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Nero Wolfe #37
Gambit
Sally Blount needs help. Someone has stirred up an arsenic cocktail to murder a man at her fathers chess cluba cocktail her father served to him. She knows her father is innocent, but doesn't trust her lawyer, who seems too interested in her mother. Her only choice? Nero Wolfe, who checkmates the cops as well as the killer.
225 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 1962
138 people are currently reading
871 people want to read
About the author
Rex Stout
846 books1,033 followersRex Todhunter Stout (1886–1975) 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 Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
August 19, 2019
Chess master Paul Jerin is fatally poisoned during a blindfold match at the Gambit Chess Club, and Matthew Blount, the club member who brought him the pot of hot chocolate, is arrested and charged with murder. His daughter hires Wolfe to clear her father, and soon we are absorbed in one is Wolfe's best mysteries.
Fans of the series take note: this is the novel that opens with the not-to-be-missed scene of Wolfe burning Webster's Third International Dictionary a page at a time. (Two reasons--among many--for Wolfe's rage: W3I includes "contact" as a verb and lists "imply" as one of the meanings of "infer".)
June 5, 2018
Another great Stout! How shall I review this book? It's a murder mystery. I could give you the particulars: a young woman comes to Nero Wolfe and wants to pay him $20,000 to exonerate her father who she believes has been falsely accused of murder. Nero is too busy tearing pages out of a dictionary he finds deplorable.
Also, after hearing the situation, he concludes that it is hopeless. It will be impossible to prove her father's innocence.
As you may guess, he does decide to take on the case and we are treated to several pages of Archie's hilarious narration of events. It's what makes Stout's stories so worth reading.
Also, after hearing the situation, he concludes that it is hopeless. It will be impossible to prove her father's innocence.
As you may guess, he does decide to take on the case and we are treated to several pages of Archie's hilarious narration of events. It's what makes Stout's stories so worth reading.
September 7, 2023
A solid Wolfe mystery. I had fun with this fast, easy read. The only reason that this wasn't rated higher, was the fact that it lacked some witty banter that I love so much.
September 2, 2025
“[A]n unearned fee is like a raw fish – it fills the stomach but is hard to digest.”
One cannot deny that in Gambit (1962), Nero Wolfe really earns his fee, because not only does he take up a case that seems doomed to failure from the very start, but he also uses a clever plot to lure the actual murderer, against whom he has not the faintest evidence, into giving himself away.
When Paul Jerin, a young chess genius, is poisoned during a tournament in a private chess club, there is actually only one person, the businessman Matthew Blount, who had both a motive and the opportunity to have committed the murder, and consequently, Inspector Cramer takes him into custody. Blount’s daughter Sally, however, is convinced of her father’s innocence, and so she turns to an unwilling Nero Wolfe, especially since she believes that her father’s lawyer, Daniel Kalmus, is in love with her mother, Blount’s wife. Once upon the case, Wolfe wants to earn his fee and therefore starts on the presumption that Blount is really innocent. What makes this presumption tenuous, though, is the fact that the only other men who could have poisoned Jerin’s chocolate did not know Jerin at all and can therefore have no reasonable motive for murder. However, the crime was committed among chess players, and it does not take Wolfe too long to consider the possibility that Jerin’s death was a gambit move with the ultimate aim of harming Blount.
For non-chess-players: The gambit is a move with which a player sacrifices one of his own chessmen to improve his own position on the board, quite often at the beginning of the game. The word is derived from the Italian expression dare il gambetto, which means “to trip someone up”.
Gambit is quite a short read but one in which my interest never slackened. Unfortunately, it lacks the typical Wolfe-Archie-crosstalk but there are still some entertaining moments as when Wolfe burns a dictionary page by page because he finds that it allows the use of the word “to infer” in the same sense as “to imply”, a decision that he deems subversive to the English language. Another funny and convincing notion of Wolfe’s here is his prejudice against Voltaire on the grounds that the skinny Frenchman didn’t care to enjoy a well-prepared meal – something that, of course, invites suspicion against a man, be he a philosopher or not.
As usual, it’s not only fun but also sometimes quite elucidating to listen to Nero Wolfe’s ideas, as my final quotation will show,
So maybe a man may be a good thinker when sitting at a chessboard but as soon as he is playing for his life, he will react like all the rest of us. What a relief!
One cannot deny that in Gambit (1962), Nero Wolfe really earns his fee, because not only does he take up a case that seems doomed to failure from the very start, but he also uses a clever plot to lure the actual murderer, against whom he has not the faintest evidence, into giving himself away.
When Paul Jerin, a young chess genius, is poisoned during a tournament in a private chess club, there is actually only one person, the businessman Matthew Blount, who had both a motive and the opportunity to have committed the murder, and consequently, Inspector Cramer takes him into custody. Blount’s daughter Sally, however, is convinced of her father’s innocence, and so she turns to an unwilling Nero Wolfe, especially since she believes that her father’s lawyer, Daniel Kalmus, is in love with her mother, Blount’s wife. Once upon the case, Wolfe wants to earn his fee and therefore starts on the presumption that Blount is really innocent. What makes this presumption tenuous, though, is the fact that the only other men who could have poisoned Jerin’s chocolate did not know Jerin at all and can therefore have no reasonable motive for murder. However, the crime was committed among chess players, and it does not take Wolfe too long to consider the possibility that Jerin’s death was a gambit move with the ultimate aim of harming Blount.
