Stout, Nero. The Red Box. Bantam, 1937.
Reason read: to continue the series started in December in honor of Stout’s birth month.
The Red Box opens with a peculiar murder. Fashion model Molly Lauck was poisoned after eating a piece of candy. The mystery seems impossible to solve. Molly provided the box of candy from somewhere. This all happened in the middle of a fashion show with hundreds of people in attendance. Nero Wolfe does not need to visit the scene of the crime to know what happened. Based on interviews and the observations of his partner, Archie, Wolfe solves the case. Of course he does.
Nero Wolfe fans will be pleased to know that the details remain the same after four books. I know I love it when mysteries refer back to previous cases or when details remain consistent. Wolfe still lives on 35th Street in a brownstone. He still has over 10,000 orchids. Plant time is still between 9am and 11am and 4pm to 6pm without fail. Theo Horstmann is still Wolfe’s orchid caretaker. Archie Goodwin is still his trusty sidekick (and has been for nine years now). Fritz Grenner is still his chef. [As an aside, one detail I did not remember was Wolfe collecting bottle caps.]
As an aside, I went to high school with a woman with the same exact name as one of the characters. We were not exactly friends but people were always comparing us because we looked similar. I wonder what happened to her?
Quotes to quote, “I am not immoveable, but my flesh has a constitutional reluctance to sudden, violent or sustained displacement” (p 3), “Of course there was the off chance that she was a murderess, but you can’t have everything” (p 77) and Archie to Nero, “You’re the without which nothing” (p 209).
Author fact: Stout was the sixth of nine children.
Book trivia: Red Box was published in 1937 as the fourth book in the Nero Wolfe series. It includes an introduction by Carolyn G. Hart.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).
~*LunaSea*~ 