Nero Wolfe: And Be a Villain, Trouble in Triplicate

[cimorene]

[It] was the kind of apartment house where people live not because they want to, but because they have to. It should have been ashamed of itself and probably was.

• "Damn him to hell!"
  
  "That's pretty tough," Bill Meadows objected, "since he may be there right now."


• 829 Wixley Avenue was the kind of apartment house where people live not because they want to, but because they have to. It should have been ashamed of itself and probably was.


• I was realizing that I had made a serious mistake when I had postponed breakfast until there would be time to do it right. My stomach had decided that since it wasn't going to be needed any more it might as well try shriveling into a ball and see how I liked that.


• "[T]heir manner [...] had made it plain that if I had stepped into a manhole they wouldn't even have halted to glance down in."


• "You say if we agree. You mean if you agree with me, or if I agree with you?"


• "It seems plausible, but I've known you to seem plausible before."


• Anybody could have told from one glance at us that if I was forced to deal with him physically I would have had to decide what to do with my other hand, in case I wanted to be fully occupied.


• "He said to tell you that he says you're a nincompoop, but I think it would be more tactful not to mention it, so I won't."


• "You would sentimentalize the multiplication table."


• "You're an inspector and murder is a very bad crime."


• "If you want to be contentious wait until you learn what you have to contend with. It works better that way."

—Rex Stout, And Be a Villain

• "I appeal to your love of country, your vanity, your finer instincts—what there is of them—and your dislike of Germans. If you tell Carpenter it would be impossible for you to get along without me, I'll put pieces of gristle in your crabmeat and sugar in your beer."
  
  Wolfe opened his eyes and glared at me. The mere suggestion of sugar in his beer made him speechless.


• Naturally Wolfe tossed it back at him, but after three minutes of fast and hot tongue work they patched it up and discussed matters.


• "I'm not even trying to be funny, let alone succeeding."


• I don't remember any two hours in my experience with a lower score on joviality.


• "I don't appreciate jokes about murder," Cramer said morosely. "I wish I could. It's a defect of character."


• I was surprised to realize that you could make out a case for calling Joe Groll handsome. They had overdone it a little on the ears, but on the whole he was at least up to grade if not fancy.

—Rex Stout, Trouble in Triplicate

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

\o/

Do you have any favorite books yet?

You are ripping through them as fast as I did the summer of 2018!

[cimorene]

I loved the setup for The League of Frightened Men. I agree with whoever wrote the intro to it that that bitter disabled novelist was the best villain so far, and the twist where the actual murderer was just a rich guy after money - a bit reminiscent of the twist to The ABC Murders actually, except in this case it wasn't a string of murders at all... anyway, that was fantastically memorable.

I loved Too Many Cooks and Some Buried Caesar for the settings and especially because of how irritable Wolfe is about traveling, which was really just a bottomless fount of comedy. Also Some Buried Caesar's portrait of rural life was hilarious all by itself. The first story in Black Orchids was equally great, also for the setting.

I was fascinated by the dictation machines in Too Many Women, but there was a bit too much male gaze in that one for comfort.

I enjoyed And Be a Villain incredibly much... that one is probably my favorite since Some Buried Caesar. The little cast of characters at the radio show just has exactly the right hint of coziness and locked-mansion mystery for my taste; and you sort of get to know the cast a bit better in that kind of setup.

And I just finished In the Best Families, which has an eye-popping change of pace and is kiiind of more of a spy novel almost. It also has very high emotional stakes, of course, and I was glued to it till the end, but I concur with the introducer of book 2 that Zeck is an underwhelming nemesis. I don't think Wolfe really needed a nemesis, although the twist where he became their client in The Second Confession was neat. And since this book can be seen as referring to the Reichenbach Falls and Sherlock Holmes's clean out of Moriarty's network... I can see where the idea of making all of that a little more immediate and also realistic might have been appealing. And the fact that he does rely on Archie's help to bring the guy down is a huge improvement, of course. I greatly appreciated Lily's role in the action as well. But I imagine it won't be a favorite for rereading because all of that hardship is too painful to make for really relaxing comfort reading even when you know it's going to end soon.

[princessofgeeks]

I have such mixed feelings about Zeck.

AKA He who cannot be named!!!

Very painful, though. You are right.

I thought And Be A Villain was so clever!!! One of the most interesting plots for sure.

[cimorene]

Oh, what's the other side of your feelings about him?

[princessofgeeks]

Like you said... I wasn't really sure Wolfe needed a nemesis.

[cimorene]

I'm thinking after a few more books - maybe after The Black Mountain? - I will export my quotations that I've saved as 'Nero Wolfe Character Notes' and comb through them and see what comes to mind there. That's around halfway through I think.

[princessofgeeks]

The Black Mountain is quite different from all the others. I look forward to your impressions of it.

Some Buried Caesar and Black Orchids and The Red Box are three of my favs. Some of my other favs are before you yet.

VBG

[cimorene]

Oh no, does that mean it's going to have me nail-biting again? The regular ones are almost relaxing to read.

I loved the solution of The Red Box, and the beginning was great, but the middle's a bit fuzzy for me.