"Trouble in Triplicate"

Three cases of murder. Three men who showed up on Nero Wolfe's doorstep, looking for help. Three men who would soon be murder victims, each wanting to hire Nero Wolfe. And that would leave Nero Wolfe and his right-hand assistant, Archie Goodwin right in the midst of three very difficult and dangerous murder cases as they tried to deal with Trouble in Triplicate, which is the title of a very good collection of Wolfe and Goodwin stories by Rex Stout. It is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here.

Between 1934 and his death in 1975, Rex Stout wrote 33 novels featuring the corpulent genius, Nero Wolfe, and his wise-cracking aide, Archie Goodwin. He also wrote 39 novellas, shorter length mysteries, for Wolfe and Goodwin. These stories generally made their debut appearances serialized in one of the popular American magazines at the time, and then were collected, usually in threes and fours, for book publication. One of those collections was Trouble in Triplicate, which contained three shorter stories which had been published first in The American Magazine before being gathered into a book in 1949. 

In the first of those stories, called “Before I Die,” the would-be client is a powerful and dangerous mobster named Dazy Perritt. He wants to hire Wolfe to stop someone from blackmailing him. Wolfe takes the case – but almost immediately Perritt is shot and killed practically on Wolfe’s doorstep, and – all of a sudden –Perritt’s gangland associates, convinced that Wolfe and Goodwin are responsible for Perritt’s murder, may now be seeking to even the score. Wolfe’s going to have to find a solution to the murder – and at the same time keep himself and Archie off the gangsters’ hit list.

The next client is a businessman – a publisher, named Ben Jensen. In “Help Wanted, Male,” Ben Jensen has received an anonymous letter with a frightening message: YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE – AND I WILL WATCH YOU DIE. Jensen wants Wolfe to find and stop the would-be murderer, and he doesn’t like it when Wolfe refuses on the grounds that it’s virtually an impossible task to block a determined killer. Sure enough, by the next day, Ben Jensen is dead, shot through the heart. Regrettable, to be sure, but, as Wolfe insists, none of his business. Until that same message – YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE – AND I WILL WATCH YOU DIE – turns up in Wolfe’s morning mail. Now, Nero Wolfe realizes that he will have to find the killer – or die trying.

In the third and final novella, called “Instead of Evidence,” another businessman, Eugene R. Poor, comes to Wolfe with a slightly different request. Poor is convinced that he is about to be murdered by his business partner, Conroy Blaney, with whom Poor manufactures novelty joke items like exploding cigars. Poor agrees with Wolfe that it’s almost impossible to stop a determined murderer, but what he wants Wolfe to do after his death is make sure the killer is brought to justice. Sure enough, Poor soon becomes a murder victim – of an exploding cigar, no less – but did Con Blaney really kill him? Wolfe has his own way of getting at the truth – and his own way of making sure the killer doesn’t escape.

Three novellas about people in trouble. Three challenges to Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. And three highly entertaining stories from Rex Stout, as narrated by the inimitable voice of Archie – or at least by Archie’s inimitable wisecracks that leap out of the pages at us. You'll enjoy Trouble in Triplicate.

Comments

[Colin McGuigan]

Les, I'm very fond of Stout and there's a good argument to be made for his novellas representing some of his best work.
Anyway, whether it's novels or the shorter form, there's something infinitely refreshing about Wolfe, Archie and the whole brownstone setup. I find these stories a great pick-me-up, something sure to restore my good humor and make everything feel just that bit better - I think that's a particularly welcome quality these days!

[Les Blatt]

Agreed, Colin. As a general rule, the novellas are written more tightly, there's no need to be padding out the story with extra deaths for example. But the real selling point for all the Nero Wolfe books is the whole 35th street group of characters. We keep going back to visit the brownstone and to catch up on the people who live or work there. I find re-reading these books to be as enjoyable as reading them for the first time.