolfe dictates from his office and makes the suspects come to him. If you like a mystery where you can figure out who dunnit, but want to see how the master detectives solves the case, Nero Wolfe is your man. Death of a Doxie is a good sample of Stouts work and there are alot more to read in the series.

This is my absolute favorite of the Nero Wolfe full-length stories. A & E has also done a marvelous job - the book and episode match almost perfectly!

Rex Stout's Death Of A Doxy continues the traditional of pairing actor Michael Prichard's strong narrative style with the Nero Wolfe mystery figure. Here Nero investigates a kept woman's murder, with sidekick Archie involved as a suspect.

A quarter century ago while I was getting edified in college in Houston, I picked up a Nero Wolfe novel, on the recommendation of some journalist. Being rather methodical in such things, I found out that Mr. Stout had written quite a few novels, that the first Wolfe one was "Fer de Lance," and so I bought it. Start at the beginning; I was studying math after all. I liked the book, which I had gotten at The Book Den on Rice Boulevard, an establishment long gone in the yuppification of the Village and the John, the owner, no doubt gone too of age, had taken a shine to me and had ordered for all of the Wolfe novels, which I went through like a bureaucrat through your paycheck. Not a week goes by that I don't have a warm thought about this dead man. Some of my teachers and professors should be so lucky. Mrs. Schmidt, are you listening?Wolfe is a hugely fat private detective in New York. He is Montenegrin, which features in the series, and which has given some piquancy to the (ever-constant) Balkan fighting exploding in the last few years. His amanuensis-and I think that I learned that word in this book-is Archie Goodwin, a controlled rakehell from Ohio. Wolfe is a genius and Archie is his legman. The other full-time occupant of the New York brownstone house is Fritz Brenner, the Swiss chef and house keeper. Wolfe grows 10,000 or 20,000 or 40,000 orchids-one of the few slight inconsistencies in Stout's own Wolfiana-on the roof of his brownstone in New York. He fights the police, hates to work, loves to eat, and is generally difficult.But my God can he talk. Roll in the vocabulary; pluck out the recondite verbs and carpe dem nouns. I damned near wore out Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary-I have found a better dictionary since-looking up such as "demirep" and enjoying the words it's made of. (A denizen of the demimonde, or half-world +a reprobate.) Wolfe is a godsend if you're playing the dictionary game.A word of warning. Wolfe is what I can best describe as High Tory, and Archie follows, not that I myself mind. Archie is much like a very proud tom cat: perfectly mannered, but on his terms. Utterly trustworthy, like my best friend Ron, but mannered like a good tom cat. Measure up to standards which he sets for everyone, including himself, and he is your ally. Miss Manners would like him, I think.Had this book come out now, about 2/3 of a century later, people would no doubt have sniggered about "homoeroticism," which in this case means that three men live together in a house and that the emotional relationships are amazingly intense. But very well controlled.Every Wolfe novel or short novel ends in a confrontation in the office, with Archie setting the stage, arranging seating, providing a bar, and mostly steering people to the chairs that he wanted. He was a control freak before the term was invented. As I said, a cat. Wolfe makes a dramatic entrance, the tableau set, and using nothing but the power of his b