For non-chess-players: The gambit is a move with which a player sacrifices one of his own chessmen to improve his own position on the board, quite often at the beginning of the game. The word is derived from the Italian expression dare il gambetto, which means “to trip someone up”.
Gambit is quite a short read but one in which my interest never slackened. Unfortunately, it lacks the typical Wolfe-Archie-crosstalk but there are still some entertaining moments as when Wolfe burns a dictionary page by page because he finds that it allows the use of the word “to infer” in the same sense as “to imply”, a decision that he deems subversive to the English language. Another funny and convincing notion of Wolfe’s here is his prejudice against Voltaire on the grounds that the skinny Frenchman didn’t care to enjoy a well-prepared meal – something that, of course, invites suspicion against a man, be he a philosopher or not.
As usual, it’s not only fun but also sometimes quite elucidating to listen to Nero Wolfe’s ideas, as my final quotation will show,
”’A book could be written […] on the varieties of conducts of men in a pickle. Men confronted with their doom. In nearly all cases the insuperable difficulty is that their mental processes are numbed by the emotional impact of the predicament. It is a fallacy to suppose that the best mind will deal most effectively with a crisis; if the emotion has asphyxiated the mind what good is it?”
So maybe a man may be a good thinker when sitting at a chessboard but as soon as he is playing for his life, he will react like all the rest of us. What a relief!
December 3, 2018
Mais um policial de "época". Hoje em dia este tipo de histórias estão completamente ultrapassadas. É difícil imaginar que se pode prender um sujeito baseado apenas em provas circunstanciais, sem utilizar dados científicos, como por exemplo o ADN. Nesta época "adivinha-se" quem foi, por dedução e depois espera-se que o criminoso confesse...enfim. Teve o seu valor, na sua época, e eu própria fui grande adepta deste tipo de literatura, mas hoje em dia para ler um livro destes, é essencial fazer o exercício de voltar atrás no tempo.
O mais curioso é o personagem detectivesco, o "génio" mal humorado e arrogante, que resolve todos os casos sem nunca sair de casa. Um agorafóbico?.. Um sociopata?... não sei. Só sei que é suposto ser o personagem forte da história. Contudo, não gostei deste personagem. Nesta história, não foi possível reconhecer a sua suposta genialidade e foi pouco compreensível o seu comportamento. Talvez isto tenha acontecido por eu enquanto leitora, ter começado por esta história em que a "carreira" de Wolfe como detective já vai longa na série.
O detective que de facto sobressaiu nesta história acabou por ser o seu assistente, o narrador, que faz todo o trabalho de campo necessário à investigação. Uma figura indispensável já que o Sr. Wolfe se recusa a sair de casa, seja em que circunstâncias for.
Esta história em particular, também é demasiado simples e sem interesse. O autor tem como tema de fundo o xadrez, o que poderia ter tornado a história bastante interessante, mas depois a história em si nada tem a ver com isso. Foi tão sem interesse que vos garanto que ao escrever esta opinião e passado ainda pouco tempo de a ter lido, já nem sequer me recordo como terminou (o que é normalmente o ponto alto deste tipo de policiais).
O mérito do autor, está sim, na criação do personagem Nero Wolfe, que apesar de não ter merecido a minha simpatia, tem diversas características diferenciadoras que justificam o facto de se ter tornado central a toda a série policial do autor e o sucesso dos seus livros.
Só mesmo para verdadeiros fãs de literatura policial retro. A todos os outros: acho sinceramente que é melhor optarem por outro livro para ler.
http://linkedbooks.blogspot.pt/2012/1...
O mais curioso é o personagem detectivesco, o "génio" mal humorado e arrogante, que resolve todos os casos sem nunca sair de casa. Um agorafóbico?.. Um sociopata?... não sei. Só sei que é suposto ser o personagem forte da história. Contudo, não gostei deste personagem. Nesta história, não foi possível reconhecer a sua suposta genialidade e foi pouco compreensível o seu comportamento. Talvez isto tenha acontecido por eu enquanto leitora, ter começado por esta história em que a "carreira" de Wolfe como detective já vai longa na série.
O detective que de facto sobressaiu nesta história acabou por ser o seu assistente, o narrador, que faz todo o trabalho de campo necessário à investigação. Uma figura indispensável já que o Sr. Wolfe se recusa a sair de casa, seja em que circunstâncias for.
Esta história em particular, também é demasiado simples e sem interesse. O autor tem como tema de fundo o xadrez, o que poderia ter tornado a história bastante interessante, mas depois a história em si nada tem a ver com isso. Foi tão sem interesse que vos garanto que ao escrever esta opinião e passado ainda pouco tempo de a ter lido, já nem sequer me recordo como terminou (o que é normalmente o ponto alto deste tipo de policiais).
O mérito do autor, está sim, na criação do personagem Nero Wolfe, que apesar de não ter merecido a minha simpatia, tem diversas características diferenciadoras que justificam o facto de se ter tornado central a toda a série policial do autor e o sucesso dos seus livros.
Só mesmo para verdadeiros fãs de literatura policial retro. A todos os outros: acho sinceramente que é melhor optarem por outro livro para ler.
http://linkedbooks.blogspot.pt/2012/1...
