Red Box

Rating:
Summary: Wolfe Melodrama
Review: An early Wolfe where Stout still hasn't quite got his main character right (I mean Archie Goodwin, not Wolfe). Like its immediate predecessor, The Rubber Band, the story is highly dramatic and over-written compared with later Wolfes. But it's got pace and a memorable baddie.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: Stout in his prime with Archie and Nero grooved into their characters, very fast pacing and one of the best plots in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Fourth Outing
Review: This one has been criticized as being "overwritten."

To a degree, this criticism is merited. There is a particularly melodramatic death scene, and that does make this book a little more resemble the crime movies of the era (1936).

However, Stout takes some pains to work against sterotype in this one, and Wolfe actually visits a crime scene for the first time in the series. Archie prefigures his work in "Too Many Women," and the settings are drawn very, very carefully.

I like it, but among the first ten stories, it's one of the most sentimental and romantic. If you like that style, you'll love this book. If you like hard-boiled, there's less of that to be found here.