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23rd out of 907 books
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856 voters
Fer-de-Lance (Nero Wolfe #1)
As any herpetologist will tell you, the fer-de-lance is among the most dreaded snakes known to man.When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows he's getting dreadully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president.As for Wolfe, he's playing snake charmer in a case with more twists than an anaconda -- whistl...more
Paperback, 285 pages
Published
July 21st 2010
by Bantam Crimeline
(first published 1934)
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Fer-de-Lance is the 1st Nero Wolfe mystery by Rex Stout, and the 2nd I have read. These are classic American detective stories from the 30s, 40s, 50s. Smart tough guys, smart writing... just fun to read. I usually recommend reading series in order, but you could probably pick up any of these. Two things...
1) The original Nero Wolfe series is by Rex Stout. There are other Wolfe books by Robert Goldsborough written in the 80-90s. I haven't read those.
2) There are many, many books in Stout's serie...more
1) The original Nero Wolfe series is by Rex Stout. There are other Wolfe books by Robert Goldsborough written in the 80-90s. I haven't read those.
2) There are many, many books in Stout's serie...more
Such was procedural; we had moved into a new house. I was introduced to Archie Goodwin alongside to supervising one's own property. One needs time for one's orchids. These remain the staples.
Dec 04, 2010
Lisa (Harmonybites)
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Mystery Fans
Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List
In this book I got acquainted with a pair of sleuths as memorable as Hercule Poroit or Lord Peter Wimsey. Or rather Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, since in some ways Archie Godwin is to Nero Wolfe what Dr Watson is to Holmes.
Archie is our narrator, the one who gives us a look at Nero's genius--but he's also less and more than Watson. He's not a friend to Wolfe, he's an employee--but since Nero is an eccentric recluse who never leaves his West 35th Street brownstone in New York City, Archie is a...more
Archie is our narrator, the one who gives us a look at Nero's genius--but he's also less and more than Watson. He's not a friend to Wolfe, he's an employee--but since Nero is an eccentric recluse who never leaves his West 35th Street brownstone in New York City, Archie is a...more
I am not a fan of mysteries or detective novels. Garrison Keilor admires Rex Stout, so I thought I'd give one a try. "Fer-de-Lance" is the first in a series of about 50 novels and novellas, and I am now into my tenth book.
These novels are not so plot-driven as your typical who-dunnit, although that obviously is part of the appeal. I enjoy them enormously because of the quirky characters, sarcastic humor, and clever word-play.
There are two heroes: Nero Wolfe is a morbidly obese genius who never...more
These novels are not so plot-driven as your typical who-dunnit, although that obviously is part of the appeal. I enjoy them enormously because of the quirky characters, sarcastic humor, and clever word-play.
There are two heroes: Nero Wolfe is a morbidly obese genius who never...more
A favor for sometime operative Fred Durkin leads to murder, revenge and danger for Archie Goodwin and his boss, Nero Wolfe.
This is the first Nero Wolfe story ever written, but you would never know it when you read this story. It's as if Archie, Wolfe, Fritz and the rest have been in existence for years. Archie even references prior cases.
This is a reread for me. While I'm a huge "read in order" person, I didn't have the ability to do so with the Stout books. They were introduced to me by the Ne...more
This is the first Nero Wolfe story ever written, but you would never know it when you read this story. It's as if Archie, Wolfe, Fritz and the rest have been in existence for years. Archie even references prior cases.
This is a reread for me. While I'm a huge "read in order" person, I didn't have the ability to do so with the Stout books. They were introduced to me by the Ne...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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The books in Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series are one of my "comfort food" reads. I can re-read them endlessly. Fortunately my memory is bad enough that, given a year or so, I forget most of the mystery endings and who a lot of the bad guys were.
Fer de Lance is the first book in the Nero Wolfe series, and sets the reader down right in the middle of the Wolfe household, just as though this was the fifteenth book instead of the first. No "origin story" here. You'd think Stout had been writing about t...more
Fer de Lance is the first book in the Nero Wolfe series, and sets the reader down right in the middle of the Wolfe household, just as though this was the fifteenth book instead of the first. No "origin story" here. You'd think Stout had been writing about t...more
* The first Nero Wolfe book (1934).
* Also the first I've ever read.
* For others in that situation, Nero Wolfe is a corpulent detective who solves crimes essentially from his armchair, with the perambulatory help of Archie Goodwin, who also supplies the muscle when necessary. Clearly, Wolfe owes something to Sherlock Holmes' brother, Mycroft.
* Well-written and enjoyable. Though the plot holds up, what makes the book so entertaining are the characters and their chemistry. Archie is very loyal, but...more
* Also the first I've ever read.
