Plot It Yourself: A Nero Wolfe Mystery

Nero Wolfe #32

by Rex Stout, Michael Prichard (Narrator)

It's bad enough to steal someone's idea; but it takes real guts to claim it is your own, then sue the originator. That's just what a gang of hack writers do, ingeniously planting evidence to back up their claims. The frustrated authors call on Nero Wolfe for help.

But when someone dies, Wolfe realizes it's no simple extortion scheme. He'll have to draw on his critical skills to close the book on a killer well-versed in the ABCs of murder.

"A delightful puzzle..Stout is king." (B-O-T Editorial Review Board)

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Detective, Crime, Audiobook, Classics, Ebooks

Audio CD

First published October 30, 1959

About the author

Rex 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.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nero Wolfe is hired to get to the bottom of a suspicious series of plagiarism suits in which established authors are being framed and successfully sued because of the "evidence" of plagiarism planted in the plaintiffs' manuscripts. Wolfe determines all these manuscripts are the work of one person, and soon the bodies (of the supposed original authors of those manuscripts) start piling up.

This novel is notable for its treatment of the interdependent yet hostile relationship between author and publisher, something a veteran novelist like Stout would know something about. The first third of this novel is as absorbing and ingenious as any Wolfe I've read, but the development and denouement don't quite measure up to the beginning.

Still, it is thoroughly entertaining.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A visit with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin at Wolfe's brownstone on West Thirty-Fifth Street is always a treat. These are nostalgic and light reads. As I write this review we are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been a tough year. Someday someone may read this review and this will be history.

Published in 1959 this is the 32nd book in the series. The Book Publishers of America (BPA) and the National Association of Authors and Dramatists (NAAD) form a joint committee and hire Wolfe to investigate claims of plagiarism. In these cases the plagiarists are claiming that the well-known authors are stealing from them. "Plagiarism upside down" as Wolfe puts it. The plagiarists plant evidence to back up their claims. These claims have damaged both the publishers and the authors and the committee wants Wolfe's help in stopping the fraud.

There are four different claims that Wolfe is hired to investigate. His first step is to gather all the manuscripts. Wolfe fans know that he is an avid reader and after reading all the manuscripts he concludes that they were all written by the same person. This he says is based on aspects such as diction, punctuation, syntax and paragraphing.

A committee member suggests that one of the plagiarists be offered money, along with a guarantee of immunity, to identify the author of the manuscripts. The next day Archie goes to make the offer but finds Sergeant Purley Stebbins at the apartment. The plagarist has been murdered. This is followed by the murder of two more of the plagiarists. Wolfe blames himself for not taking steps to protect the plagiarists when they first planned to offer money for information. He is so angry that he tells Fritz "... I shall drink no beer until I get my fingers around that creature's throat".

There is only one plagiarist left. As is usual in these stories Wolfe gathers everyone together in the office in his brownstone where he will reveal the identity of the murderer. Rex Stout draws on his experience with publishers, authors and the writing process itself. A fun and quick read and nice visit with some familiar characters

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

While no where near the best Nero Wolfe story there is still a lot to enjoy here.
3.75/5

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I divide the books Nero Wolfe reads into four grades: A, B, C, and D. If, when he comes down to the office from the plant rooms at six o’clock, he picks up his current book and opens to his place before he rings for beer, and if his place was marked with a thin strip of gold, five inches long and an inch wide ...

A book that opens about reading is likely one that will interest me. A bit further down that first page, Archie also observes I haven’t kept score, but I would say that of the two hundred or so books he reads in a year not more than five or six get an A. How can I not like a character who reads 200 books a year, even if he has a button on his desk to summon beer and (almost) never leaves his house? So what does this have to do with what we know is going to be a murder mystery?

Wolfe is soon hired by the Joint Committee on Plagiarism made up of members of the National Association of Authors and Dramatists and members of the Book Publishers Association. There have been a series of suits for plagiarism which they now think were false. Are any of them likely to be murdered or, conversely, be the perpetrator?

The mystery is good enough, but maybe not the the most intricate of plots. For me reading Nero Wolfe is mostly about good characterization and good writing. Oh, I suppose one could argue that the good characterization is all about Wolfe and Archie and that is probably true. I'm pretty sure the good writing would never make it up against those who have written classics, but there is more to it than any ordinary mystery writer.

