Three Nero Wolfe Mysteries1) The Next Witness - Confound it! Nero Wolfe is stuck sitting in court, waiting to be a witness for the prosecution along with Archie Goodwin. But it wasn't the perfumed woman he had to sit next to that made him get up and leave, even with the threat of being in contempt of court and maybe facing jail for it. It was an idea... a very compelling idea that will flip the case on it's ear and expose the truth.2) When a Man Murders - When a soldier who was supposed to have been killed in the Korean War suddenly appears quite alive his widow sure gets a surprise - especially because she has married someone else. Throw in the fact that this ghost from the past was one very wealthy man and since his "death" his relatives have carved up the financial pie and have been enjoying it all around. You have the makings of a very messy case.3) Die Like a Dog - The black Labrador Retriever's master had been murdered. Could it be that the dog was smart enough to follow Archie Goodwin back to the old brownstone to get Nero Wolfe to solve the crime? With Nero meaning "Black," how can Wolfe resist helping the noble and loyal animal? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SPOILERS NEEDING A WALK IN THE PARKCover Art - Oh, brother! There isn't a knife in any of these stories - except maybe an un-needed one for the dining table if Fritz is cooking. OK, maybe to spread butter on fresh, hot griddle cakes. But I'm sure the meat is tender. This picture tempted me back into my longer review format. PFUI!Story 1 is a little obvious. After all, a real Van Gogh?! And with someone lower down on the scheme? Can you say "Piles of money?" I knew you could!Story 2 contains a really rare occurrence. Archie Goodwin gets punched in the jaw!Story 3 - I love this one! We learn that Nero Wolfe does like dogs, at least well behaved ones. He isn't mentioned again, so I don't think he stayed. Pity. Although he would have probably bitten Inspector Cramer or Sgt. Stebbins sooner or later.
The anthology consists of three novellas:The Next Witness. Nero Wolfe is called to testify in court as a witness. He almost never leaves his house, but being a PI he has to do it in such cases. This time he really hated a smell of perfume of a woman sitting next to him so much that he stood up and left before his testimony. To justify his childish act and avoid a fine for court contempt he decided to take a close look at the case presented in court. Some unexplained peculiar things came up right away. Wolfe's eccentricity saves a man's life. Money was not his motive in this case even though he did get paid at the end. He also had to practically play Perry Mason in this story with his courtroom antics. When a Man Murders. A millionaire is killed in Korean War and his widow remarried. Her first presumably dead husband suddenly showed up. The new couple hired Nero Wolfe to settle the matter. A dead body makes an appearance shortly after this.I am proud to say I was able to solve this mystery before Nero Wolfe explained it. It is fair and gives enough clues to the reader. So I was smarter than Archie Goodwin in this case. Die Like a Dog.Archie Goodwin stumbled upon a murder scene by accident and had a dog following him from there - by accident again. He decided to play a trick on his boss and told him he bought the dog as a companion. Nero Wolfe called his bluff and let the dog stay. This ultimately leads to him having to take a murder case to solve with the dog as the only client and no fee in sight. This one is a good mystery which seems fairly complicated at the beginning, but looks very obvious once Nero Wolfe untangles it. The anthology rates exactly like the majority of the books from the series: 4 stars. It is fast read and entertaining.
I liked this threesome of short stories. Because it was an ebook that I'd borrowed from the Toronto Public Library, I hadn't realised when I began reading it that it was three stories in the one book, each showing a different side of Nero Wolfe. But the revelation that I was reading shorts not one long didn't disappoint me. Rex Stout was a master of both formats.I have to say it truly shocked me to read about Wolfe outside his house. And not only outside it but voluntarily travelling to the country too. I liked the change, and I enjoyed too the stories where Wolfe is in his usual environment. This is a good book for those in-between-task moments when you have only minutes to read.
—Shireen
A collection of three Nero Wolfe novellas. The first story, "The Next Witness", opens with Wolfe and Goodwin in a courtroom waiting to testify in a case where the defendant tried to engage Wolfe, but was declined because of Wolfe's policy refusing to take relationship-based cases. Recognizing that his testimony will support the prosecution's faulty case, Wolfe leaves the courtroom to investigate, becoming a fugitive in the process. There are a handful of very good situations here. Wolfe's stratagem for getting his theory of the case to the judge and jury is ingenious.The next story, "When a Man Murders", is fairly strange. The recently remarried "widow" of an serviceman MIA but presumed dead in Korea comes to Wolfe when her husband is spotted alive and well, though ends up murdered before Goodwin tries talking to him. The last story, "Die Like a Dog", is a clever, fair mystery. A potential client leaves with Goodwin's raincoat; on trying to retrieve it, homicide detectives are at the scene. A dog, later identified as belonging to the murder victim, follows Goodwin home. While he is actually intending to find its owner, he pulls a gag pretending to want a dog; as often happens, Wolfe escalates and pretends that Archie deserves a dog."The Next Witness" and "Die Like a Dog" were featured in the A&E series "A Nero Wolfe Mystery."
—Kevin Colwell
I started reading Rex Stout’s books back in 1997 when I got a couple of the books as Christmas gifts. Now I am not much of a mystery reader except a couple of the Sherlock Holmes books. I couldn’t put down this book. It is one of the few books Rex has written that has not one story but three short cases that Nero Wolfe has worked. The stories in general are the best Stout as an author has ever done. This shows how his skill in handling characters and a plot in novelette form. The dialogue is great, action and story/plot ties all three into the one before hand as the story goes along. I see how well of an author Stout is after I read this book. All in all this book starts off with a telephone answering service, wiretappers and a murder in which only Wolfe can expose by taking the stand in court, which is one of many firsts in which he leaves his house for something other then food and orchids. The next story concerns a marriage that might have ended badly if not for Archie being in the right place at the right time, and finally the last story/case that involves a dog following Archie home and giving Wolfe and Goodwin to a model believed to be missing. The book was another great hit by an excellent author of his time. The characters were well-developed, story/plotline was fast-paced and I never could put it down it was so good.
—Jonathan