* For others in that situation, Nero Wolfe is a corpulent detective who solves crimes essentially from his armchair, with the perambulatory help of Archie Goodwin, who also supplies the muscle when necessary. Clearly, Wolfe owes something to Sherlock Holmes' brother, Mycroft.
* Well-written and enjoyable. Though the plot holds up, what makes the book so entertaining are the characters and their chemistry. Archie is very loyal, but...more
I have read two of the Nero Wolfe books, as I got them for a present, and I am completely addicted. Wolfe is a morbidly obese genius detective, along the lines of Sherlock Holmes. Yet, he's American, and his sidekick is a cocky 1930s goodfella named Archie Goodwin. Goodwin does the footwork for Wolfe, who is a massive eccentric that never leaves his NYC brownstone. Goodwin convinces witnesses to come see Wolfe at his residence, so that Wolfe does not need to leave.
Wolfe is so eccentric that he...more
Wolfe is so eccentric that he...more
Fred Durkin has a favor to ask of Wolfe: his wife's friend is worried about her brother, who has gone missing, and wants Wolfe to find him. An investigation, along with Wolfe's brilliance, reveals that his disappearance is linked to the death of a University president, which has been officially ruled death by natural causes. To stir things up Wolfe sends Archie to the DA to bet him $10,000 that, if he digs the president up, he'll find that he was poisoned.
This is the first of the Nero Wolfe stor...more
This is the first of the Nero Wolfe stor...more
First Sentence: There was no reason why I shouldn’t have been sent for the beer that day, for the last ends of the Fairmont National Bank case had been gathered in the week before and there was nothing for me to do but errands, and Wolfe never hesitated about running me down to Murray Street for a can of shoe-polish if he happened to need one.
Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin’s first published case becomes one of two parts; a young woman hires Wolfe to find her missing brother, and a college preside...more
Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin’s first published case becomes one of two parts; a young woman hires Wolfe to find her missing brother, and a college preside...more
This is the first book of the Nero Wolfe series, and I have read every one of them. Archie Goodwin, one of the main characters in the series, is one half of my perfect man. (The other half is Atticus Finch.) I won't put all of the books on GoodReads right now because it would take up a lot of room. But the Nero Wolfe books just make me giggle as Wolfe and Archie work to solve each mystery. Rex Stout's daughter said he never revised once he'd finished a book. He would spend two months walking aro...more
A sister comes to Nero Wolfe to ask him to find her missing brother and that starts the ball rolling that will thread a strange path from the Italian neighborhoods of New York to White Plains and the estates of the rich and powerful. Wolfe must find a very deadly human snake who has struck and will strike again. He must also face a very real snake - the deadly Fer-de-Lance!
The first Wolfe mystery book. Welcome to the celebrated Brownstone, home of Nero Wolfe, one seventh of a ton of genius (almo...more
The first Wolfe mystery book. Welcome to the celebrated Brownstone, home of Nero Wolfe, one seventh of a ton of genius (almo...more
This was a pretty interesting read. Any fan of mysteries should enjoy this; it may not be as brilliant as a Christie, but the characters are richer and the writing is far wittier.
I felt, as I was reading, that although the book was written in the thirties, that it seemed more like a modern spoof of a thirties detective novel than the real thing. I'm still not exactly sure why, but I can make some guesses. For one, the obvious, is the way Archie speaks, which is full of the sorts of slang that yo...more
I felt, as I was reading, that although the book was written in the thirties, that it seemed more like a modern spoof of a thirties detective novel than the real thing. I'm still not exactly sure why, but I can make some guesses. For one, the obvious, is the way Archie speaks, which is full of the sorts of slang that yo...more
First off: if you haven't already read the publisher's plot summary, don't! It throws out as a "teaser" a key plot point that comes 3/4s of the way through the book.
Anyway, I'm hooked. I've read a couple of these, skipping around, and now landed on the debut Nero Wolfe novel here, from 1934. What fun! As always, it's hardboiled and edgy, even allowing the protagonists occasionally to exhibit a ruthlessness that mystery readers will remember from James M. Cain but may not quite recall, without so...more
Anyway, I'm hooked. I've read a couple of these, skipping around, and now landed on the debut Nero Wolfe novel here, from 1934. What fun! As always, it's hardboiled and edgy, even allowing the protagonists occasionally to exhibit a ruthlessness that mystery readers will remember from James M. Cain but may not quite recall, without so...more
Um policial dos antigos.
Escrito por Rex Stout em 1934, é uma história que lembra os casos de Sherlock Holmes ou os policiais de Agatha Christie.
É muito bom e o autor prende-nos logo a partir da primeira página.