I'm not ashamed to make sure this one has a 4th star.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is one of Stout’s best even though Wolfe is a bit more prominently featured than Archie. A committee of authors, publishers and playwrights hire Wolfe to investigate several claims of plagiarism. Here’s the way the scheme was worked: after book A was published, a writer came forward with manuscript B claiming writer A had plagiarized from manuscript B. Writer A then had to pay a settlement to Writer B, or Writer B sued Writer A in court for damages. This has been carried out several times, with one of the later ones being a play rather than a novel.

Some have already been settled, one was tried in court and damages awarded to the Plaintiff, and one is very fresh, so to speak.

One of the first things Wolfe does, which no one has done as yet, is read all the books involved. Wolfe is obviously a fast reader (although perhaps not on par with Dr. Spencer Reid as portrayed by Matthew Gray Gubler on the Criminal Minds TV show who can read 20,000 words per minute). By analyzing the writing, syntax, punctuation, etc. of the books, he determines that the all of the “B” books were in fact, written by the same person.

He then compares the B manuscripts to other writings of the B writers and finds that none of the B manuscripts were written by any of the B writers. This leads him to conclude some third party, whom he calls X was the instigator of the scheme, which seems to be corroborated when all the B writers are murdered, except Writer B1.

As a lover and consumer of books, I really enjoyed this story. I usually read mysteries for the characters and their world, but the plot was the strongest aspect of this story, IMO, and one that very much appealed to me. That’s why I give it a rare 5 stars.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to look up the "Heron" automobile Mr. Wolfe is said to own - no such car existed in actuality. Probably a salute to the heron crest of the Cadillac of the 1930s. (Rex Stout drove one.)

A fun romp through the publishing industry of the late 1950s.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some light reading after a couple of tomes. Not Stout's best--Wolfe commits an egregious oversight that a dedicated Wolfite just can't credit. Archie doesn't turn Rowcliff inside out. And the byplay among the regulars doesn't measure up. But mediocre Stout is still an enjoyable couple of hours.

Since it's about the publishing world, one supposes an insider could identify at least some of the characters.

[Vicki Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wolfe is approached by a committee of authors and publishers to find out who is behind the string of spurious claims of plagiarism. It gets serious fast when some of the people who claimed to have been plagiarized turn up murdered. Of course, by the end the murderer has been uncovered. This book contains one of the rare instances when Wolfe leaves the house on business.

[Dominique · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Desmond · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one of the later of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novels Plot It Yourself has been said by some to not be one of the best, however I think it stands up alongside Some Buried Caesar, The Doorbell Rang, and Death of a Doxy. There is some fine prose as to be expected by Stout and all the desirable cast is present including Sal Panzer, Orrie Cather, Fred Durkin, and even Theodolinda "Dol" Bonner (the female detective who appears occasionally in the Wolfe stories and once in her own novel The Hand in the Glove).

In this outing Wolfe is hired by a committee of writers and publishers to deal with a string of plagiarism suits. In customary fashion Nero proves himself the smartest person in the room to such a degree the culprit is moved to escalate their crimes to murder to forestall his investigation. Archie gets some good lines, but less interaction with women, and there's a good scene with Inspector Cramer of Homicide who has a rare opportunity to get a dig in at Wolfe.

As always Stout plays fair with the reader and the solution is in plain sight for the astute. This has always been one of my favorite parts of Stout's Wolfe novels. Much like Ellery Queen it's up the reader how much they want to have a go at solving the mystery while it remains equally as enjoyable just to go along for the ride. The reveal of the culprit and final scene is among Stout's best.

I readily recommend the works of Stout to anyone within earshot and this one is no exception. Plot It Yourself is a worthy addition to the series that can be read and re-read by fans of mystery or just plain old good writing.

[Jennifer Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe books. The food in it is only so-so, but the story, where (SPOILER ALERT) an author is the villain, and everyone in it is an author or a publisher, and all the clues are literary, is irresistible to me. Wolfe pulls a mutiny early on, then he gets over it. The killer keeps staying ahead of him to the point where he's roaring.

I always say a good series is not about whodunit but about the relationships of the main continuing characters. The question in these books is, What is Wolfe eating? How is he getting on Archie's last nerve? How is Archie going to get him back, and who will have the last word? The relationships between these two and Fritz the cook and Theodore the orchid guy stir the pot. I don't think you can call the Wolfe/Goodwin duo "slash" but (ew, I just had a visual on that, need mental floss stat!) BUT their "marriage" is pretty wonderful. If I look at them as a loose, asexual menage of four rigidly homosocial men--meaning not gay at all, but preferring the company of other men--it works, and I can overlook Archie's exuberant male chauvinism.

