My timing is a little off, due to those couple of weeks around the end of June when I shut my mind down for a vacation. As a result, I now realize, I should have come back from my latest trip to the Classic Mysteries vault with a recommendation that you read - or re-read - a quartet of Rex Stout's novellas about Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, originally published in magazines, then collected and re-published in 1958 as And Four to Go. The reason for my remorse is that three of the four stories in this collection take place on or around holidays (including the Fourth of July), so they would have been more timely around the beginning of this month. They're still an enjoyable read, however. Here's a text of the audio review I wrote for the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago. As usual, it has been edited somewhat (mostly to remove some outdated information):
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Wouldn’t it be fun to go to a party with somebody like Nero Wolfe’s assistant, Archie Goodwin? Well, based on reading Rex Stout’s novels and novellas about Wolfe and Archie, I’d have to say…probably not. It might be fun, but it could also be dangerous; Archie has an unfortunate way of being on hand when bad things happen to people. Consider what happens in “Christmas Party” – just one of four novellas in the collection And Four to Go, by Rex Stout.
I thought it would be fun to look at some mysteries which take advantage of the holiday seasons as a background for their mayhem. I think that Rex Stout’s novella “Christmas Party" is a good place to start. It is, I think, the only time Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin got caught up in a Christmas crime. “Christmas Party” is one of four novellas collected into the book And Four to Go, and it’s a great deal of fun.
Or is it? Not so much, perhaps, for some of Archie’s friends. He’s invited to a Christmas Party at the office of one of Wolfe’s recent clients…only to find himself on hand when someone is murdered at the party. The police have a great suspect, though – the mysterious man dressed up as Santa Claus who was bartending for the party. Santa disappeared in the commotion around the murder.
So far, so good – but Archie and Wolfe will soon find themselves caught up in the mystery, and Wolfe will have to solve the case himself as quickly as possible to clear his own name.
I don’t want to tell you more, but if you’re looking for some seasonal cheer to get you into the Christmas spirit later this year, “Christmas Party” is certainly a good way to ease into it.
As a bonus, of course, there are the other three novellas in this very good assortment, two of which also use other holidays for their background.
There’s "Easter Parade," for example, where Wolfe’s love of orchids overpowers his common sense. The result is that he sends Archie off to the Easter Parade along New York’s Fifth Avenue for some shady dealings which are supposed to get him a very rare orchid blossom. What he gets for his pains, however, is involvement in another murder which happens right in front of Archie at the parade.
The third case is called "Fourth of July Picnic," and it takes Wolfe out of the 35th street brownstone and onto New York’s Long Island, where he intends to make a speech to an organization of restaurant workers. So, once again, Archie Goodwin is on hand –and this time with his boss - at the picnic when one of the leaders of the organization is murdered. Wolfe and Archie immediately run afoul of the Long Island authorities, and Wolfe finds himself forced once again to find and deliver the killer before the police make his life totally miserable.
The final novella in this collection is called "Murder Is No Joke," and it is the only one that is NOT set at a holiday period. A would-be client comes to Wolfe’s office asking for help getting rid of a troublesome co-worker – but while the client, Wolfe and Archie are on the phone with that co-worker, they hear what sounds like the co-worker being murdered. But Wolfe is far from satisfied with what he heard – and his investigation will turn up a ruthless killer.
That last story, by the way, has an interesting history. "Murder is No Joke" is one of the few stories that Rex Stout decided to revise after submitting it for publication. He enlarged and expanded the story and published it as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post magazine, under the new title “Frame Up For Murder.” That version of the story eventually wound up in a collection called Death Times Three, published after Stout’s death – so both the original “Murder Is No Joke” and the revised version, “Frame Up for Murder” are available in published versions for comparison.
And Four To Go is a good collection of shorter mysteries. As I have said many times before, I am very fond of the Nero Wolfe novellas; the shorter form forced Stout to be more economical in terms of providing characters and events and there’s no sense of the padding you might find in some of the longer works. Treat yourself to these novellas of three holidays plus a spare in And Four to Go.
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You can listen to the original audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast by clicking here.
Next: A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle.
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