Stout, Rex, Trouble in Triplicate. Viking Press, 1949.
Reason read: to continue the series started last year in honor of Stout’s birth month.
Trouble in Triplicate is actually three short novellas:
- Before I Die – Dazy Perrit, king of the black market, has come to Nero Wolfe to help him with his daughters. One is blackmailing him and the other has a nervous tic Perrit thinks Wolfe can cure.
- Help Wanted, Male – Wolfe hires a body double when his life is threatened while he works a murder case.
- Instead of Evidence – It is not everyday that a man shows up on your doorstep and announces that he is about to die and proceeds to name his future killer. This is a mystery all about identity.
New things I learned about Archie Goodwin: he is from Ohio. He is an ankle man. He has a strange prejudice against people with the name Eugene.
Lines I liked, “He paid us a visit the day he stopped a bullet” (p 3), “If you are typing to can’t talk” (p 160), and “He sounded next door to hysterical” (p 185).
As an aside, Stout mentioned Billy Sunday in “Before I Die” and I had to wrack my brain. Where had I heard that name before? From the lyrics of Ramble On Rose by the Grateful Dead.
Author fact: Stout moved to Paris in order to write full time.
Book trivia: you get three stories for the price of one in Trouble in Triplicate and the stories are not tied together in any way.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter obviously called “Res Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).
~*LunaSea*~ 