I definitely give it a five.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, not a wasted word. I was completely flummoxed, as were Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin through most of this one. Three times Archie directly addressed me the reader and admitted that the answer may seem obvious to me, but that it was much more difficult when he and Wolfe were actually living it, as opposed to having it all organized and laid out between the covers of a book. Of course at no point did I actually have a clue. And when the clues were finally revealed, I had missed all of them. Great to be so thoroughly outwitted.

[Bryan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm in a weird mental place right now. Thanks real life. So I hope this review is fair. The book was read mostly while waiting for modern medicine to be inflicted on a loved one.

The premise of this book is a number of authors have been swindled by phony plagiarism cases, and when another claim arises a group of authors and publishers turn to Nero to find out who is doing it and stop them. Of course, it never ends there, and murder is involved before very long.

For the most part I enjoyed this book very much. The repartee between Nero and Archie is as tight as ever and their fragile friendship withstands another mystery together. The interactions with Inspector Cramer and the other members of Nero's household are right in form. The pieces to the puzzle are put out right in front of you but most, like me, won't notice them until they go back after reading the final scene since the clues are very subtle and the criminal in this case was particularly cunning, fooling even Nero for a while.

The one thing that keeps it from being five stars for me is an incident where it seems like Nero is going to throw one of his infrequent fits and stop working on the case completely. It was set up beautifully and I expected it to result in conflict between Nero and Archie when the circumstances of the case changed and Nero came out of his funk after one afternoon's worth of snit. That felt ... underwhelming but otherwise the book was wonderful.

[JZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the very best written Nero Wolfe books, if you're interested in writing.

Rex Stout was much more than just a novelist. This from Wikipedia: He was the long-time president of the Authors Guild, during which he sought to benefit authors by lobbying for reform of the domestic and international copyright laws, and served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.

He knows his stuff, and shows it off in this excellent installment of the Wolfe canon. Showing off the knowledge he gleaned about plagiarism, he writes a good story, although the murders are really just the excuse for him to show off his acumen.

He does it well.

[Stacie Haden · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are my "go to" books when I've hit a slump. I sure hope I find another ubiquitous series to cover that need before I finish all the Nero Wolfes.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh Rex, why couldn't you have written 100 more?

In this volume plagiarism plagues the NY literary industry in the 1950s, and Nero leaves the brownstone, if only briefly. For a man who never leaves his home, I seem to gravitate to every book in which he does.

[Doug Bolden · Rating 4 out of 5]

After my somewhat disappointing outing with Ellery Queen's first novel (both as a "writer" and as a character) I by nearly chance re-stumbled upon the name "Nero Wolfe" and realized that, outside of my mom telling me I should read novels about him some time ago, it was another chunk of mystery lore that I knew next to nothing about. Though it is my normal mode to pick the first novel in a series as a starting point and to continue on if I enjoyed it, I decided this time around that the flaws in that approach—namely that very few mystery series are rarely truly good in the first outing or two and build up quality and character over time—meant I should probably dive in somewhere around the middle. Which I did. Or, in this case, I think it was more nearly the end. I picked Plot It Yourself because I liked the idea of an investigator solving a plagiarism case over murder* (though, slight spoiler, murder does get involved). The fact that I read this book in a single day, less than 24-hours (across roughly three readings, give or take) should show that I enjoyed it and that it is short, both of which are pluses in this genre.

Going in, like I did, without knowing the deeplore of Nero Wolfe I do not know how much my confusion was inherent to the text or to the lack of background for the many names and characteristics that surfaced. It is funny to note that having heard the name Nero Wolfe, I had always assumed a more Sherlockian character—tall, haunted, and a man of action—as opposed to the Mycroftian character he is—overweight, fond of indulgences, prone to staying put and sending out subordinates. I saw the word Falstaffian applied to him. That seems alright as a starting point, though potentially insulting a man of such genius that he solves crimes while sitting in his apartment and drinking beer and being told facts. I have no idea if Wolfe has always been this way, but since literary detectives are forced to have a series of quirks to distinguish them, I assume so. It is rare that a literary detective truly changes even after years of being crafted on the page.

In this case, five authors have been accused of plagiarism by four other authors over the recent years. In all but the most recent, there is evidence that turns up after the claim that the victim of the claim (being the author accused) swears could not have been there, but which pushes the cases against them. In the most recent case, the person who is claiming plagiarism is actually the first accuser using the same tricks. A committee of sorts is made up of various author/playwright-organizations and this committee hires Nero Wolfe (and his assistant, who does all of the legwork, Archie Goodwin) to get to the bottom of it. Once things are poked, though, the situation gets more complicated over time. Part of the complication is that all of the accusers are also writers who have other published works. Another part is folks with connection to the case start ending up dead.

