A good trio of Nero Wolfe novellas. I especially appreciated how Archie manages to trick Wolfe into leaving his brownstone in the first one, "Invitation to Murder"! ( )

4/9/22

The 23rd Nero Wolfe book is a collection of 3 stories with varying quality.

"Invitation to Murder" (August 1953, The American Magazine, as "Will to Murder") is annoying. It could have been a great story but for some reason neither Archie, nor Nero Wolfe even suspect the obvious solution to the problem and while this is not the first time for that to happen, not having Archie even hint that they missed something while narrating the story makes it almost unforgivable. Admittedly, had they seen it earlier, the story would have been a lot shorter but still...

A man hires Nero Wolfe to investigate the death of his sister which happened 2 years ago. Of course, that is not the story he starts with and the only reason why he wants the investigation is because he is about to lose the money he expected to get. Archie is dispatched to the house of the brother-in-law and before long a body shows up. And somehow Archie misses all the obvious clues. On the other hand he manages to get Nero Wolfe to leave his own house and come to the house where the murder happened - which is not that easy.

"The Zero Clue" (December 1953, The American Magazine, as "Scared to Death") on the other hand is much better. Archie misses something again but he knows it and his narration accounts for it. A matematician, Leo Heller, had been using his knowledge of math and statistics to predict events. There is some bad blood between him and Wolfe because of an old case where they clashed so when he calls to ask for help, he is sent packing. Archie disagrees so decides to visit Heller. The two never meet and before long the mathematician is dead and Inspector Cramer manages to annoy Nero enough to ensure that the detective will try to solve the case. The solution can be considered a bit tricky but I enjoyed it - partially because I knew the fact that provided the key to the solution (math history is always fun) and partially because the pacing of the story actually worked well for its length.

"This Won't Kill You" (September 1952, The American Magazine, as "This Will Kill You") is set on the Giants stadium where they are playing their last game in the World series - the winner takes the trophy. Nero is out of the house again and ends up being uncomfortable and unhappy - and not only because of the baseball game.

The first chapter of the story is so heavy on baseball references that it is almost unreadable if you do not understand the game (I don't). But once this chapter is over, the game becomes irrelevant - doping a few players and killing another does not require any game knowledge; the investigation and the end solution also do not depend on knowledge of baseball. There is a woman involved (of course) and Archie ends up dealing with her (not surprisingly); Nero Wolfe uses a clue that everyone knows to actually solve the case (or cases - he is hired to investigate the doping and not the murder technically but keeping them separately proves to be hard). It is a nice story overall - despite the first chapter.

Overall a decent entry in the series. ( )

Three short stories of different quality. When you read mystery novels you need to remember to be extra suspicious of the one with the best alibi. That is true in some of these stories.

I'd give one of the stories a 3, one a 2.5 and one a 2 star grade, so I'm generous and add it up to 3. ( )

A good trio of Nero Wolfe novellas. I especially appreciated how Archie manages to trick Wolfe into leaving his brownstone in the first one, "Invitation to Murder"! ( )