The Doorbell Rang (Nero Wolfe #41) 4Stars

 

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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.

• All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

The Daughter of Fu-Manchu (Dr Fu-Manchu #4) 3Stars

 

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Title: The Daughter of Fu-Manchu
Series: Dr Fu-Manchu #4
Author: Sax Rohmer
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Pulp Mystery
Pages: 190
Words: 61K
Publish: 1931

Some times I read a series and it stays at 3stars and I end up getting dissatisfied and wish it would get better. I usually stop those series even though they have been getting 3stars consistently. However, there are other times where 3stars is just right and continues to be just right as the series progresses along and I enjoy the 3star’ness of said series.

Dr Fu-Manchu has fallen into the latter category, thankfully.

Dennis Nayland Smith, the foil to Fu-Manchu, and in this novel, Fu-Manchu’s daughter Fah Lo Suee, continues to be a bumbling idiot. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that England produced Sherlock Holmes as a character and yet also produced Smith. It is just pure happenstance and luck that allows Smith to counter Fu-Manchu at critical points, and in this story, it is Fu-Manchu working with Smith in a very limited fashion against Fah Lo. None of the British characters represent very well and come off as bumbling idiots time and again. It allows the story to proceed and makes the danger that much greater, but come on Rohmer, if you have to dumb down your protagonists to make your antagonists seem more deadly, you’re doing it wrong.

The Yellow Threat is only referenced once here. That was nice not having that continually shoved down my throat. The focus was also more on the Russian and Asian part of the world, as Fah Lo had a russian mother and thus wanted to start her own empire by taking over Russia, etc.

The mystery is why this gets 3stars AND why I plan on continuing to read the series, right? Well, it is just pure fun. It is that simple. If it ever stops being fun, then all the issues I have will doom this series to the infernal pit of forgotten history, but until then, I’m enjoying the ride.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

Here is another astonishing adventure of Sir Denis Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard--in which he matches wits with the she-devil daughter of his old antagonist, the infamous Dr. Fu Manchu. Now the signal has gone out from the Tomb of the Black Ape, and chiefs of the murderous cults of the East will meet at a hidden oasis to carry out the evil scheme of Fah Lo Suee. And Smith will discover an incredible ally--Fu Manchu himself.

• The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu

• The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu

• The Hand of Dr Fu-Manchu

Puzzles of the Black Widowers (The Black Widowers #5) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Puzzles of the Black Widowers
Series: The Black Widowers #5
Authors: Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 144
Words: 68K
Publish: 1990

I felt that I was being generous with giving this 3stars. Most of the stories felt like Henry (the waiter and the guy who always solves the mystery) just pulled a random solution out of a hat. Nothing that he stated was categorically fact like in previous collections. I don’t mind admitting that it might have been me, but I don’t think so. I think Asimov was reaching the end of his rope and it was showing. While the stories were written from 1985 to 1990, the collection wasn’t published until 1990 and Asimov died in ‘92.

There is one more post-humus collection of the Black Widowers. Most of the stories are reprints, but I believe there are a couple of new ones in it. I plan on focusing on those. The fact that I’m spending as much time talking about the next book as I did about this one should tell you how milque-toast this particular collection was.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

Introduction

"The Fourth Homonym" (1985)

"Unique Is Where You Find It" (1985)

"The Lucky Piece" (1990)

"Triple Devil" (1985)

"Sunset on the Water" (1986)

"Where Is He?" (1986)

"The Old Purse" (1987)

"The Quiet Place" (1988)

"The Four-Leaf Clover" (1990)

"The Envelope" (1989)

"The Alibi" (1989)

"The Recipe" (1990)

• All of My Asimov Reviews

Banquets of the Black Widowers (The Black Widowers #4) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Banquets of the Black Widowers
Series: The Black Widowers #4
Authors: Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 153
Words: 72K
Publish: 1984

Asimov shakes things up, just a little, by having the club members either break rules or do something completely out of the ordinary here. Not for every story, but enough. It would be like if Rex Stout had his character Nero Wolfe actually leave his house (which while Wolfe states that he won’t leave his house, his actions give the lie to that more often than not, sigh). It shook things up as the routine was broken and that was a good thing. The bickering and outright fighting amongst the members is really getting on my nerves. I’ve got one more book of these to read and then I’ll have finished the series.