Este é o primeiro de muitos casos resolvidos por Nero Wolfe, um personagem muito peculiar que tanto tem de tamanho e peso, como de inteligência e excentricidade. Nero Wolfe não sai de casa e não recebe ninguém entre as 9 e as 11 da manhã e entre as 16 e 18 horas, tempo em que está nas estu...more
Escrito por Rex Stout em 1934, é uma história que lembra os casos de Sherlock Holmes ou os policiais de Agatha Christie.
É muito bom e o autor prende-nos logo a partir da primeira página.
Este é o primeiro de muitos casos resolvidos por Nero Wolfe, um personagem muito peculiar que tanto tem de tamanho e peso, como de inteligência e excentricidade. Nero Wolfe não sai de casa e não recebe ninguém entre as 9 e as 11 da manhã e entre as 16 e 18 horas, tempo em que está nas estu...more
I bought this book several years ago when I was trying to expand my mystery novel reading beyond Agatha Christie. I remember reading the first few pages before becoming bored and tossing it aside in favor of a more contemporary work. I picked it up about a week ago, expecting a quick, fun read, but was sorely disappointed.
I found myself disliking nearly every character in the book, including the corpulent, agoraphobic Nero Wolfe and his closest employee, the wise-cracking, milk-drinking Archie G...more
I found myself disliking nearly every character in the book, including the corpulent, agoraphobic Nero Wolfe and his closest employee, the wise-cracking, milk-drinking Archie G...more
1 like · like · see review
After many years of consideration and even a couple of false starts, I finally read my first Nero Wolfe mystery (having started to write mysteries, I decided I should damn well read more of them). So I started with this, the first in teh series, and enjoyed it quite a lot. I like the idea of a corpulent detective who seldom leaves his home, a lover of fine food, beer, and orchids, who has the clues and suspects brought to him, usually by his invesitgator Archie Goodwin. The story was interesting...more
(Very mild spoilers)
The first Nero Wolfe stories I read were novellas reprinted in Ellery Queen's Mystery magazine early in my mystery-reading life. In one of those Archie even convinced Wolfe to leave his Manhattan brownstone.
I've read Wolfe's adventures off and on ever since and was a fan of the A&E TV series.
Fer-de-Lance, the first book in the series, establishes the familiar conventions and is a fun and fast mixture of mystery puzzles and Wolfe's eccentricities. Wolfe and Archie are dr...more
The first Nero Wolfe stories I read were novellas reprinted in Ellery Queen's Mystery magazine early in my mystery-reading life. In one of those Archie even convinced Wolfe to leave his Manhattan brownstone.
I've read Wolfe's adventures off and on ever since and was a fan of the A&E TV series.
Fer-de-Lance, the first book in the series, establishes the familiar conventions and is a fun and fast mixture of mystery puzzles and Wolfe's eccentricities. Wolfe and Archie are dr...more
The first in the fabled Nero Wolfe series, in which we meet the great detective himself and his enterprising assistant, Archie Goodwin.
The plot: a university president suddenly dies while participating in a foursome of golf. His doctor immediately pronounces it as a heart attack, but it turns out to be a fiendishly clever murder. Wolfe and Archie are hired (more or less, sometimes less as the client has second thoughts) to find the murderer. And they do, in a combination of brilliant logical ded...more
The plot: a university president suddenly dies while participating in a foursome of golf. His doctor immediately pronounces it as a heart attack, but it turns out to be a fiendishly clever murder. Wolfe and Archie are hired (more or less, sometimes less as the client has second thoughts) to find the murderer. And they do, in a combination of brilliant logical ded...more
The writing is witty. I find many phrases I want to remember and use myself.
Sample, Wofle says to Goodwin, “Some day Archie, when I decide you are no longer worth tolerating, you will have to marry a woman of very modest mental capacity to get an appropriate audience for your wretched sarcasms.
The relationship between Nero and Archie is interesting. I think Archie tries to understand Nero by knows he won’t ever and that he is okay being the footwork man for this eccentric genius. He is portary...more
Sample, Wofle says to Goodwin, “Some day Archie, when I decide you are no longer worth tolerating, you will have to marry a woman of very modest mental capacity to get an appropriate audience for your wretched sarcasms.
The relationship between Nero and Archie is interesting. I think Archie tries to understand Nero by knows he won’t ever and that he is okay being the footwork man for this eccentric genius. He is portary...more
Dec 09, 2010
Brackman1066
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
audiobooks,
mysteries
I'd never been able to find a copy of this, the first Nero Wolfe book, until it popped up as an audiobook on Kentucky Libraries Unbound (how I love this service!). It's good, funny, and witty--the characters are remarkably like they are in the later books that I've read. Stout had Archie, Wolfe, Fritz, et al pretty set in his mind from the first. This isn't always the case; Ngaio Marsh's Alleyn and Margery Allingham's Campion are noticeably different in their debuts than they are once the series...more
This is where it all began. It's not the best in the series, but without it we have nothing else.
