Too Many Clients

A darker Nero Wolfe mystery than most, with Stout attempting a tone that doesn't suit him - or Archie Goodwin, his narrator. As the blurb on the back of my yellowing 1960 copy reads: "love locked out ..." This is a very crude study of desire, where the sexual double standard is almost as central to the story as the characters: an 'oversexed' man who sets up a 'bower of carnality', to quote Wolfe, or a love nest, to get from a series of women what his wife won't or can't supply is described by Wolfe - and thus I suppose by Stout - as a romantic, with a trace of the literary 'flute strain' in him. But when one of his mistresses is a married woman, also oversexed and running rings around her husband, then she must be put in her place, and show more her husband congratulated on doing so. Similarly, an amorous actress can be pawed, but cannot make the first move. I'm not sure what this book says about Stout's attitude to women - from implicitly condoning (if not commending) domestic violence and physically repelling a woman's advances, Archie transforms into a knight errant, defending the pride and morals of a family caught up in the 'satyr's murder. Not a bad mystery, despite the dubious subtext, but the A+E episode is an improvement, with the wrinkles in Archie's behaviour smoothed out. show less

I've rated all of the Rex Stout novels much higher than this, and there's a lot to recommend in this book as well. The mystery is good, the problem of the many clients and the clues that Wolfe can't reveal to the police give this story a unique spin. However, there is a problem, and it's just one scene...one scene where a husband beats the hell out of his wife when he confronts her about her infidelity. To be fair, the book doesn't support the activity, but it certainly doesn't condemn it, and Archie doesn't show much concern. There have been problematic issues with these stories in the part, mostly some misogyny and racism. However, these can often be attributed to the personalities of certain characters, and the author often tries to show more show that this behavior is not something that he supports. But this scene of the beaten wife really rubbed me the wrong way, and it hurt what is otherwise an excellent book. show less

Too Many Clients (1960) (Nero Wolfe #34) by Rex Stout. When Thomas G. Yeager, vice president of Continental Plastic Products dropped in on Archie Goodwin to talk a small case, things seemed on the up and up. Yeager was being followed. He wanted to know by whom. Together he and Archie set a trap for later that evening. Yeager was to leave his apartment and take a taxi to a place on 82nd street. Goodwin would be in another cab and spot the tail.
Simple.
But when the trap is sprung, there is no tail spotted. For that matter, Yeager doesn’t appear either. Confounded, Archie learns more about Yeager and soon finds out that Yeager was already dead and dropped in a ConEd project hole on 82nd street hours before the meeting. Someone else had show more played Yeager.
An interesting premise, but it follows that there is no client to pay the bill for finding out just what was happening. Archie soon uncovers a tenement building with a Yeager built love nest on the top floor adjacent to where his body was found. The rooms are designed for just one thing and it is not to play ping-pong.
Before you know it there are multiple players vying to have Wolfe and Goodwin investigate for them. They include the Continental Plastics company as an entity, and the president of the company as a person, the wife of the dead man, even the super of the love shack building and his wife.
This is a complicated little mystery that sees our detectives one step ahead of the police and one step away from complete ruin if the cops discover what is going on with them.
This is a fun romp with the usual stolid Goodwin surrounded by more beautiful women than should be possible in such a sordid mess. Wolfe as always plays the mountain of wisdom, breaking down the wall of anonymity set by the false Yeager. Goodwin is dashing and charming and ruthless, and brilliant in his role. A great little read for passing the shuttered days and nights. show less

In Rex Stout's novel, Too Many Clients, a man approaches Archie, introduces himself as the vice president of a large company and asks Archie to follow him to a certain address at a certain time that night, in order to determine whether or not he, the vice president, is being followed by someone else. Archie keeps his part of the bargain, but the man never shows up to be tailed; instead, his body is found some time later underneath a tarp on a construction site across the street from the address to which the vice president was headed - except that body is not the person with whom Archie met. So who was that man, and why did he impersonate the vice president? Did he know the vice president was about to be killed? Did he have something to show more do with it? Before Archie can even begin to look into those questions, he investigates the place to which the man had been heading, and finds a very sumptuous love nest, with evidence of the presence of dozens of women there, albeit one at a time. And then Nero Wolfe is approached by a number of different entities, including the widow of the deceased, the company's board of supervisors, and the janitorial couple belonging to the building with the hidden boudoir - truly, he has too many clients!.... As ever, Archie is sarcastic and competent, Nero is pettish and grumpy, and the pair of them together manage to keep ahead of Inspector Cramer and the rest of New York's finest. The story is nicely complicated with numerous twists and turns, and it all ends in a satifactory manner. Recommended! show less

Starting slowly, Nero Wolfe needs clients to support his lifestyle. Archie is to find some. The mystery begins when Archie meets Thomas Yeager, the president of Continental Plastic Products. Thomas is concerned and wants to be able to make a clandestine meeting in a less-than-desirable part of town without being followed.

Archie arranges to watch him in controlled conditions so that he can make his meeting safely, but he doesn’t show. The next day Thomas Yeager turns up dead outside of the meeting location, but it isn’t the man that Archie met.

This is a good mystery, but Archie still doesn’t have a client. He proceeds with an investigation, staying both just ahead of the police and keeping out of jail for interfering.

At the address show more that Thomas gave, Archie finds an apartment set up as a private love nest done out in style. He manages to get several clients, the owners of the love nest, the directors of the Continental Plastics Company, and the wife of Thomas Yeager, each of whom is looking for a different outcome. He and Nero Wolfe have to keep the clients separate, feed them the information they are entitled to and feed the police what is necessary and not raise too much suspicion.

It’s a fun read and a good mystery. show less

I must admit that I enjoy this one for the "preposterous bower of carnality" as Wolfe calls it, which the victim had maintained --an apartment lined with satin and pictures of nude women. Wolfe actually expresses a certain sympathy for the arrangement leading to speculation about his younger days. One negative point is that Goodwin, and maybe Stout, sees to feel some sympathy for a man who reacts to discovering his wife had been there by beating her up.

This is the book where I fell in love with Fred.