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Title: The Doorbell Rang
Series:
Nero Wolfe #41
Author: Rex Stout
Rating:
4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages:
141
Words: 53K
Publish: 1965
Wolfe gets into national politics by taking on the FBI and J. Edgar
Hoover. The mystery part of the story was a good Nero Wolfe mystery,
but I have to admit that the politics (of the day) didn’t appeal to
me at all. If the author could have used the FBI as a foil (as he
did) without so much of the politicking, I would have liked it
better.
Having Wolfe match wits with an entire organization was fun and it
really changed the parameters, which made for a “new” type of
story. I really enjoyed that novelty. But I hope it stays a novelty
and isn’t repeated.
What was also unique, and once again made for a good story, is that
Wolfe and Archie are helped by the police and help them, instead of
their usual adversarial roles. The cooperation was nice to see and it
made me realize that I wish both parties would have cooperated more
in the past. That’s not how it was, and once again I suspect it
won’t continue. But it was a good change up.
I guess that sums up how I felt about this overall, it was a good
change up.
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia
Rachel Bruner, a wealthy Manhattan
widow, has recently incurred the wrath of the FBI. After reading
a book called The FBI Nobody Knows, a prominent critique of the
many unethical practices of the Bureau, she has mailed 10,000 copies
of it to prominent figures across the country. Having endured several
incidents of harassment and prying, she offers to hire Wolfe to
persuade the FBI to leave her alone. Although initially hesitant of
making a powerful enemy, Wolfe is persuaded over Archie’s
objections when Bruner offers a $50,000 retainer and then doubles it
to $100,000, as well as a fee and any expenses he may incur. He is
also sympathetic to both Bruner’s plight and the arguments made in
the book, and decides not to withdraw in the face of what he sees as
heavy-handed and bullying opposition tactics.
As the FBI put Wolfe and Archie under
surveillance, Wolfe plans to gain examples of FBI malfeasance and use
it to persuade the FBI to back down. To defeat the FBI bugs, Wolfe &
his speaker agree to occasionally say false things but raise their
finger when doing so; as the bugs are sound-only, the FBI listeners
will not know if a statement was true or false. Archie’s initial
investigations prove fruitless, but he soon receives an anonymous
message from Dr. Vollmer, Wolfe’s physician, asking for a
clandestine meeting. Although initially suspecting an FBI trap,
Archie is astonished to learn that the message is from Inspector
Cramer. Cramer reveals that the FBI are attempting to have Wolfe and
Archie’s private investigator licenses revoked. He also reveals
that he suspects that FBI agents may be involved in the murder of
Morris Althaus, a freelance journalist who was researching an article
critical of the Bureau, two months earlier. Althaus was found shot to
death in his apartment, but the fatal bullet was never recovered; in
addition, his research notes were also missing. Cramer, who is
opposed to the FBI’s efforts to sabotage Wolfe and stonewall the
police's homicide investigation, offers to write a report favourable
to Wolfe and Archie if Wolfe proves that the FBI are responsible for
the murder of Althaus.
Wolfe instead decides that it would
serve his purposes better to prove that the FBI had no part in the
murder. He also devises a plan to trap the FBI. Acting on the
suspicion that the FBI have secretly bugged Wolfe’s office, Wolfe
gathers the key suspects in his office and publicly claims that he is
gathering proof that FBI agents murdered Althaus and are covering it
up, while directing Archie to conduct his own investigation.
Archie discovers that Sarah Dacos,
Bruner’s secretary, lives in the same apartment building as Althaus
and claimed to have seen FBI agents leaving the apartment on the
night of the murder. When Wolfe and Archie question her, Dacos claims
only a casual acquaintance with Althaus, but Archie remains
suspicious of her. Acting on a hunch, he breaks into Dacos’s
apartment, where he discovers proof that Dacos and Althaus were
engaged in an affair. He also discovers the gun that was used to kill
Althaus. Archie realises that Dacos murdered Althaus after he broke
off their relationship to marry another woman, and that he needs to
leave the gun behind. He moves it to a new hiding place, but worries
that Dacos will dispose of it before Wolfe and Archie can prove her
guilt.
Meanwhile, Wolfe has been preparing his
trap for the FBI. Publicly arranging a dinner with his old friend and
fellow orchid lover Lewis Hewitt, he privately hires two actors
resembling himself and Archie and has them smuggled into the
brownstone, along with his operatives Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and
Orrie Cather. The actors are sent to Hewitt’s dinner posing as
Wolfe and Archie, while Wolfe, Archie and the operatives secretly
remain in the brownstone. Having spread his public suspicions of the
FBI and his plans for the house to be empty, Wolfe suspects that the
FBI will use the opportunity to break in and steal any evidence he
has that FBI agents murdered Althaus.
Two agents break into the house that
night, only to be held at gunpoint by Archie and the operatives.
Wolfe confiscates their credentials, having obtained conclusive proof
of the FBI's harassment of a private citizen and conduct of illegal
activities. The next day, Wolfe meets with senior FBI official
Richard Wragg and offers a deal, with Bruner watching through the
office peephole. Wolfe refuses to return the credentials, but offers
to abstain from pressing charges and publicly embarrassing the FBI,
in exchange for the FBI ceasing all surveillance and harassment of
Bruner and those connected to her, including Archie and himself. He
adds that he can prove that FBI agents were not responsible for
Althaus' murder.
After Wragg agrees to Wolfe’s terms,
Archie approaches Inspector Cramer and gives him a lead on Dacos.
After the police search her apartment and find the gun, Dacos is
arrested for the murder. Wolfe then gathers Wragg and Cramer in his
office and negotiates a deal between them. In exchange for Wragg
handing over the missing bullet that will prove Dacos' guilt, taken
by the FBI along with Althaus' research notes, Cramer will conceal
any involvement on the part of the FBI. Wragg and Cramer reluctantly
agree to Wolfe’s deal.
The novel ends with Wolfe and Archie
receiving an unidentified but important visitor, implied to be J.
Edgar Hoover ("the big fish", someone Archie
has never seen before, but of whom he has seen plenty of pictures).
Speculating that this visitor has come in person to collect the FBI
credentials, Wolfe refuses to let him into the house, leaving the
visitor to keep ringing the doorbell.