And it's still pretty damn good! Not that many first novels in a series are so fully formed. There are a bunch of things that change later. But a lot of the tropes are there. Well worth reading.
But there's no need to read it first… I'd start with any of the other books, and then go back. It might still be nice to start with an early one. The Red Box would be good. Or The League of Frightened Men.
In...more
And it's still pretty damn good! Not that many first novels in a series are so fully formed. There are a bunch of things that change later. But a lot of the tropes are there. Well worth reading.
But there's no need to read it first… I'd start with any of the other books, and then go back. It might still be nice to start with an early one. The Red Box would be good. Or The League of Frightened Men.
In...more
Having read a handful of Rex Stout books I thought it would be fun to start at the beginning and read them all in order. Obviously Fer De Lance was first up. It's surprising how similar it is to many of the others as I thought it would introduce the characters and give us some back story. It reads like any of the other Nero Wolfe stories and now that I think about it, I'm not surprised. It is a really good story and I probably should have given it 4 instead of 5 stars but it's the first and that...more
This is the 1st book of the long running Nero Wolfe series. The series is one of the masterworks of the 20th century, representing a certain kind of mystery or detective fiction at its best. The series goes like this: Nero Wolfe is the most brilliant detective in the world, but he is so fat he can never leave his apartment. Archie Goodwin is the toughest private eye in New York City, and Wolfe's partner. Together they solve the sort of mystery where the novel gives you all the clues, and you can...more
The first in the Nero Wolfe series, and I had never read it before. I was surprised to find that Wolfe and Archie had already been together for seven years and had pretty much established their relationship before this story begins. Amazing how tightly written these are, and how well they've aged. And this one was further surprising in that Archie flat out tells us who the murderer is less than half-way through, and the rest of the book is spent establishing motive and finding proof that would s...more
Da giovane ho letto parecchi romanzi di Rex Stout, appartenenti alla collana dei gialli Mondadori, ma non li ho conservati sia per motivi di spazio, sia per ricorrenti traslochi. Lo stesso è capitato per i racconti di fantascienza di Urania, per gli album di Linus e per i fumetti di Alan Ford e Diabolik. Ora, un po’ me ne spiace, ma non posso purtroppo porvi rimedio.
Di conseguenza, quando ho adocchiato questa riedizione del primo romanzo che vede come protagonista il celebre Nero Wolfe, l’ho pr...more
Di conseguenza, quando ho adocchiato questa riedizione del primo romanzo che vede come protagonista il celebre Nero Wolfe, l’ho pr...more
The very first Nero Wolfe mystery and one of the best. Meet reclusive genius Nero Wolfe and his amanuensis Archie Goodwin. Wolfe prefers to stay in his old West Side brownstone where he has everything arranged to his taste, food, books, world class chef, 10,000 orchids and a custom made chair for accomodating his seventh of a ton mass. Archie likes to get out and go: he prefers to walk rather than drive and to drive rather than ride. He's got an appreciative eye for the ladies and he knows how t...more
I absolutely enjoy all of Rex Stout's books that are based on the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin characters. There are about 44 of them. He made an interesting decision to not allow his characters to age while allowing them to move with time. He wrote between 1934 and 1975. So, while Nero and Archie were the same age each story involved situations covering the time period within which the book was written.
Nero is a genius at solving crime but refuses to leave his house. Archie is his able assistant w...more
Nero is a genius at solving crime but refuses to leave his house. Archie is his able assistant w...more
I was introduced to the Nero Wolfe books quite recently by a fellow Goodreads member (thanks Colleen). At the beginning I have to say I was rather unimpressed, but the more I got familiar with Rex Stout's way of writing the more I liked it.
Although you wonder how the hell Wolfe leaps to the assumptions he makes(always correct), you can't help forgive him for it and his other eccentricities. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sidekick/riaght-hand man and all rounder puts up with more that we as the reade...more
Although you wonder how the hell Wolfe leaps to the assumptions he makes(always correct), you can't help forgive him for it and his other eccentricities. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sidekick/riaght-hand man and all rounder puts up with more that we as the reade...more
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Rex Todhunter Stout (December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair).
The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated...more
More about Rex Stout...
The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated...more
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“[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.”
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34 people liked it
“As long as I live I'll never forget the time he had a bank president pinched, or rather I did, on no evidence whatever except that the fountain pen on his desk was dry. I was never so relieved in my life as when the guy shot himself an hour later.”
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While I would sometimes agree it seems cold, are you a mystery fan, a "detective fan?"
T...more
Feb 27, 2013 01:12am