If Death Ever Slept

Rating:
Summary: Hurry Up And Kill Somebody Already!
Review: Author Rex Stout presents a delightful central concept showcasing one of mystery fiction's most unlikely yet enduring partnerships, that of rotund master detective Nero Wolfe and his smartalecky sidekick Archie Goodwin, who does all the legwork and narrating. Magnificent Manhattan ambiance and clever offhand dialogue abound, as does an appreciation for the finer things, like orchids, shad roe with creole sauce, and a second bottle of beer.

"If Death Ever Slept" showcases these strengths, but as a murder mystery, it's neither plausible nor interesting. Wolfe is hired by a wealthy Manhattanite (vaguely described as a "capitalist" in "Who's Who") to investigate his daughter-in-law, whom he suspects of stealing business secrets. Archie poses as the man's new secretary, and finds himself "in a hive of predators and parasites" with the former including at least one person armed with a .38 and no compunction against using it.

This should be good stuff, fine company for a rainy night, but the characters never gel into anything interesting, just stereotypes. You don't feel anything for them or their situations, not even when one of them is murdered. The pace is sloggy. "If Death Ever Slept" is an luxurious ambiance bath, and those that treasure Goodwin's funny lines and wry observational humor are well-served (About being caught in his room with his shoes off: "Conferring in bare feet with a man who is properly shod may not put you at a disadvantage, but it seems to.") Alas, it never engages the reader as a story.

I had problems with the way Wolfe and Goodwin took the law into their own hands, tampering with a crime scene and then parsing over legalities while people died. Normally when the cops show up all out of sorts at Wolfe's brownstone stoop, you are supposed to relish the moment the fat man puts them in their place, but this time the pair meddles with a police investigation that's on the right track while Nero and Archie haven't a clue.

Also, Archie's practiced patter wears thin after a while. He's got a great set of wisecracks, but nothing in this story seems to bother him, so why should we care? We already have a setpiece scenario, with all the stock characters in their stock situations, so any bit of empathy we can get from our humble narrator will help. But the most he offers is that the client's daughter does a mean rumba.

Nero Wolfe books are usually good to great, and this at least is at times pretty funny. But it's far from Stout's best. If you read this and nothing else, give Stout another chance. And if you are looking for your first Nero Wolfe, there's at least a couple dozen better bets than this.


Rating:
Summary: A Good Starter
Review: Having watched the TV series this was the first book i got my hands on and was not disappointed.

It's a quick read and holds all the elements, including more of Fritz's amazing cooking (I've craved omelettes with strawberries for weeks now!) Nero and Archies playful/teasing relationship, and a host of glamorous suspects.

A great introduction, not the best, not the worst, slipping you right into the obsession that is Nero Wolfe. With the yellow shirt's, glasses of milk, and poor Inspector Cramer about to eat his hat - again!

I found myself afterwards, wishing i had been a friend of one of the suspects, sidling my way into Wolfe's office, playing an undercover role with Archie. I'm going to have to read it again, till i get my next fix at the bookstore.

Rating:
Summary: Stick with Wolfe's earlier adventures
Review: Just finished this book and my overall reaction was ... yawn. All the elements are there -- Archie, Fritz, Wolfe, beer, orchids, etc. But this is one of the later books in the series and there's a certain ennui evident. The mystery seemed over plotted, the characters under developed, and any genuine charm was missing. Of course even subpar Nero Wolfe is entertaining, so I'm not sorry I read it. I just enjoyed the earlier books so much more, and seeing the series go downhill is depressing.

Rating:
Summary: Why Did She Write It?
Review: Stout creates a female character here who writes a poem. She is moved to write it because she has killed a squirrel and is mourning its loss. Her turn of phrase is "If Death Ever Slept..."

This supposes, of course, that death never sleeps. The conceptual buzz much informs this book. As detective fiction goes, it is leisurely and ruminative, so I give it only the two stars you see. However, I enjoyed its characterizations of the relationships in "the family." Archie's insecurities and professional jealousy are never better described than they are here, and the other extended family members are given a good airing.

But why did she write it? If it was because she felt bad about the squirrel and wants to share, she almost succeeds. There is too little satisfaction at the conclusion of this one; its tone of futility and moral loss rival the way the reader feels at the end of "Fer-de-Lance."

Rating:
Summary: Solid but Unexceptional Wolfe
Review: The Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout are timeless. Nero Wolfe is a fat, bad-tempered genius detective who almost never leaves his brownstone mansion in New York. The stories are told through his self-styled man-Friday, Archie Goodwin. Archie is Wolfe's foil: witty, active, and charming to the ladies.

In "If Death Ever Slept" Archie leaves the brownstone to go undercover as a secretary to a rich and important financier. It's classic mystery stuff -- a house full of suspects, some of whom get killed off as the story progresses and enough clever banter to keep you interested between the murders.