I think my favorite story this time around was “The Driver” about a bunch of egghead scientists and a SETI convention and some low IQ driver getting killed. Turns out the driver was pretending and he was a Soviet spy and he let slip one bit of info that would have given him away, so his Soviet Masters had him done away with. It might have been a Cold War, but nobody was phutzing around, that was for sure.

Several of the other stories all revolve around human nature, as Asimov perceived it. I don’t see eye to eye with him on that issue all the time so those stories fell really flat for me. They also irritated me because they involved people being really stupid and even when I think that people ARE stupid, doesn’t mean I want to read about it. I mean, you like being healthy right? So do you want to read stories about weeping, suppurating boils and sores, oozing pus? Yeah, me neither.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

"Introduction"

• "Sixty Million Trillion Combinations" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, 5 May 1980) – A paranoid mathematician who suspects that his work on Goldbach's conjecture has been stolen. When the authorities demand his cooperation, he sulkily gives a clue to the code which protects his work on a shared computer, suspecting that no one could possibly guess or deduce the code. Fortunately for the agencies who need this information, the Black Widowers are able to come up with the code, purely because one member shares a trait with the mathematician.

• "The Woman in the Bar" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, 30 June 1980) – the Black Widowers have as their dinner guest Darius Just, the main character from Asimov's mystery novel Murder at the ABA. Darius finds himself in danger of violent reprisals when he tries to help a frightened woman (he knows she is frightened, but he can have no idea by whom or why). She has given him crucial nonverbal communication clues which the Black Widowers solve. Asimov states that he "thought up" this Black Widowers story just for this character.[4]

• "The Driver" – the Black Widowers consider the mysterious death of a chauffeur at a SETI Institute conference.

• "The Good Samaritan" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, 10 September 1980) – in a controversial break with tradition, a woman is invited to attend the men-only club.

• "The Year of the Action" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, 1 January 1981) – a historical clue is solved about a comic opera, "The Pirates of Penzance," by Gilbert and Sullivan.

• "Can You Prove It?" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, 17 June 1981) – the guest describes his arrest and interrogation behind the Iron Curtain and is unable to explain why he was released.

• "The Phoenician Bauble" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1982) – a valuable archaeological artefact has been lost.

• "A Monday in April" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1983) – concerns a matter of trivia about ancient Rome. The evenings guest feels that his girlfriend cheated in a competition, but Henry's solution casts doubt on that presumption.

• "Neither Brute Nor Human" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1984) – the story requires solving a riddle about a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

• "The Redhead" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, October 1984) – a woman disappears into thin air.

• "The Wrong House" – the guest is unable to determine which of his neighbours has been counterfeiting money after witnessing their operation while drunk.

• "The Intrusion" – an uninvited guest crashes the party and asks the Black Widowers for help in finding the man who took advantage of his developmentally challenged sister.

• All of My Asimov Reviews

Trio for Blunt Instruments (Nero Wolfe #39) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Trio for Blunt Instruments
Series: Nero Wolfe #39
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 198
Words: 72K
Publish: 1964

This was an enjoyable trio of novellas about Archie and Wolfe getting involved with “dames” and solving the various mysteries. I have to admit, I am not such a fan of these collections of novellas versus the full novels. Next time I go through the Wolfe series, I plan on reading each novella on its own and reviewing just it.

This was published in 1964 and the first Wolfe novel, Fer De Lance, was published in 1934. You can tell the difference in the culture that each book was written in. It is kind of shocking to see the changes in just 30 years. But then I realize what 30 years has done in my life time, so I really shouldn’t be surprised.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia

Kill Now—Pay Later

Wolfe's aging Greek bootblack is accused of murder and Wolfe feels he owes him something since he (apparently) listens eagerly to Wolfe's dissertations on ancient Greek culture during every shoe-shining session and moreover has told the police that "Wolfe is a great man"

Murder Is Corny

The story, apart from its crime detection aspects, is a story about how a simple, very beautiful, country girl comes to the big city, enters the world of high fashion, but cannot escape the risqué side of big city life. Nor is the country life in Putnam County devoid of moral failings, and they both play a part in the final resolution of this story.

