The League Of Frightened Men (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
A hazing prank on a Harvard freshman sends a brilliant young man, Paul Chapin out on a high window ledge. His fall shatters his body but not his mind. It sobers the hazers and they vow to make it up to the cripple by atoning for it the rest of their lives. But pity can curdle and nurture resentment along with gratitude. Now the members of the League of Atonement are dying one by one and the rest are receiving thinly veiled anonymous letters in Chapin's unmistakable hand. Chapin has even written a book boasting that he has murdered and will do so again! But this open and shut case is not as it appears. Can Nero Wolfe untangle the thick-grown poison ivy from this ivy league problem?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SPOILERS LATE FOR CLASS BEATING A PATH ACROSS HARVARD YARDCover Art - Excellent! Strange things happen in this book. Archie has been away for 10 days and Wolfe hired a temporary in his place. Inspector Cramer lights up a pipe and actually touches a match to his perpetually unlit cigar. These things are weird, but not as weird as Archie falling for drugged coffee and Wolfe going for a ride in a strange, public taxicab - of his own free will! Muck of this is just too good to spoil for you. The last 1/4 of the book, I was pretty worried for both Wolfe and Goodwin.Personal Note - at one point, Wolfe is at a spot near Woodlawn rail station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodlawn...Up in the Bronx around 233rd street. This made me really sit up and take notice. My Papa rests in peace and I hole the deeds to a couple family plots in Woodlawn Cemetery. The railway runs along it. This is the first "ebook" I have read. The physical copy was not available at the library, but the ebook version was. So, I downloaded a Kindle app and went around and around on the library site to get a hold of this. Ugh! Unnecessarily complicated process from the library and some problems on the normally fine Amazon site. It was a bother to have to sit at the computer and read with my neck in one position. BUT - I learned to quickly like the fast dictionary and web links, as to Wikipedia. I think I am still a Luddite, clinging to my beloved paperbacks (easier to hold in my arthritic paws and lighter), but I can see the advantage. Time will tell. Ask me when I finally get a Kindle.
Second in the Wolfe canon, this book is of interest to the careful reader, as it shows several changes made later. Cramer has a marginal part in the book, Fritz sleeps upstairs next to the plant rooms (later he had a basement apartment), and Wolfe voluntarily opens a window for some fresh air! Wonders never cease...in later years we are told that he equates fresh air with travel--certain death.Archie is certainly more cynical and sarcastic in the early books than he became later, and this one is no exception. He takes a dislike to a man because he has a limp and grey eyes, and his language when discussing "the cripple" and his wife is less than acceptable by today's standards, but then the book dates from about 1936. Another thing that would cause some speculation (or rather jumping to erroneous conclusions) on the part of many modern readers is Archie's card-case, a gift from Wolfe, in which he stores his detective's licence. It is tooled leather, with gilt edges, with guns worked all around the edge on one side...and orchids on the other. Given that Archie lives in Wolfe's house 24/7 and has for six years, is a young man whose parents died when he was a kid and whom Wolfe apparently took in off the street (another detail that gets lost over time; Archie later has parents, an aunt and a sister), and that the theft of said card case moves him to tears--I can just about imagine the hay that some modern armchair psychologists would make of Wolfe's all-male menage and its effects on impressionable young men.As for the plot, it's as full of twists and turns and wildly improbable circumstances as 1930s mysteries usually are. There's less of a "cosy" atmosphere though, as Stout tries his hand at a more hard-boiled-noir feel, with elements such as the attack on the lame man's wife, the alcoholic taxi driver, or Archie's big mistake and the consequences thereof.
What do You think about The League Of Frightened Men (1995)?
Originally posted on bibliophyte: http://bibliophyte.blogspot.com/2013/...This is the second installment in the Nero Wolfe series and equals the first, Fer-de-Lance, in wit and charm. The plot is perhaps not as fast-paced and the ending feels a tad anti-climactic, but it is certainly original, clever and worth reading. Once again Rex Stout proves his skill in managing large numbers of characters as this story involves a group of thirty men convinced two of their number have been murdered, the rest are in mortal danger, and that they know who the man responsible is. Wolfe and Archie must investigate the two suspicious months-old deaths, keep tabs on their suspect, and attempt to minimize the inevitable hysteria. These seem like simple tasks compared with making sure no one else is mysteriously bumped off, and Archie, along with Fred, Orrie and Saul, part-time legmen of Wolfe's, are led on a wild goose chase when another of the men disappears. I am pleased to say the reader becomes much more acquainted with Archie in this volume, and perhaps the part I enjoyed the most is when he, proud as always of his independent and ultra-masculine attitude, unashamedly exposes some of his vulnerabilities. To see such an unusual and unexpected side of a character is always fascinating, but in this case it is truly heartwarming (read: I wanted to give Archie a giant hug). Wolfe's response is admirable and indicates a familial and touching relationship between them that is not often actively demonstrated. While the mystery itself is unique and interesting, the exploration into Archie and Wolfe's characters alone makes reading The League of Frightened Men worthwhile.
—Mary Beth
#2 in the Nero Wolfe series. This 1935 entry is deservedly one of author Stout's most famous and has characters that are cited in future entries. Above average entry.Nero Wolfe is hired by the League for Atonement to protect them from author Paul Chapin. A hazing incident at Harvard left Chapin a cripple. Now the "accidental" death of a member has been followed by a poem seeming to claim credit for the death and threatening more. The "suicide" of another member and a third member's disappearance are followed by more threats.
—Ed
This was even better than the first book. I continue to enjoy the banter between Wolfe and Archie, and the mystery was pretty interesting.The story is set in New York City in 1935. A man who was crippled many years ago during a hazing incident at Harvard is suspected of taking his revenge on the group of men who participated - despite the fact that they have formed a “League of Atonement” and provided their victim with financial and emotional support over the years.I was struck by the viciousness directed at the man because of his disability - he walks slowly with a cane. Partially it’s because everyone thinks he might be a psychopathic murderer, but that doesn’t account for all of the disdain and disgust for “the cripple”.
—Jamie