November 8, 2017
I took a quick break from a disturbing read about the Holocaust to visit an old friend, Nero Wolfe. Those of you who know me realize that I am a total fanatic for this series written by Rex Stout (I have not read the new books by Robert Goldsborough) and this one does not disappoint. As are most of the Wolfe books, the story is short and full of surprises. In this number #37 of the series, a man who is a chess master dies mysteriously by arsenic poisoning at an exclusive chess club where he is playing against six other participants. The culprit seems to be identified almost immediately but, as usual, Wolfe is not convinced and uncovers some shady dealings to prove the man innocent. Another winner from Stout whose eccentric detective, Nero Wolfe and his able assistant Archie Goodwin who narrates the tale, have become icons in the field of crime novels.
April 22, 2025
Paul Jerin is a genius at chess, smug and arrogant by all accounts and generally disliked by members of the Gambit Chess Club. But is that sufficient motivation for one of them to poison his hot chocolate? Millionaire Matthew Blount, who had the best opportunity , has been arrested. The case seems open and shut, but Blount's daughter is not convinced and presents Wolfe with a nearly impossible task. It will take all of his ingenuity (with judicial goading from Archie) to close the case and earn the substantial fee.
Wolfe's eccentricities are on full display, beginning with the opening pages which show him burning a newly purchased dictionary because it "threatens the integrity of the English language". The crime? Allowing 'infer' and 'imply' to be used interchangeably. (I must admit I agree with him on that.)
Wolfe's eccentricities are on full display, beginning with the opening pages which show him burning a newly purchased dictionary because it "threatens the integrity of the English language". The crime? Allowing 'infer' and 'imply' to be used interchangeably. (I must admit I agree with him on that.)
April 4, 2022
This…was very cool. A very satisfying 137-page whodunit to sit down and read all at one go, in a coffee shop on a Saturday afternoon. That’s what I did; the coffee, as coffee does, cooled down but the book heated up, and scalded the synapses with a terrific ending.
I had owned Gambit in some used paperback edition, way back, oh, probably mid-1980s or so - and if I had actually gotten to it as a teen, it would have been one of the earliest Nero Wolfe mysteries I read, along with what was my intro to the series, A Right To Die. But I had that old copy, and somehow never read it. And don’t ask me whatever happened to it.
In the early 1990s, I read The League of Frightened Men because it was on a list of so-called ‘100 Best’ Mystery books, and at that time, Bantam Books was putting just about all the Nero Wolfe books back into print, with great cover art (Tom Hallman, have I got the artist’s name right? He deserves that, but it’s my memory we're relying on, so, prob not). I devoured them all as they showed up at the bookstore, and waited for Gambit with special interest, because I had done the book a dirty, by not reading it the first time I had it. But, to the best of my knowledge - and for reasons I have never known - Gambit just never seemed to materialize through that long cycle of re-issues. At least, not where I lived! The guilt, the regret…
Saw a used edition from the 1960s at a local Mystery bookstore, and picked it up. So simple, just had to remember “uh, check for Gambit. And hope it has not been reprinted as much due to it stinking…”.
Oh it doesn’t. No, I loved it. At a chess tournament in New York - one of those where one guy shows off by playing several adversaries at once - someone gets poisoned. By the time our poor fella winds up at the hospital, it’s checkmate, games over, game’s over.
This one reminded me of some of my favourite old whodunits, in flashes - Eighty Million Eyes by McBain; Minute for Murder by Blake; Rex Stout’s own Not Quite Dead Enough - meaning we are in “sure, there’s nothing really new under the Sun” territory, while at the same time living it up in “but, he sure has a fresh take on some familiar angles” country. Specifically, I am so tired of hidden tape recorders used to get incriminating comments to make all right with the world after murder and mayhem, but even with that, Rex Stout finds a fresh take. I mean, no amnesia, and no twins, so I’ll allow for hidden mics, if the scene stays clever and suspenseful.
On the other hand, is there a “fair play” problem here? A big piece of the puzzle for the reader to chew on drops quite late…and it has to, because it gets a reader thinking in an entirely new way. It takes things outside the box, or whatever corner the very compelling plot has painted itself into (in a good way). But - and I have to tread carefully here - does a reader have a chance, earlier, to figure something crucial out well before being handed some key info quite late, which should almost definitely cause a lot of re-assessment for most readers, and could even be said to throw the spotlight in one direction…
The flipped-over way of discussing this is to say the book is beautifully structured. There are some tricks to making this plot work, and still have it qualify as a “fair play” mystery, that has to work like hell to keep you from noticing where the wiggle-room is, in a whodunit that wants you to believe as long as possible “it had to happen THIS way!”…”and if not, where’s the damn catch?!”.
There’s, well, sort of a “little” clue, hinting at the “wriggle room” revealed late, before the unmasking. So, a little clue is fair, right? And anyway, my favourite Rex Stout novel, Red Threads (not a Nero Wolfe novel!), is also a wobbly, smirky take on “fair play”, and wriggling out of trapped-in-a-box scenarios, and beautiful structure that transcends the usual fair-play formula that isn’t, like, y’know, the law, or anything.
Prisoner’s Base, In The Best Families, and Murder By The Book still stand out as my favourites in the Nero Wolfe series - and as mentioned, the strange “spin-off” novel Red Threads probably tops all of those - but Gambit was a terrific reunion with Nero Wolfe and Archie, decades after I read most of the series in a cluster. Teenage me made a mistake ignoring this book; falling-apart-but-eyes-still-okay me fixed things, and enjoyed it all the way.