Blood Will Tell

Archie is sorting through the mail one Tuesday morning when an unusual envelope catches his attention. Bearing the return address of composer James Neville Vance, the envelope contains a bloodstained tie and a note for Archie to keep it until Vance makes contact with him. After receiving a call claiming to be from Vance instructing him to destroy the envelope and contents, Archie heads to Vance's apartment to investigate.

Vance denies any knowledge about the envelope, though he admits the tie is one of nine he owns, designed uniquely for him, adding that one is missing and another was gifted to a friend. When the janitor and a patrol officer come to ask Vance for access to the apartment belonging to Bonny & Martin Kirk, Archie joins them; together, they discover Bonny's corpse, head smashed in with a vodka bottle.

The next day, a disheveled Martin Kirk comes to the brownstone to hire Wolfe, who immediately takes him on as a client. Kirk reveals that Vance gifted him one of his neckties two months ago and that Bonny was a serial adulterer, with one of her lovers being another neighbor, Paul Fougere. During the conversation, Paul's wife Rita arrives, having followed Kirk. Wolfe sends Kirk home to look for the necktie and speaks with Rita, who reveals that she knew about the affair and that she is in love with Kirk.

Kirk calls and informs them that the necktie is missing; he and Rita decide to visit Vance to ask him about the envelope. The meeting turns bloody when Paul shows up unannounced, and Kirk accuses Paul of killing Bonny out of jealousy. After the fight subsides, Sergeant Stebbins arrives to take Kirk in for questioning.

Wolfe asks Archie to use the threat of a defamation lawsuit in order to bring Paul in, and the Fougeres do come to the brownstone four hours later. They find out from Paul that Vance has also been pining for Bonny.

As the conversation ends, Archie and Wolfe independently determine the identity of the culprit. When Inspector Cramer arrives, Wolfe lets him in on their deductions, asking him to hold the culprit for question and sending Archie, Saul, Fred, and Orrie to search that person's residence. While there, they find not only the clue that confirms their deductions but also a grisly trophy of the crime.

• All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

The Hand of Fu-Manchu (Dr Fu-Manchu #3) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Hand of Fu-Manchu
Series: Dr Fu-Manchu #3
Author: Sax Rohmer
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Pulp Mystery
Pages: 192
Words: 59K
Publish: 1917

This BARELY squeaked over the 3star line, by a mere whisker in fact. Dr Fu-Manchu survives getting shot in the head from the previous book and kidnaps Petrie and some other famous doctor. He forces them to operate on him and remove the bullet. Outside of that, Dr Fu-Manchu barely features. This was originally titled “The Si-Fan Mysteries” and was about the group that Fu-Manchu was part of, the Si-fan. A group of Asians bent on world domination. * insert eye roll

Anyway, Nayland Smith and Petrie face off against various members of the group and survive even while acting like complete idiots most of the time. I have to say, if Rohmer had some sort of “white savior” complex, he couldn’t have done a worse job if he had tried. Buffoons and clowns are how I think of Smith and Petrie now. Rohmer forces them into idiocy to propel the plot and it just gets down right ugly sometimes.

The whole “Yellow Threat” tones down even more and we’re not slapped in the face with it every chapter like in the previous two books. That was welcome, as it was becoming rather stale since there was no evidence of it actually coming to pass or happening at all. Kind of like the boy who cried wolf, except this would be the author who cried yellow threat. Ha! But like I said, it was really toned down.

Karamenah, Petrie’s exotic love interest, has run her course and Rohmer can’t figure out how to use her any more, so she makes a few desultory showings here and is pretty much a non-entity. Petrie needs to marry her and then build a castle around her so Dr Fu-Manchu can’t keep kidnapping her like he’s been doing. I swear, she’s been kidnapped, brainwashed, etc like six times now. Get that woman a gun! Preferably a repeater so she can shoot Fu-Manchu multiple times in the head next time he tries to kidnap her. Nobody survives a double tap to the forehead!

