According to The Wolfe Pack's web page, Rex Stout wrote 33 novels and 41 novellas (extended short stories) featuring Nero Wolfe and his sidekick and narrator, Archie Goodwin. A fair number of readers will tell you that they prefer the novellas, many of which seem more focused on the basics of plot and character than some of the novels. As a general rule, the novellas often appeared first in popular magazines, and were then collected into volumes of two-to-four novellas.
One of the collections which I re-read quite recently is called Curtains for Three, originally published in 1950 after the stories had appeared in The American Magazine. As the title implies, it contains three of the novellas, and the collection is the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the full review by clicking here.
The first story is called “The Gun with Wings.” A man and a woman come to Wolfe’s office, wanting to hire him. The woman’s husband apparently committed suicide several months earlier. But the visitors say it was murder – and they want Wolfe to prove that neither one of them could have committed the murder. But an infuriated Wolfe insists that one of them must be lying about a critical piece of evidence. It’s a tightly-written story, ending with one of the most daring office-confrontation scenes that can be found in any of the stories.
That’s followed by “Bullet for One.” A man who goes horseback riding almost every day rides out through Central Park one morning. In a little while, his horse – with an empty saddle – returns home to its stable. When police look for the rider, they find his body under some bushes. The police are unable to make any headway, and a group of the victim’s relatives and business partners show up at Nero Wolfe’s office. They want him to come up with evidence to prove that one particular member of their company had committed the murder. Wolfe stops them by asking – simply – “what if he didn’t?” Once again, Wolfe’s ingenuity comes up with a logical solution.
The third novella, called “Disguise for Murder,” is my favorite among the three stories in this collection. This time, Nero Wolfe is dragged into a murder case that he cannot avoid – and, to come up with a solution and with proof of the murderer’s identity, Archie will find himself in considerable danger. I do think you’ll enjoy it – in fact, I’m sure you’ll like all three of the novellas in Rex Stout’s Curtains for Three. It’s readily available as an e-book, and there seem to be a fair number of paperbacks available as well.
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