Now, the murders are largely superfluous to the plot: a mechanical device to add tension but also maybe to satisfy the concept of a mystery novel (see footnote "*" for a bit about this). They do make things more "exciting" (since otherwise it would be largely Rex Stout discussing his insider knowledge of the publishing world through his characters) but it would have been fun to see him resist. And the ending is, in the way of most mystery novels, given as this sort of irrefutable conclusion despite nearly all the logic being very fuzzy and likely impossible to hold up in court without the murderer/extortionist just admitting everything to a crowd of people.

Despite these hold-overs to the genre, Stout does a good job of blending in humor and oddness** into a serious subject that he himself likely had to give much thought over. His writing is not sublime, per se, but it is well-crafted and full of nice little tidbits and asides and insights. By this time, book thirty-two in the series, he had lots of practice, sure, and had spent some time leading the sort of committees and organizations that he writes about, here. It's good to see someone using their insider knowledge to make something interesting about it (as opposed to a slog full of personal anecdotes and philosophies, a couple of which do show up in the text).

Good stuff, generally speaking.

========
* Cozy, pulp, and pop mystery nearly always invoke death to the opposite of its gruesome assumption—fear, unease, tension—and instead wield it like a balm to escape life's troubles. I'm sure there are plenty of essays about how horror and mystery use the same tools to different ends—much like there are essays about the coziness of pulp and pop horror.

** As said, series detectives need quirks and generally their fingerprint is some series of elements that gives often humorous oddness to the proceedings. This is deep enough in the genre's DNA that those stories that try to avoid it come across as flat and impersonal.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook. I love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books. Wolfe is a sixth of ton, a genius private eye who lives and works in a stylish brownstone in New York. He (almost) never leaves home. Archie Goodwin is his right hand man, and legs if needed. In this book a group of authors and publishers come to Wolfe to hire him to find out who is perpetrating a plagiarism fraud on them. There have been claims that the plots and characters in published books have been stolen from the real authors. As Wolfe looks into the claims he concludes the separate manuscripts have been written by the same person while the complaints were filed by several different people against different writers. While trying to find this person, one by one the authors who filed the claims are being murdered. The perplexing case keeps you guessing until the end. Classic Nero Wolfe.

[David Abrams · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, it's a pleasure to match wits (and lose) with detective Nero Wolfe. One of the things I appreciate the most with this series is the jaunty, near-hardboiled tone set by narrator Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's assistant.
A couple of interesting notes about this particular story:
1. The normally-housebound Nero Wolfe leaves his brownstone apartment to attend a meeting of publishers and authors.
2. Wolfe, acting on a personal vow, goes without meat or beer for a harrowing stretch of time, until he reveals the identity of the culprit.

[William Dury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent late fifties (1959) Wolfe story. Publishers and writers being sued for plagiarism seek Wolfe and Archie’s help to determine how semi-successful writers are falsely framing their more successful brethren for supposedly stealing their ideas. Wolfe determines that all the fakes were written by the same person and decides to bribe one of of the faux plagiarized writers, Simon Jacobs, hoping to persuade him to come clean. Jacobs is murdered before they can even put the offer to him.

An entertaining look into the world of publishing. What’s perversely entertaining is how mundane Stout makes that world appear. Well, anything’s mundane after spending time at “Molly’s Game.” Anyway, PIY is a good book. Like Macdonald’s or “Star Wars,” you know what you’re going to get, that’s why you went there.

[Usfromdk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a few of the Nero Wolfe mysteries are not really 'solvable' in the same way e.g. Agatha Christie's mysteries are, but this one definitely is 'solvable', which is part of the reason why I liked it a lot; the fact that I did manage to figure it out may also have been a contributing factor to my giving the book five stars. A very enjoyable read.

[Jaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun episode in the Nero Wolfe series. I loved the tension between publisher and author and who has to take responsibility for plagiarism. I also loved when Wolfe went on a food strike because he made a mistake in the case. Of course, he redeemed himself in the end with a usual Stout plot twist.

[BluMoon Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit more confusing and hard to follow than Stout's other books, but still great in that it follows his witty sense of detective style.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best of the Nero Wolfe novels. Stout turns what could have been just another Archie and Nero adventure into a masterful whodunit. The clues are literally right there, so there's no excuse for missing it. I did, and I kicked myself about half a dozen times when I realized what I did. Tip for future readers: Go slow and when Archie complains about missing it, go back and reread the book. You might pick it up then.

