Fer De Lance by Rex Stout

This is the most recent book I finished, Fer De Lance by Rex Stout. This is the first in the series of detective novels about the eccentric recluse PI, Nero Wolfe. Set in the 1930's, it pretty much follows the detective story template begun by Edgar Allen Poe with his masterful Murders at the Rue Morgue and perfected by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his Holmes canon.

The template used here is the first person account of the mystery told in the eyes of the brilliant detective's sidekick. In this case, it is Archie Goodwin, Nero's right hand man and personal errand boy. Wolfe is a hermit and he never leaves his house. He's a corpulent semi-drunk who keeps an obsessive schedule, is not shy about his genius levels, and he lets Archie do all his leg work on cases.

This first Wolfe novel is about the case of a man who is killed by a poisoned dart rigged to shoot out of the end of a golf club. The title refers to the type of snake venom employed in this murderous plot. The character of Nero Wolfe is softened somewhat by the admiring terms used by Archie--would a book in the first person by someone as arrogant and insufferable as Wolfe be appealing? Or would a 3rd person account also make Wolfe more unappealing? I think the note of the sidekick POV keeps the detective and his foibles in check.

I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and I love the extra tidbits in the lore of Holmesian speculation. One thing I've read in more than one place is that Nero Wolfe is sometimes considered to be the illegitimate son of Sherlock Holmes. I like that idea--Wolfe is in 1930's NY so the time line works out fairly well, and it sure would account for Wolfe's addictive personality and general superiority complex.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I'll be hitting this series up again soon.