From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Fer-de-Lance (Nero Wolfe, #1)

Rex Stout

Start date: January 1, 2017

Finish date: January 31, 2017

Discussion: Group reads

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What Members Thought

Nov 29, 2019 Franky rated it liked it

Shelves: crime, mystery, classics, 2019-reading-challenge

I know this series has a big following and I’m sure there are readers who are veterans of this series that will tell me there are better in the series, but truth be told, I was a little bit underwhelmed by the first in Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries, Fer De Lance. While there is certainly some entertainment value in this book, I felt like the negatives overshadowed and soured the experience of reading this book.

As far as the plot, it involves the mysterious death of two men, a college profess I know this series has a big following and I’m sure there are readers who are veterans of this series that will tell me there are better in the series, but truth be told, I was a little bit underwhelmed by the first in Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries, Fer De Lance. While there is certainly some entertainment value in this book, I felt like the negatives overshadowed and soured the experience of reading this book.

As far as the plot, it involves the mysterious death of two men, a college professor and an immigrant. The circumstances for one death are quite perplexing, and when the other death seems to have ties to this one, it is up the duo of Goodwin and Wolfe to find the perpetrator and set things right, and, of course, get a nice paycheck in due fashion. This sets in motion a bevy of suspects, family members and others to be questioned by the eccentric sleuth himself, Nero Wolfe, and his right hand man, Archie on the run for a good deal of the book.

I think one major problem with the novel is the plot itself, which is not only overly convoluted and detailed, but way too circular and bloated. There are so many unnecessary details and wild goose chases performed by Goodwin here and there in two-thirds of the first part of the book that it becomes a bit cumbersome, and this renders the final revelations and conclusion rather anticlimactic. It seems like the book could have been trimmed down significantly. And, as far as the ending itself, it’s rather perplexing and head-scratching, not to mention at tad rushed (which is ironic based on the preponderance of details leading up to it).

Secondly, the two leads didn’t appeal to me that much. I could never really warm up to milk-swigging and grinning narrator Archie Goodwin or slothful, gluttonous, orchid-loving eccentric and genius Nero Wolfe. Who knows? Maybe it’s because it’s the first time I’ve read any in the series, and maybe they get better. I’m not sure if I have the motivation to find out right now, but maybe in the distant future.
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