I had owned Gambit in some used paperback edition, way back, oh, probably mid-1980s or so - and if I had actually gotten to it as a teen, it would have been one of the earliest Nero Wolfe mysteries I read, along with what was my intro to the series, A Right To Die. But I had that old copy, and somehow never read it. And don’t ask me whatever happened to it.
In the early 1990s, I read The League of Frightened Men because it was on a list of so-called ‘100 Best’ Mystery books, and at that time, Bantam Books was putting just about all the Nero Wolfe books back into print, with great cover art (Tom Hallman, have I got the artist’s name right? He deserves that, but it’s my memory we're relying on, so, prob not). I devoured them all as they showed up at the bookstore, and waited for Gambit with special interest, because I had done the book a dirty, by not reading it the first time I had it. But, to the best of my knowledge - and for reasons I have never known - Gambit just never seemed to materialize through that long cycle of re-issues. At least, not where I lived! The guilt, the regret…
Saw a used edition from the 1960s at a local Mystery bookstore, and picked it up. So simple, just had to remember “uh, check for Gambit. And hope it has not been reprinted as much due to it stinking…”.
Oh it doesn’t. No, I loved it. At a chess tournament in New York - one of those where one guy shows off by playing several adversaries at once - someone gets poisoned. By the time our poor fella winds up at the hospital, it’s checkmate, games over, game’s over.
This one reminded me of some of my favourite old whodunits, in flashes - Eighty Million Eyes by McBain; Minute for Murder by Blake; Rex Stout’s own Not Quite Dead Enough - meaning we are in “sure, there’s nothing really new under the Sun” territory, while at the same time living it up in “but, he sure has a fresh take on some familiar angles” country. Specifically, I am so tired of hidden tape recorders used to get incriminating comments to make all right with the world after murder and mayhem, but even with that, Rex Stout finds a fresh take. I mean, no amnesia, and no twins, so I’ll allow for hidden mics, if the scene stays clever and suspenseful.
On the other hand, is there a “fair play” problem here? A big piece of the puzzle for the reader to chew on drops quite late…and it has to, because it gets a reader thinking in an entirely new way. It takes things outside the box, or whatever corner the very compelling plot has painted itself into (in a good way). But - and I have to tread carefully here - does a reader have a chance, earlier, to figure something crucial out well before being handed some key info quite late, which should almost definitely cause a lot of re-assessment for most readers, and could even be said to throw the spotlight in one direction…
The flipped-over way of discussing this is to say the book is beautifully structured. There are some tricks to making this plot work, and still have it qualify as a “fair play” mystery, that has to work like hell to keep you from noticing where the wiggle-room is, in a whodunit that wants you to believe as long as possible “it had to happen THIS way!”…”and if not, where’s the damn catch?!”.
There’s, well, sort of a “little” clue, hinting at the “wriggle room” revealed late, before the unmasking. So, a little clue is fair, right? And anyway, my favourite Rex Stout novel, Red Threads (not a Nero Wolfe novel!), is also a wobbly, smirky take on “fair play”, and wriggling out of trapped-in-a-box scenarios, and beautiful structure that transcends the usual fair-play formula that isn’t, like, y’know, the law, or anything.
Prisoner’s Base, In The Best Families, and Murder By The Book still stand out as my favourites in the Nero Wolfe series - and as mentioned, the strange “spin-off” novel Red Threads probably tops all of those - but Gambit was a terrific reunion with Nero Wolfe and Archie, decades after I read most of the series in a cluster. Teenage me made a mistake ignoring this book; falling-apart-but-eyes-still-okay me fixed things, and enjoyed it all the way.
December 18, 2022
Once again, Rex Stout has created an intriguing murder mystery where the murderer was so clever that there is literally no evidence for Nero Wolfe to discover that will expose the villain. And yet, that’s when Nero Wolfe is at his best. The crime occurs at a chess club and at the start of the story, the man Wolfe is hired to clear is already in jail—and not cooperating with Wolfe. But there is that chess tournament which gets Wolfe thinking along the line of chess strategies, leading both to his first important insight into the case and the title of the novel.
A ‘gambit’ is a chess strategy in which a pawn is sacrificed in order to get a more powerful piece, and Wolfe makes the deductive leap that it was not the dead man who was the intended victim, but the man accused of the crime. From then on, it’s a matter of looking for the proper suspect. I did not guess right, but neither did I go after the obvious red herring. As I think back on it now, I think I should have figured this one out. The clues were there, but I just didn’t do it.
This is a very fast read and a very interesting mystery.
A ‘gambit’ is a chess strategy in which a pawn is sacrificed in order to get a more powerful piece, and Wolfe makes the deductive leap that it was not the dead man who was the intended victim, but the man accused of the crime. From then on, it’s a matter of looking for the proper suspect. I did not guess right, but neither did I go after the obvious red herring. As I think back on it now, I think I should have figured this one out. The clues were there, but I just didn’t do it.
This is a very fast read and a very interesting mystery.