And that's exactly what I want in a mystery. Mysteries are supposed to be about clever people. There should be someone clever enough to think they can get away with murder. And there needs to be someone cleverer than that to catch them. Clever people should have clever dialogue. I'm not much a spine-tingling suspense mystery buff. I read mysteries for the fun of it. There has to be humour. Murder should be a funny business.

The other important characteristic of a good murder is that it should be a struggle to figure out who did it. All the clues should be there to find but it should be far from obvious.

If Death Ever Slept has the humour but it only partially succeeds on the mystery/clue front. I enjoyed the ride to the end. But once I'd finished the book I realised that for the last third of the book I had paid only scant attention to who the murder might be. When it came I wasn't surprised or gratified because I wasn't really interested any more.

I think I just like being in the comfortable brownstone with Wolfe and Archie eating good food, sitting in comfortable chairs and discussing the intriguing business of murder. In this book, I had absolutely no connection with either the victims or the killer.

Still, I enjoyed it as I enjoy almost all Nero Wolfe books.

Rating:
Summary: Solid but Unexceptional Wolfe
Review: The Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout are timeless. Nero Wolfe is a fat, bad-tempered genius detective who almost never leaves his brownstone mansion in New York. The stories are told through his self-styled man-Friday, Archie Goodwin. Archie is Wolfe's foil: witty, active, and charming to the ladies.

In "If Death Ever Slept" Archie leaves the brownstone to go undercover as a secretary to a rich and important financier. It's classic mystery stuff -- a house full of suspects, some of whom get killed off as the story progresses and enough clever banter to keep you interested between the murders.

And that's exactly what I want in a mystery. Mysteries are supposed to be about clever people. There should be someone clever enough to think they can get away with murder. And there needs to be someone cleverer than that to catch them. Clever people should have clever dialogue. I'm not much a spine-tingling suspense mystery buff. I read mysteries for the fun of it. There has to be humour. Murder should be a funny business.

The other important characteristic of a good murder is that it should be a struggle to figure out who did it. All the clues should be there to find but it should be far from obvious.

If Death Ever Slept has the humour but it only partially succeeds on the mystery/clue front. I enjoyed the ride to the end. But once I'd finished the book I realised that for the last third of the book I had paid only scant attention to who the murder might be. When it came I wasn't surprised or gratified because I wasn't really interested any more.

I think I just like being in the comfortable brownstone with Wolfe and Archie eating good food, sitting in comfortable chairs and discussing the intriguing business of murder. In this book, I had absolutely no connection with either the victims or the killer.

Still, I enjoyed it as I enjoy almost all Nero Wolfe books.

Rating:
Summary: Archie goes undercover
Review: Unlike Archie's last such assignment (in _Too Many Women_, written 10 years before this book), this case gives the reader a decent chance to solve the puzzle.

Ordinarily, Wolfe wouldn't ask where Archie's been when he comes in at 2 a.m. But when Archie walked out on Lily Rowan's party because she'd invited some people he didn't like, she started calling the brownstone, starting at 8 p.m. and ending at 1:30 ("So I, not you, have spent the evening with her, and I haven't enjoyed it.") The conversation went downhill from there, so when Otis Jarrell appeared for his first appointment with Wolfe the next day, he got the benefit of a rather stormy atmosphere, with Wolfe exerting himself to be pleasant, just to show that nothing's wrong with *him*. (To be fair, the brown envelope with $10000, cash, offered as a retainer, might have helped.)

Unfortunately for the exchequer, what Jarrell wants is to break up his son's marriage: Wyman married "a snake", and Jarrell believes that Susan has leaked damaging business information to his competitors several times. He wants to pass Archie off as a replacement for his own newly fired secretary, Jim Eber, until Wolfe and Archie come up with the goods. Archie's beginning to feel sorry for the rejection Jarrell has coming at this point - not only a near-divorce case, but depriving Wolfe of his services indefinitely - when Wolfe responds, "You realize, Mr. Jarrell, that there could be no commitment as to how long he would stay there." Archie, always a quick thinker, runs with this rather than squawking, and "Alan Green" becomes Jarrell's secretary.

Archie's new assignment palls very quickly. But matters become deadly serious when someone bypasses the security cameras in Jarrell's office to steal Jarrell's own gun, and Jarrell is too fixated on Susan as a suspect to get serious about finding it. Then matters escalate to plain deadly...

Leavening the mix of emotional relationships and industrial espionage are several timetables distilled from police reports, but they're provided in one big block so that you can ignore them at your own peril if you prefer. (Personally, I can enjoy this one just fine without worrying much about trying to work out the puzzle.) More interesting points include: Jarrell's daughter Lois, who (despite writing the poem from which the book's title is taken) is one of the 3 best dancers Archie's ever escorted; the measures taken by Archie to appear as Alan Green when the group is interviewed by Wolfe; and how Wolfe manages to escalate their quarrel to a new and more frightening level. :)