Seriously, this should be required reading for a class on writing mysteries.

Highly recommended for fans of Archie and Nero, mystery lovers in general, and good books that will stay with you as examples of how to write.

FIND IT! BUY IT! READ IT!

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 2 out of 5]

"'The [conclusion] resulted from my examination of the stories [...] They were all written by the same person. The internal evidence - diction, syntax, paragraphing - is ineluctable. You are professional word-and-language people; study those stories and you'll agree with me.'"

Another purely entertainment read and another installment in the magnificent Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout: Plot It Yourself (1959) is the 32nd novel in the series. The story begins with a serendipitous event: Mr. Wolfe is reading a book that he seems to quite like, written by a certain Philip Harvey, when the phone rings and who else but Philip Harvey is the caller.

The next morning a group of eminent book publishers, with Mr. Harvey serving as their spokesman, arrive in Nero Wolfe's office. The publishers summarize five cases of extortion where writers different than the official authors made charges of plagiarism; the cases did not go to court because of lack of sufficient evidence but the publishers had to settle for substantial amounts. They now want Wolfe to help them stop the extortions as their lawyers have not been successful in resolving the situation.

Wolfe takes the case and immerses himself in literary analyses. He discovers common features of various writers' vocabularies and phrasings. It is quite amusing to read about a writer's predilection for using 'aver' rather than 'say' or about a fondness for the phrase 'not for nothing.' Wolfe and Archie Goodwin have to read books like The Moth That Ate Peanuts, which gives Mr. Stout an opportunity to write about various things literary. Naturally, at some point the events get more serious and Mr. Wolfe gets quite exasperated with the difficulty of the case, which even leads to quite uncharacteristic behavior for him, like a fit of roaring and bellowing.

There are some twists in the plot - the most unexpected one happens in a cloister (this is not a spoiler!) - but the denouement is styled conventionally for Wolfe mysteries. The suspects are compelled to gather in Wolfe's office and he pontificates over the proceedings that lead to exposing the guilty party.

Alas, despite the initially fascinating setup of literary nature, this is not a particularly good installment of the Wolfe saga. The novel overwhelms the reader with too many details and too many characters, which prevents the natural charm of Goodwin/Wolfe stories from shining through.

Two-and-a-half stars.

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an actual mystery, more of a premise that Stout had for the perfect crime. To demonstrate this the bulk of the novel is a chronicle of frustration, with bodies piling up and no way forward in the case. Up to the point of resolution these frustrations reveal new sides to the business relationship of Archie and Nero, with Archie being the one who is creative, making decisions, and recognizing when some path is a dead end, while Nero only emerges from the background at the point when he pinpoints the murderer and holds one of his trademark inquests where everything is revealed.

There is a greater than usual amount of smoke and mirrors in the conclusion, much of it to inform us of the incredible deviousness of the system of plagiarism accusations and the cover-up that followed. Unfortunately this is only a distraction from the extreme thinness of of the resolution. This is another of the Stout novels that is richer in inspiration and the telling than in the conclusion. In that regard it is a typical Wolfe novel, and should not be faulted for that. Where I am disappointed in that the characters are less developed and less motivated in their actions than usual, especially the female characters who are often simply measured by Archie's willingness to admire their physical aspects and how he reacts to them accordingly. So, because the book relies so much more on Archie's initiative makes this a below average effort.

[E.M. Lynley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Nero Wolfe story set in the world of publishing, this one revolving around plagiarism. As a writer, it's a topic close to my heart, and the story takes an interesting perspective on the issue, because it's a form of reverse plagiarism. A set of authors are accused of plagiarism and sued, to end up settling the cases for large sums of money. In fact, it's all a scam and the accusers are all in on a conspiracy.

As a mystery this one falls short of Stout's best efforts. The culprit is fairly easy to determine and there are really no characters I ended up liking (except Archie and the rest of Wolfe's household). The analysis of the writing styles that help Wolfe solve the mystery is fascinating for its attention to writing style, word choice, etc., but the motivation and explanations seemed weaker than usual.

Again, it's Michael Pritchard's performance as Archie that saves the story. I'd give it 3 stars if I read it rather than listened to it.

[C.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A group of authors and publishers band together to employ Wolfe to stop a plagiarism scam that has plagued them in the past few years, but was not really understood until just recently. A fun read, if only for the constant, eternaly balance between emenity and need that exists between those who write and those who publish. Fun but not very deep.

[Jeffrey Marks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Archie, Nero, perfection

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it very much as it gives a bit of an inside look into the world or writers and publishers.