"Eeny Meeny Murder Mo"Bertha Aaron, the secretary to the Senior partner in a lawfirm comes to Wolfe's office because she suspects one of the other partners of colluding with an opposing client against the interests of the firm. Because the opposing client is involved in a divorce case, Archie knows he'll have a time convincing Wolfe to take the case.Wolfe doesn't want the case but finds himself involved when he and Archie return to the office to find Aaron murderered with Wolfe's discarded necktie. Because it's Wolfe's necktie, the onus is on him to beat the police to the solution.In some ways, this seems a variation on Disguise for Murder with Archie leaving a woman in the office and returning from the plantroom to find her murdered. They were so similar that A&E linked the two episodes for European syndication. Unfortunately, while this story has features, it's just not as good. Still I'll give it a Rating: Satisfactory"Death of a Demon"Lucy Hazen shows up at Wolfe's office and offers him $100 for an hour of his time. She wants to tell Wolfe that she wants to murder her husband and to secure Wolfe's promise to report it to the police. Wolfe takes her upstairs to show her the orchids and while they're upstairs, Archie hears on the radio that her husband was shot.Lucy ends up being arrested and hiring Wolfe to find out who did it. As is the case in the best Wolfe stories, Stout creates a memorable cast of suspects in the case of the murder of the blackmailing husband and Archie finds them all at the scene of the crime looking for the box of blackmail materials.The characters are solid, particularly for a novella, and Wolfe solves the case in true master detective fashion.Rating: Very Satisfactory"Counterfeit for Murder"A woman named Hattie Anniscomes to Wolfe's door looking quite disheveled and unlike the high value clients that Wolfe usually pays for and Archie's not inclined to let her in. However, Archie's willing to let her see the big guy because Wolfe is under the impression that he's a sucker for a certain type of woman and Archie thinks it'll be fun to show Wolfe up. Hattie has a stack of money that she found in her boarding house which shelters showbiz people whether they can pay their $5 a week rent or not. When Wolfe sends Archie to the boarding house to investigate, they find an undercover female Treasury Agent dead.The cop-hating Hattie Annis is without a doubt Wolfe's most interesting client so far. Her speech and personality (she calls Wolfe "Falstaff") make the story one of the most enjoyable to read.The mystery isn't half bad either. Throw in some T-men and the NYPD in a turf war and there are Few Wolfe stories of any length that can beat this one for pure entertainment value.Rating: Very SatisfactoryThe last two stories are simply superb and as good as the vast majority of Wolfe novels. The first one is solid as well and so I'll give this one a:Rating: Very Satisfactory.
The anthology consists of three novellas:Eeny Meeny Murder Mo.There were several times before when a dead body was found in or around Wolfe's home: one time on the front steps, and another was right in his office. Both times the detective took it as a great personal insult. Imagine his reaction when a dead body not only made a surprise appearance in his office, but his own necktie was used to strangle the victim. Nothing - and I do mean nothing - will stop him from getting the villain before the police does. Usually Wolfe is fairly impersonal in his investigations, but in this case he gloated at the murderer when he finally nailed him/her. The last page of the story contains a priceless scene. Suffice to say it left wisecracking Archie Goodwin speechless - most probably the first time in his life. Death of a Demon.A woman became obsessed with shooting her husband. Her solution? She went to Nero Wolfe and paid him for just listening to her about this with the promise that in case her husband is really shot he would disclose the conversation to the police. His reasoning was she would not want to do it as in this case she would not be able to avoid being caught. There is a really big hole in this logic which Wolfe spotted right away. Later events confirmed his arguments.Wolfe uses interesting psychological play to uncover the culprit. Counterfeit for MurderAn old unattractive lady came to Wolfe for consultation. Usually this is not the type of people who need his services considering the fees for said services, but Archie Goodwin decided to teach his boss a lesson and let her in. Before both detectives knew it they had a dead body, a bunch of counterfeit money, pissed off police, and equally pissed off Secret Service (Department of Treasury) on their hands. As I mentioned usually Wolfe's clients are very rich and most of the time not very nice people. This time he finally had a client I was able to sympathize with. I actually hoped the first dead body to make an appearance would not be hers. Imagine you have an old aunt, slightly batty but very nice nonetheless. As usual for any book of the series my final rating is 4 stars.
HOMICIDE TRINITY. (1963). Rex Stout. ***.This is a collection of three short stories, or cases, that tell of further adventures of Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin. The stories included are:Eeny Meeny Murder Mo: “Fighting three of the smartest lawyers in the business, Nero Wolfe’s own soup-stained tie becomes a deadly weapon of murder.”Death of a Demon: “That’s the gun I’m going to shoot my husband with, said the pretty lady, handing a revolver to Archie. But her husband was already dead, shot with an identical gun.”Counterfeit for Murder: “When a cop-hating landlady gives Nero Wolfe $40,000 to make the police eat dirt, and an actor at liberty takes the liberty of killing, Archie takes matters into his own hands.”Now, I’ve cheated and given the above summaries just as they appeared on the back of the paperback I’ve read. They’re not very good summaries, but you get the idea. These are the first short stories that I’ve read by Stout, and they’re not bad, but, obviously, Nero Wolfe is constrained to quick cerebral solutions of crimes without using a lot of his usual tricks.
—Tony
Homicide Trinity is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout."Eeny Meeny Murder Mo," first published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine #220 (March 1962)"Death of a Demon," first serialized in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post (June 10, 17 and 24, 1961)"Counterfeit for Murder," first serialized as "The Counterfeiter's Knife" in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post (January 14, 21 and 28, 1961)It's worth reading if only for "Counterfeit for Murder" and the wonderful character of Hattie Annis.
—David Monroe
When I discovered I enjoyed Nero Wolfe a few years back, I was delighted that I had such a huge number of books available ahead of me. I probably should have anticipated that there would also be a hell of a lot of repetition. This is especially acute in the books that slap together three or four short stories, where you can end up getting introduced to all of the secondary characters three times in an afternoon. I also like the short format less for compressing the cases beyond the chance for much real detecting. But, they are what they are, right?
—Michael