July 23, 2025
In una partita a scacchi viene avvelenato il giocatore Paul Jerin e viene arrestato un uomo che gli ha portato la cioccolata come sospetto omicida. Ma è davvero lui il colpevole? O è stato un altro a volerlo morto? La figlia dell'indiziato va allora dal detective Wolfe per scagionare suo padre. Wolfe sa già che è difficile, se non quasi impossibile, riuscire a discolpare il padre della ragazza, ma ci proverà e naturalmente ci riuscirà.
Che dire, quando ci troviamo al cospetto di Wolfe non c'è molto da aggiungere: alla fine riesce sempre a spuntarla, anche nei casi più contorti o che sembrano senza una soluzione o senza una scappatoia. Con Wolfe difficilmente il vero colpevole riesce a farla franca. E poi l'ironia e la simpatia di Archie sono insuperabili.
Che dire, quando ci troviamo al cospetto di Wolfe non c'è molto da aggiungere: alla fine riesce sempre a spuntarla, anche nei casi più contorti o che sembrano senza una soluzione o senza una scappatoia. Con Wolfe difficilmente il vero colpevole riesce a farla franca. E poi l'ironia e la simpatia di Archie sono insuperabili.
January 17, 2024
This is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe books and one of the few where I spotted the murderer before the big reveal. Well, slightly before.
Michael Pritchard does a fine job narrating, although he does not differentiate the character’s voices as much as I would like.
Michael Pritchard does a fine job narrating, although he does not differentiate the character’s voices as much as I would like.
March 31, 2020
I'm giving this one four stars because I solved the mystery at the same moment Archie does. That made me feel really clever so my rating may be inflated by my ego, but since it's a Nero Wolfe story I suppose that is not only acceptable but possibly encouraged. Satisfactory even.
A young man is killed during a chess tournament and it quickly becomes clear that while there were some potential motives only a small group had the opportunity. Furthermore, the person with the best motive and opportunity has been arrested on a charge of murder. His daughter, convinced of his innocence, hires Nero to find the real killer and free her father.
This story also involves a great array of other characters delightful in their differences and their inclusion provides a splash of color to the otherwise expected elements of a Nero Wolfe story. The mystery is well constructed, and full of twists and turns. The reader is exposed to every clue at the same time Archie is and if you spot them you can enjoy the feeling of wonder and success as you identify the killer yourself. Of course, proving it is another matter entirely and is left to Nero to arrange the ending.
A young man is killed during a chess tournament and it quickly becomes clear that while there were some potential motives only a small group had the opportunity. Furthermore, the person with the best motive and opportunity has been arrested on a charge of murder. His daughter, convinced of his innocence, hires Nero to find the real killer and free her father.
This story also involves a great array of other characters delightful in their differences and their inclusion provides a splash of color to the otherwise expected elements of a Nero Wolfe story. The mystery is well constructed, and full of twists and turns. The reader is exposed to every clue at the same time Archie is and if you spot them you can enjoy the feeling of wonder and success as you identify the killer yourself. Of course, proving it is another matter entirely and is left to Nero to arrange the ending.
September 22, 2023
I've never read this volume of the Nero Wolfe series or even got to see a film or TV adaptation of it, though there is at least one out there. I certainly am glad I finally got to it, particularly given my disappointment with the last few Stouts I listened to of late. Wolfe, Archie and even Fritz are on top form, even though shards of Wolfe's hardest and fastest house-rules fly every which way in less than a week. Poor Kramer never knew what hit him until long after it had.
A New York upper-crust chess club sets up a challenge in which a man plays several opponents simultaneously in a blind game--meaning he is told their moves as he sits in another room. He never sees the boards, but sends messengers to make his moves for him. He drinks hot chocolate mid-game and dies of poisoning, shouting accusations of one man.
I was horribly afraid it would be a repeat experience of reading Cards on the Table--an entire murder mystery centred around a game I no longer play and had not much interest in the finer points of (though to be honest, I never did learn to play bridge.) Fortunately it was much more interesting and entertaining than that was. There are a few variations, not just from Wolfe's rules but from the canon as we know it. For example, many books tell us that when Wolfe starts working his lips, you can shout or throw furniture and he'll remain oblivious because his brain is engaged. Here we are told that his lip exercises mustn't be interrupted, because he will be angry. Archie has quit his job several times, but this is the first time in my experience that Wolfe fires him.
An excellent, engaging and entertaining read in the best Stout tradition. I'm relieved. I was afraid I had somehow managed to outgrow Wolfe and Co--and that really would not do.
A New York upper-crust chess club sets up a challenge in which a man plays several opponents simultaneously in a blind game--meaning he is told their moves as he sits in another room. He never sees the boards, but sends messengers to make his moves for him. He drinks hot chocolate mid-game and dies of poisoning, shouting accusations of one man.
I was horribly afraid it would be a repeat experience of reading Cards on the Table--an entire murder mystery centred around a game I no longer play and had not much interest in the finer points of (though to be honest, I never did learn to play bridge.) Fortunately it was much more interesting and entertaining than that was. There are a few variations, not just from Wolfe's rules but from the canon as we know it. For example, many books tell us that when Wolfe starts working his lips, you can shout or throw furniture and he'll remain oblivious because his brain is engaged. Here we are told that his lip exercises mustn't be interrupted, because he will be angry. Archie has quit his job several times, but this is the first time in my experience that Wolfe fires him.
An excellent, engaging and entertaining read in the best Stout tradition. I'm relieved. I was afraid I had somehow managed to outgrow Wolfe and Co--and that really would not do.
