And Be a Villain by Rex Stout
And Be a Villain by Rex Stout
In the previous book in this series, Rex Stout hit the bottom of his barrel. In this novel, he’s back at the top of his game, pulling me into the story immediately and never relinquishing his hold on my interest. It’s time to pay the IRS and Nero Wolfe needs cash to foot the bill. So he goes looking for work, focusing on a popular radio program in which a guest died from poison on the air. Right from the initial bargaining over whether or not it was in the show’s interest to pay him to find the killer, through many exciting twists and turns, Stout provides a nailbiter. Who murdered the guest? Why did they do so? And how is that connected to the other people dying around the show. The solution surprised me, but it made total sense and frankly my suspect list should have included the murderer.
The only thing I didn’t like about this novel was the inclusion of master criminal, Zeck. I am not found of Zeck, and therefore was unhappy that he played a small but important role in the case. It didn’t really hurt the book, but since I don’t like the character it added a slight negative taste for me.
On the positive side, this is Wolfe at his best, manipulating the police into working for him and acting on sheer bravado to bring a killer to justice even though he can’t find any evidence to prove his case.
