The first Nero Wolfe story. I was surprised by how the characters are already complete in their quirks and their relationships with one another. I wouldn't say it's my favorite in the series, but I did enjoy it enough to look for another audiobook. ( )

I’d never read a Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe murder mystery, much to my embarrassment as a fan of the genre, so I decided I’d start at the beginning with Fer-de-Lance.

And a good start it is. The story involves a rather complicated set of murders, one of which is enacted by a truly ingenious method; although I’ve read hundreds of murder mysteries, I’d never come across anything quite like it. And although it’s quite easy to figure out the mystery, the book’s extended wind-up maintains interest through a series of perhaps predictable but never the less well-executed scenes.

The book’s most surprising feature is the way in which a complex crime-solving set-up involving several well-drawn characters – especially Nero Wolfe himself, and his right-hand man Archie Goodwin – spring forth fully-formed, like Athena from Zeus’s head. There is no sense of the series just beginning; indeed, the book is littered with allusions to other cases and adventures.

The mood and tone of the story are also surprisingly contemporary. Yes, there are references to the 1930s context, but the characters’ attitudes and back-and-forth banter would be right at home over a few beers today.

My only hesitation in recommending this one is that at times the pace of the story flags a bit. There’s a lot of back-and-forth driving so that meetings can be held, and the main characters’ interactions with some of the supporting cast feel a bit mechanical at times.

Overall, though, this was an interesting read, and I’m looking forward to continuing reading more from the series. ( )

The first Nero Wolfe book that Rex Stout wrote and the first Wolfe book I read, though it certainly won't be the last. I've always loved the hardboiled detectives of America, authors like Chandler, Hammett, Himes and Block but I've recently started reading the more genteel English detective stories and this is a perfect combination of both the styles of detective fiction. The cerebral Nero Wolfe who, being a "mountain of a man" stays at home, refusing to go out but instead pieces the clues together by deduction and the streetwise and 'hardbolied' assistant Archie Goodwin who goes out to interview people, do the leg work and collect the clues necessary for Nero to make his amazing leaps of deduction. As one reviewer called the pairing it is like; "Mycroft Holmes working alongside Sam Spade".
the story Rex introdces the world to Nero Wolfe with doesn't quite have the human complexity of Raymond Chandler but it does have the language and sense of the time in which it was written that he does and it also has a story with enough ingenuity and originality to rival Conan Doyle, Poe's detective Dupin or Agatha Christie with an eloborate murder weapon, some neat twists and turns and enough clues that the reader can look back and exclaim; "of course! how could I not see that?", though of course I don't want to spoil it for any newcomer and reveal any here. It also has that great relationship between the private detective and DA's office that Chandler and Hammett have, the push and pull of them rejecting each others help but needing them and the threats by the DA that Archie neatly sidesteps.
This is a book and, hopefully, series i could happily recommend to fans of detective fiction and I will certainly be re-reading this myself so it gets 4 stars. ( )

Fer-de-Lance is the first of the Nero Wolfe mysteries, chronicling Nero Wolfe, a fat, erudite genius who loves food and orchids, and Archie Goodwin his street-savvy assistant. In Fer-de-Lance a woman comes to Wolfe and Archie asking them to find her missing brother, a case that grows more complex when they get involved in the murder of a man whom nobody would want to murder, a deadly game of golf, and snakes.

The synopsis sounds kind of silly, but Fer-de-Lance is a worthwhile book. I first got into Nero Wolfe by watching the television series but the books live up to the show (not surprising because the show is supposed to have stuck fairly faithfully to canon). Rex Stout has the ability not only to be good at plotting mysteries but good at writing– his prose crackles along sharp enough to cut. Wolfe and Archie are both intriguing 3D characters with their own quirks and follies. The background characters have depth too. You end up feeling kind of sorry for the villain. Stout is also good enough to characterize both women as well as men; though there are echoes of old-fashioned attitudes towards women (and foreigners), Stout does not turn his women into beautiful playboy bunnies.

The plot of Fer-de-Lance isn’t spectacular but it carries its own weight and neatly, efficiently ties its loose ends together. It’s one of the better detective novels I’ve read in the past while. ( )