June 25, 2019
COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK 164 (of 250)
Hook= 4 stars: I know a 'gambit' could refer to a chess move in which a players gives up a piece, intentionally, to advance his/her game, and was immediately curious as to how that would be used in a Stout mystery. So I pulled the book off the library shelf. Yes, there will be chess, many chess games, or just one big game?
Pace=3: Solid.
Plot= 3: 12 men play chess against a single player in a 2nd room. There are 4 messengers who relay the plays back and forth. Within a few moves, the single chess player dies from poison. And you'll have so many questions to think about...
People=3: Nero is his own person, original and fascinating. Archie Godwin, his second hand man, does all the legwork. But we learn little about anyone else.
Place= 2: No matter how hard I tried, I could not visualize the order in which the 12 players sat, nor the room in which they played, nor the room in which the single player played, nor how the messengers moved about. But that's part of the mystery.
Summary: My overall rating is 3.0. I like the originality of the set, and Nero is, as usual, fascinating in the way he thinks. But for me this work by Stout is just "average".
BOOK 164 (of 250)
Hook= 4 stars: I know a 'gambit' could refer to a chess move in which a players gives up a piece, intentionally, to advance his/her game, and was immediately curious as to how that would be used in a Stout mystery. So I pulled the book off the library shelf. Yes, there will be chess, many chess games, or just one big game?
Pace=3: Solid.
Plot= 3: 12 men play chess against a single player in a 2nd room. There are 4 messengers who relay the plays back and forth. Within a few moves, the single chess player dies from poison. And you'll have so many questions to think about...
People=3: Nero is his own person, original and fascinating. Archie Godwin, his second hand man, does all the legwork. But we learn little about anyone else.
Place= 2: No matter how hard I tried, I could not visualize the order in which the 12 players sat, nor the room in which they played, nor the room in which the single player played, nor how the messengers moved about. But that's part of the mystery.
Summary: My overall rating is 3.0. I like the originality of the set, and Nero is, as usual, fascinating in the way he thinks. But for me this work by Stout is just "average".
December 9, 2022
Everything by Rex Stout is great. Archie, Nero and I all selected the wrong murderer, but Nero and Archie figured out their mistake before I did.
12/7/22: After almost a year spent reading books for classes, I finally relaxed and read a Stout book, absorbed by my literary crush, Archie. Did Nero Wolfe really fire Archie? Read and find out.
12/7/22: After almost a year spent reading books for classes, I finally relaxed and read a Stout book, absorbed by my literary crush, Archie. Did Nero Wolfe really fire Archie? Read and find out.
September 1, 2023
This is one of the better Nero Wolfe mysteries, a solid 4 stars. The mystery itself is unusually difficult and clever. It has been a long time since Nero Wolfe delivered rough justice to a murderer who would otherwise escape the law (he did so four times much earlier in the series), but he does it again here. I didn’t notice much in the way of commentary on contemporary life in 1962 - Wolfe wiretaps a restaurant table, but he has done that before.
July 5, 2022
Nero Wolfe (and Archie Goodwin) in fine form. 1962.
April 20, 2022
A chess player is poisoned, and it seems the only one who could have done it is the man whose daughter has hired Wolfe to prove he didn't do it. Lots of seeming dead ends in the investigation, but in the end, the murderer is fairly obvious, although I didn't pick up on it. ETA: On my third reading (with a five-year gap), I did figure out the culprit 30 pages before the end. Since I retain hardly any of the plots of fiction I've read, I count this a real victory.
February 16, 2019
"[...] at twenty minutes to ten, I stood in the alcove at the end of the hall next to the kitchen, observing through the hole in the wall, the cast that had been assembled for what I consider one of the best charades Wolfe has ever staged."
Well, I dare to disagree. This is my 10th book in the venerable Nero Wolfe series that I am reviewing on Goodreads and to me the most unremarkable one even if it marginally deals with chess, a topic that interests me quite a lot. I read the novel several weeks ago, did not have time to write the review, and now when I finally found a free hour I am unable to remember even the basic outline of the plot and have to skim the book again.
A president of a big corporation is in jail, charged with murder. Miss Blount, his 22-year-old daughter, hires Nero Wolfe to prove her father's innocence. The murder happened in a chess club when a chess prodigy who was playing twelve simultaneous blindfold games was poisoned having drunk hot chocolate. Miss Blount's father was apparently the only player who had an opportunity to administer the poison. The reader learns that Miss Blount offers $22,000 up front to entice Mr. Wolfe. Neat amount: twenty-two thousand dollars in 1962, when the book was published, would be worth about $180,000 in today's money!
Naturally, the events in the plot begin resembling a game of chess. The reader learns what a gambit is:
Alas, the plot is quite predictable and the reader will likely lose interest quickly, as I did. As in all Nero Wolfe novels the writing has the specific old-style charm and of course Archie Goodwin is the most remarkable and unforgettable character, as opposed to the cliché of Mr. Wolfe. There are several neat pearl of wisdom scattered in the text, of which I will quote one:
Two stars.
Well, I dare to disagree. This is my 10th book in the venerable Nero Wolfe series that I am reviewing on Goodreads and to me the most unremarkable one even if it marginally deals with chess, a topic that interests me quite a lot. I read the novel several weeks ago, did not have time to write the review, and now when I finally found a free hour I am unable to remember even the basic outline of the plot and have to skim the book again.
