Rex Stout, Three for the Chair

Rex Stout, Three for the Chair

© Rex Stout, 1955, 1956
The Viking Press, 1977
Bantam Crimeline reprint, 1994
ISBN-13: 978-0553248135
Also available as an ebook

My reading has been spotty for the past few weeks; I currently have a couple of books in progress that are good enough to continue reading, but not good enough to keep me in my chair.  I have, however, continued reading a chapter or two of a Nero Wolfe novella before bed, and just finished Three for the Chair.

The first of the three novellas in the book, “A Window For Death,” involves the return (from self-exile in Canada) of Bert Fife to his home town of Mount Kisco, where his two brothers (David, a high school teacher; Paul, a real estate agent) and sister Louise (married to pharmacist Vincent Tuttle) still live.  Bert left after being acquitted of their father’s murder (by openng the bedroom windows during a snowstorm, where his father, suffering from pneumonia, was sleeping).  With him is his business partner and friend, Johnny Arrow.  Bert (and Johnny) are now rich men, having discovered a rich lode of uranium.  And Bert has come back to resolve some issues.

Bert comes down with pneumonia and dies in his hotel room after his family has left for the theater.  Paul (loudly and aggressively) alleges murder, and the family agrees to hire Wolfe to determine whether the police should be involved.  Wolfe does a neat bit of deduction on a seemingly inexplicable circumstance surrounding Bert’s sickbed, and, in the process solves both the long-ago murder and resolves this mystery. 

Diplomatic immunity looms large in “Immune To Murder.”  Wolfe is entreated by Undersecretary of State David Leeson to travel to a mountain cabin where two oil moguls, Leeson, and Ambassador Kelefy (there to negotiate a deal to exploit is country’s oil reserves) go fishing for trout.  Wolfe’s presence is precipitated by Kelefy’s request to eat a trout cooked by Nero Wolfe.  So the fishermen fish, but one of them doesn’t make it back alive.  The local DA seems fully aware that his hands are in one way tied.  At one point he says:

…I wish to convey the sincere thanks of myself personally, and of the people of the state of New York, to Ambassador Kelefy and his staff.  He and his wife and Mr. Spiros Papps of his staff are protected by diplomatic immunity from arrest or detention…

Later, Wolfe adds:  “Ambassador Kelefy, his wife, and Mr, Papps are beyond your reach even for inquisition, let alone indictment.”  So it’s abundantly clear that some of those in attendance are more special than others.  Oddly, perhaps, the clarity of the position early in the investigation has always made the denouement a bit of a letdown.  But watching Wolfe do his thing in such an un-Wolfean environment works nicely.

“Too Many Detectives” also finds Wolfe thrust into the outside world, along with Archie, both having been summoned to Albany for an inquiry into their involvement in wiretapping.  They, and four other PIs, one of whom is Dol Bonner (and one employed operative), are waiting to be interrogated.  At which point a murder is announced—the murder of a man who hired Wolfe to engage in wiretapping (and who gave Wolfe a phony name, too boot).  Before long, we learn that two of the other PIs in attendance were tricked into wiretapping someone by the same man, using virtually the same ploy (but a different name).  The other two are not so directly tied in.  Wolfe, incensed at having been arrested, convinces the other detectives to do some investigating remotely.  (Archie seems more worried than is warranted by Wolfe’s susceptibility to Bonner’s charms, I thought.)  While not everyone is happy with the outcome, all the good guys get to go home, cleared of murder and of illegal wiretapping.

Another strong group of stories, especially as we get to see Wolfe out of his element.