A Right to Die by Rex Stout

A Right to Die by Rex Stout

I really like it when Stout reaches back into one of the previous novels to create the reason for his current mystery. It gives the series a sense of history and even though Archie and Nero never appear to age, it makes it clear that they have aged and that they have been solving mysteries together for decades.

 

In this case, the element from the past is an extra delight, because Stout returns to what I think is his best Nero Wolfe novel and specifically draws on what I have called his best written chapter, number eleven in Too Many Cooks. To set the stage, Wolfe had done the thing he hates the most—left home—and he was in danger of being forced to remain away from home for a prolonged period of time if he cannot solve a murder. The people with the knowledge he needs were a group of African American waiters and chefs’ assistants who had no reason to help him, and he brilliantly convinces them to help. Now, one of those men has come to Wolfe with a problem, and Wolfe feels obliged to return the favor from all those years ago.

 

The man has a son who is deeply involved in the civil rights movement and who is about to marry a wealthy white woman who is also deeply interested in civil rights. Before long, as the reader will suspect is going to happen from the beginning, that woman is murdered and the son is arrested for the crime. Wolfe is convinced of the young man’s innocence and believes that the actual culprit is another member of the civil rights organization for which the son and the murdered woman work. No one really wants to help him prove that. It’s a wonderful mystery handled in typical Nero Wolfe fashion. I’m pleased that I identified most of the key elements, but sad I couldn’t put them together. I should have been able to. And as to the ending…Stout manages to make it both very creepy and very sad.

 

After reading this one, I think I will have to reread Too Many Cooks.