A president of a big corporation is in jail, charged with murder. Miss Blount, his 22-year-old daughter, hires Nero Wolfe to prove her father's innocence. The murder happened in a chess club when a chess prodigy who was playing twelve simultaneous blindfold games was poisoned having drunk hot chocolate. Miss Blount's father was apparently the only player who had an opportunity to administer the poison. The reader learns that Miss Blount offers $22,000 up front to entice Mr. Wolfe. Neat amount: twenty-two thousand dollars in 1962, when the book was published, would be worth about $180,000 in today's money!
Naturally, the events in the plot begin resembling a game of chess. The reader learns what a gambit is:
"It's an opening in which a player gives up a pawn or a piece to gain an advantage."We have some reasonably relevant chess quotes and even Robert Fischer, the future (1972) world chess champion, is mentioned. I would have particular reasons to get interested in the novel as it was precisely in 1962 that I got seriously interested in chess and joined a chess club in Warsaw, Poland. In fact, the very next year I had an opportunity to meet the very same Robert Fischer, when he played few games in Warsaw.
Alas, the plot is quite predictable and the reader will likely lose interest quickly, as I did. As in all Nero Wolfe novels the writing has the specific old-style charm and of course Archie Goodwin is the most remarkable and unforgettable character, as opposed to the cliché of Mr. Wolfe. There are several neat pearl of wisdom scattered in the text, of which I will quote one:
"Nothing is impossible in the relations between men and women."To sum up, I am unable to recommend the novel as it barely clears the two-star level. Even so, I will continue reading the series, in search of an installment as great as the magnificent Murder By the Book.
Two stars.
December 31, 2019
As implied by the title (and if you’ve read the book, you’ll get the emphasis on implied), this Wolfe & Archie story revolves around a chess game. A young man named Paul Jerin was a kind of trickster - in Archie’s words:
Jerin met a young woman, Sally Blount, at a party and eventually became acquainted with her family. Sally’s father was a chess enthusiast and belonged to an exclusive chess club called the Gambit Club. Mr. Blount arranges for Jerin to come to the club and play simultaneous matches with 12 club members. During the games, Jerin becomes ill; a doctor at the club is called to treat him; nevertheless Jerin gets worse and is taken to the hospital by ambulance; within a few hours, Jerin is dead. A subsequent autopsy reveals he died of arsenic poisoning.
Mr. Blount is arrested for the murder and his long-time friend, Dan Kalmus, is his attorney. Sally doesn’t trust Kalmus and consults Nero Wolfe, offering him $22,000 (because she is 22 years old), to prove her father’s innocence. Sally is quite a well-developed character and Archie does NOT fall in love with her.
The mystery and its resolution is quite clever in this one, but as always, the real attraction is the narration by Archie and the byplay between him and Wolfe. I loved the opening scene: Wolfe ripping pages from the 3rd Edition of Webster’s New International’s Dictionary because he “found it subversive and intolerably offensive.” What, specifically, so offended Wolfe? Among other crimes against the English language, the dictionary stated “imply” and “infer” could be used interchangeably. (I agree that’s egregious, but I’m not sure it merits immolation.)
4+ stars.
He was a screwball. He had three sources of income: from writing verses and gags for greeting cards, from doing magic stunts at parties, and from shooting craps. Also he was hot at chess, but he only played chess for fun. . .
Jerin met a young woman, Sally Blount, at a party and eventually became acquainted with her family. Sally’s father was a chess enthusiast and belonged to an exclusive chess club called the Gambit Club. Mr. Blount arranges for Jerin to come to the club and play simultaneous matches with 12 club members. During the games, Jerin becomes ill; a doctor at the club is called to treat him; nevertheless Jerin gets worse and is taken to the hospital by ambulance; within a few hours, Jerin is dead. A subsequent autopsy reveals he died of arsenic poisoning.
Mr. Blount is arrested for the murder and his long-time friend, Dan Kalmus, is his attorney. Sally doesn’t trust Kalmus and consults Nero Wolfe, offering him $22,000 (because she is 22 years old), to prove her father’s innocence. Sally is quite a well-developed character and Archie does NOT fall in love with her.
The mystery and its resolution is quite clever in this one, but as always, the real attraction is the narration by Archie and the byplay between him and Wolfe. I loved the opening scene: Wolfe ripping pages from the 3rd Edition of Webster’s New International’s Dictionary because he “found it subversive and intolerably offensive.” What, specifically, so offended Wolfe? Among other crimes against the English language, the dictionary stated “imply” and “infer” could be used interchangeably. (I agree that’s egregious, but I’m not sure it merits immolation.)
4+ stars.
March 19, 2025
This is my first Rex Stout novel, but the 37th in the series, so I am probably missing some of the charms that are available to series readers of longstanding. I enjoyed the voice of Archie Goodwin as narrator.
July 21, 2017
Archie is getting smarter with every book, lately.
July 5, 2018
Great Wolfe, tightly plotted with no dull spots.
March 31, 2023
This is the 37th story in the Nero Wold Series and was published in 1963. The title reflects the Chess theme around a murder at a chess club. Nice twist at the end that makes it an even more difficult challenge to solve.
