Death of a Dude

I now have a complete library of Rex Stout's books. Death of Dude is one of my favorites that I will undoubtedly re-read. Enjoy Wolfe fans!

Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe go west when a murder keeps Goodwin in Montana. Of course Nero Wolfe needs to solve it so he can have Archie back in the office, keeping people away from him and answering the phone. So we get to see Mr. Wolfe stomping around in the wild, drinking beer cooled by a stream and eating canned foods. The mystery, frankly, is good but not as good as seeing Nero Wolfe in this new environment. Silent cowboys, grumpy sheriffs and fresh fish. What more could you want?

Despite the title, this story has (slightly) more to do with _The Father Hunt_ than with _Death of a Doxy_; the research compiled by Amy Denovo on Lily Rowan's father is now being turned into a book. One of Archie's fellow guests during his vacation at Lily's ranch in Montana (the Bar JR) is Wade Worthy, the biographer who's working on James Rowan.However, the dude of the title was Philip Brodell, who had returned to the area after seducing Alma Greve the year before - Brodell was found dead from a shot in the back on a huckleberry-picking expedition. Alma's father Harvey is now in jail, charged with murder, but Lily and Archie are convinced he's innocent, since they've both known him for years (see "The Rodeo Murder" in _Three at Wolfe's Door_). Archie takes an unpaid leave of absence from Wolfe until the case is finished. Wolfe, of course, isn't prepared to have Archie gone for an open-ended length of time, so after pulling a few strings to find out exactly what the case against Harvey is, he appears unannounced at the Bar JR soon after receiving Archie's letter, and he and Archie get to work on the investigation.It's cool to see Wolfe loosen up a little; as a guest in someone else's domain, he'd be violating his personal standards if he took his eccentricity too far. (Archie, after watching him a little, says it's obvious Wolfe promised himself not to complain about the food no matter what.) Archie, for his part, has made friends over years of vacation visits to Lily out here: to name two, Woody, who runs what he calls the Hall of Culture (the dance hall and cinema pieces of it support him) and can hold his own in dinner conversation with Wolfe, and Carol, the wife of the accused and an ex-rodeo performer herself, who doesn't have a bible in the house to swear on, so she uses a saddle she won at the height of her career.Some other neat touches include, but are by no means limited to: the guests at the dude ranch where the victim was staying; checking up on the alibi of Brodell's would-be rival for Alma Greve's affections, involving a history teacher, some chickens, and a roofing company; and a hilarious little passage wherein Archie takes time out to discuss censoring one of the wranglers' commentary on Brodell, a deserving victim if ever there was one.

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

A later Nero that holds up very well. For dialogue between Wolfe and Archie it is one of the best and could be the funniest of them all. I have reread it several times and it is always fun.