The Golden Spiders finds Wolfe and Archie in ill-temper. Archie decides to admit a neighborhood boy who comes to Wolfe because of Wolfe’s antipathy to police and the fact that he saw a woman in a car apparently in trouble. Wolfe handles the boy well and agrees to help by tracing the plate of the car.However, the boy is murdered the next day and the case goes to another level. The boy’s mother asks Wolfe to find out why he was killed and offers her son’s savings which amounts to $4.30 to find the killer. They begin the process by placing an ad, and get a response that’s followed by another murder.This sets Archie and the teers on an investigation that leads them to the high and low end of society and on to the trail of an extortion ring that’s the key to the whole plot.This is really a mixed bag in terms of quality. It has more action than any other Wolfe story, including a torture scene that’s somewhat uncomfortable. To be fair about that, the bad guys started it by torturing Orrie Cather before Archie and friends turned the tables on them.There’s also a very strong scene with Inspector Cramer that’s probably his best scene as a detective in any of the books he’s featured in. There are some good bits between Wolfe and Archie, and a pretty good final denouement.The book’s weak point comes with Wolfe proposing a ruse for Archie that’s so transparent, it doesn’t fool anyone. It’s really pathetic and beneath the standard of fun ruses that characterize the Wolfe books.The Golden Spiders was the basis of the pilot movie for A Nero Wolfe Mystery, and I have to say this is one case where the movie beat the book. And the biggest difference was emotional impact. The book deals with the death of a child, but it doesn't seem to impact the characters correctly. Stout could do this and often did with tragic adult deaths which Archie or Wolfe inadvertently played a role in books like Prisoner’s Base, but just doesn’t seem to deliver here. It’s worth noting that Pete Drossos is the only child to play a role in any of the Wolfe stories, so writing children may not have been Stout’s forte.There’s enough good stuff to keep this interesting, but overall I can only give the book a:Rating: Satisfactory
i read rex stout books the way others watch late-night reruns of tv shows from one's childhood, for those times when you don't quite want to turn off your brain entirely but you're too tired or too run down to power it up to full capacity. there's something so inviting and warm about rex stout, despite the subject material. to make another analogy: i suppose it's something like the drowsy pleasure one gets from hearing old friends talking together while you lie half asleep on the couch, content just to listen, blissfully safe and entirely comforted. it would never occur to me to actively recommend rex stout mysteries to someone, just as i would never expect a stranger to automatically understand or enjoy the dynamics of a particular group of friends. the pleasure is entirely my own, and i'm grateful for it. that's why i was so delighted that the intro to this particular book (written by linda barnes) starts off with precisely this feeling:My library owes no debt to Mr. Dewey's decimals, none to alphabetical order. The Nero Wolfe novels are shelved among 'books of comfort,' which I loosely define as novels riveting enough to hold my attention in the dreaded dentist's chair, yet never filled with onstage gore. Reading a Nero Wolfe is akin to visiting the home of an old friend or returning to the same inn on Cape Cod each year, nodding in delight at the familiar star-patterned quilt on the same canopied bed in the usual room, finding the idyllic view from the patio unchanged, unspoiled.i quite like barnes's summary of the plot elements, too:Wolfe hates interruptions during meals. He dislikes children. He abhors deviations from his schedule. All these indignities are heaped onto him in The Golden Spiders. They grate. They affect his appetite. They cause him to accept a retainer of four dollars and thirty cents from - horrors! - a teary-eyed woman.They do my heart good.I have loved and read these books all my life, and yet I rub my hands in secret satisfaction.Let the old misogynist suffer.justice can be served in more ways than one. the criminals get their comeuppance in the golden spiders, but nero wolfe gets his, too. as the old curmudgeon himself would say: satisfactory. most satisfactory.
What do You think about The Golden Spiders (1995)?
It is not good for a business of a PI to have his clients murdered shortly after they leave his office. Not only does it bring bad reputation, but it is also very damaging to self-esteem, something Nero Wolfe values highly. Thus this time it is personal. The detective who charges such high fees that only millionaires can afford his services most of the time now only has $4.30 to show for his troubles with not a single penny more on the horizon. It still does not matter as the reputation is at stake. It was one of the first Nero Wolfe books I read and as such I might rate it a little higher than the usual, but not by much. It is a rare treat to see Nero Wolfe working for no fee and on a personal case. This time it really happens and this is the time the villain was repulsive for me I really wished he/she would get exactly what he/she deserved, and because the greatest New York detective was on the case there was no doubt about the outcome.Archie Goodwin got to play quite a big part in the investigation acting on his own. His parts of the book feel like thriller unlike cozy mystery always associated with his boss Nero Wolfe. The final rating would be closer to 4.5 stars, but as I already mentioned I round it up for sentimental reasons.
—Evgeny
Another of the sadder Nero Wolfe stories, this one is also among the more frustrating, primarily because an innocent boy is killed and Archie and Wolfe don't feel all that bad about it. Wolfe's dander is up more because people get killed who have been to his house (bad for business) more so than because they are people who are killed. This was so far my least favorite (at least within working memory) mystery, in part because of their strange attitudes, the slow pace of the investigation at times, and the general neglect of the poor boy's mom after her first appearance. Plus, the whole thing hinges on the implausible scenario of only one pair of earrings in the entirety of New York City in the shape of spiders, which may have been likely at the time but is so foreign to present experience it's just strange. Things just seem off for most of this, as in the scene with Archie, Saul, Fred, and Orrie all together overcoming some torturers: Archie is willing to see how much Fred can take before jumping in to save him! A bit off-putting. It has its fine moments, of course, as all Wolfe mysteries do, but I wouldn't recommend starting here for first-timers or anything.
—Christopher Rush
3/5O livro já tem mais de 50 anos, portanto os métodos de investigação não incluíam impressões digitais nem adn. As comunicações eram feitas por telefone, a partir de cabines públicas. Parece que a história tem um ritmo lento por isso, mas é interessante. Dá-se mais valor à capacidade de raciocínio para se resolverem os crimes.Gostei particularmente do Archie Goodwin, o assistente de Nero Wolfe e narrador neste livro. Ele desenrasca-se bem, seja para conseguir uma refeição quando já passa da hora do almoço seja no modo como lida com a polícia, dando-lhes a informação sem reconhecer como teve dela conhecimento.
—Bárbara