June 30, 2018
As enjoyable as any other Nero Wolfe book I have read. I found the solution a little confusing, but the mystery is not the part that i find so enjoyable in mystery novels, so that was fine. Archie and Wolfe and Cramer, etc., are all as fun to read about as usual!
April 22, 2024
A quick and enjoyable read.
The author hands us an interesting mystery where nearly every character (including Wolfe and Archie) make assumptions about the suspects that lead to the destruction of reputations and more death past the original murder.
Wolfe playing a gambit to flush out the killer is a tried and true method, but Stout makes it work better here than in some of his other novels. Perhaps it is the overlay of chess as part of the mystery (the first victim was playing it when he became ill). If so, it added to the enjoyability of the tale and made determining the killer more interesting.
Certainly above average, and highly recommended to fans of Stout or detective novels in general.
Find it! Buy it! READ IT!
The author hands us an interesting mystery where nearly every character (including Wolfe and Archie) make assumptions about the suspects that lead to the destruction of reputations and more death past the original murder.
Wolfe playing a gambit to flush out the killer is a tried and true method, but Stout makes it work better here than in some of his other novels. Perhaps it is the overlay of chess as part of the mystery (the first victim was playing it when he became ill). If so, it added to the enjoyability of the tale and made determining the killer more interesting.
Certainly above average, and highly recommended to fans of Stout or detective novels in general.
Find it! Buy it! READ IT!
December 5, 2023
Fast book but very exciting one.
August 24, 2014
This was a fun Nero Wolfe mystery. As far as I am concerned they are all fun. My favorite ones are the titles that were written in the 1930's and 1940's. They give a good picture of the New York city of a bygone era, a time when men all wore hats, and you could get a spaghetti dinner at an Italian restaurant for $1.60.
This one was published In 1962.
The premise: a man (Paul Jerin) alone in a room, playing 12 games of chess with the boards and players in another room. Paul Jerin is drinking hot chocolate, four men are bringing messages to him about the moves the twelve chess players each make. One of the players brings him his hot chocolate. Paul Jerin is poisoned and dies. The police determine that the poison was in the chocolate. Can Wolfe prove that the man who brought him the chocolate did not poison him, and find the real killer? All the classic Wolfe and Archie Goodwin quirks are on display. Archie drinks milk, Wolfe drinks beer, Inspector Cramer chews a cigar and yells at Wolfe, Wolfe refuses to leave the house, Archie makes smart aleck remarks to people. In short everything that one looks for in a Nero Wolfe book.
Read/reviewed 9/28/12
This one was published In 1962.
The premise: a man (Paul Jerin) alone in a room, playing 12 games of chess with the boards and players in another room. Paul Jerin is drinking hot chocolate, four men are bringing messages to him about the moves the twelve chess players each make. One of the players brings him his hot chocolate. Paul Jerin is poisoned and dies. The police determine that the poison was in the chocolate. Can Wolfe prove that the man who brought him the chocolate did not poison him, and find the real killer? All the classic Wolfe and Archie Goodwin quirks are on display. Archie drinks milk, Wolfe drinks beer, Inspector Cramer chews a cigar and yells at Wolfe, Wolfe refuses to leave the house, Archie makes smart aleck remarks to people. In short everything that one looks for in a Nero Wolfe book.
Read/reviewed 9/28/12
February 3, 2020
At the Gambit Club, a private chess club, a young man who is something of a ne'er do well as well as a chess whiz has taken on a challenge of blind chess with six opponents. But during the challenge, he becomes sick and is taken to a hospital where he dies of arsenic poisoning. The man who set up the challenge, Matthew Blount has been arrested. Blount's daughter comes to Nero Wolfe and wants him to investigate because she did not believe her father killed the man. Her father and his attorney do not want her to hire Wolfe, but she manages to talk Wolfe into it. Detective Cramer comes to talk to Wolfe wanting to know who hired him and what he has found out. While Wolfe is talking to Cramer, Cramer unknowingly gives him an idea about the crime. So he sets to work, at first blindly to Archie's dissatisfaction, then with more purpose. Then someone kills Blount's attorney, whom his daughter suspected. Supposedly her father and his lawyer had a secret only they knew that would prove his innocence, but they weren't telling.....
The plot is a little more complicated and the solution a little more involved than some of the others and Wolfe breaks a couple of his rules, but not by much....
The plot is a little more complicated and the solution a little more involved than some of the others and Wolfe breaks a couple of his rules, but not by much....
August 14, 2011
Nero Wolfe, “the grand master of detection” will always solve the unsolvable. But before he does his loyal legman – Archie Goodwin – will do all the hard work and take all the chances. He also must convince Mr. Wolfe to take the case and convince all the suspects that they have to go to Mr. Wolfe’s townhouse for questions from the great detective. In-between expect to find out about Mr. Wolfe’s Manhattan townhouse complete with five star cook, Gardenias that Mr. Wolfe is obsessed with and the best cup of coffee in town.
I must confess I am a little envious of Mr. Wolfe’s lifestyle and do enjoy reading about the great detective living the good life. I like my books to have a little more edge, but if you want to read a classic detective novel then any Nero Wolfe novel is worth reading.
I must confess I am a little envious of Mr. Wolfe’s lifestyle and do enjoy reading about the great detective living the good life. I like my books to have a little more edge, but if you want to read a classic detective novel then any Nero Wolfe novel is worth reading.
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