Finally, I’d like to talk about the cover. For each of these books I am trying to find the cover that I like the best. Not necessarily the same publisher or artist, but something that stands out to me. This time around, we get this truly creepy spiderlike rendition of Dr Fu-Manchu. He’s not brilliant looking like in the first cover. He’s not residing over the scene like in the second cover. This time, he’s just plain horrifying. And that makes him a great villain in my books :-D

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

Sir Gregory Hale returns to London from Mongolia with a mysterious Tulun-Nur chest that holds the ‘key to India’, a vital secret of the Fu Manchu’s notorious Si-Fan organization. Unfortunately Hale is murdered before he is able to disclose the secret to Nayland Smith. The Burmese police commissioner and Dr. Petrie launch a mission to affront the brilliant but deadly master criminal before he succeeds in his malignant and fantastic plot to take over the world.

• The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu

• The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu

D is for Deadbeat (Kinsey Millhone #4) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: D is for Deadbeat
Series: Kinsey Millhone #4
Author: Sue Grafton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 209
Words: 72K
Publish: 1987

Ahhhh, Kinsey is just a stupid woman. Call me sexist, but while I can understand a man being stupid (because I usually understand the WHY of why he’s being stupid), I simply do not understand some, errrr, most of the things Kinsey does, I just don’t. What she reacts to, and how she reacts to those things, completely mystifies me. And not in an inscrutable way, but in a head scratching “WUUUUUT?!?” kind of way.

Which leads to you asking “But Master Bookstooge, WHY did you give this 3stars then?” That is very astute of you, oh useless student who I’ve taken pity on. Maybe once you’ve worked like a death slave for me for another four years you’ll understand the Mysterious Ways of Master Bookstooge.

Needless to say, I think I’m fast approaching Maximum Nopeage for this series. But today is not that day!

★★★☆☆

From Fandom

Kinsey Millhone receives a contract from ex-con Alvin Limardo to deliver a cashier's check for twenty-five thousand dollars to a fifteen-year-old boy named Tony Gahan. According to Limardo, Tony helped him through a tough time in his life, leaving Limardo indebted. However, when the retainer check Limardo made out to Kinsey for four hundred dollars bounces, she learns that Alvin Limardo is actually John Daggett, a man known by all and liked by few, and recently released from a local prison. He is also a bigamist. His first wife Essie's fanatical religious views have kept her married to Daggett, while Daggett, in disregard of his marital status, underwent a second marriage to Lovella on his release from prison, whom he has subjected to domestic abuse.

In her search to find Daggett and get her money back, she discovers that he was found dead on the beach only a few days after hiring her. Through Daggett's daughter Barbara, Kinsey learns that Tony Gahan was the sole survivor of a family killed in a car accident caused by Daggett, for which he received a conviction on charges of vehicular manslaughter. Tony's been a wreck since the death of his family, rarely sleeping and doing poorly in school. He now lives with his uncle and aunt, Ramona and Ferrin Westfall. Also killed in the accident was a friend of Tony's young sister, and a boy called Doug Polokowski, who had hitched a ride in the car. Kinsey tracks down an ex-con friend of Daggett's, Billy Polo, now living in a trailer park with his sister, Coral. Billy introduced Lovella to Daggett. Kinsey finds out that Doug Polokowski was Billy and Coral's brother. There's no shortage of people with a motive for Daggett's death, but the police are classifying it as an accident.

Kinsey discovers that shortly before his death Daggett was staggering about drunk at the marina in the company of a blonde woman in a green outfit. She sets out to discover which of the numerous blonde women in the case might be the killer. She also suspects that Billy Polo is not giving her the full truth about his involvement with Daggett, a suspicion confirmed when Coral finally levels with Kinsey and reveals him to be blackmailing someone he suspects of Daggett's killing. The blackmailer murders Polo at the beach, using Kinsey's own gun, stolen from her car a few days earlier. Coral also admits to scheming with Billy and Lovella to rob Daggett of money he had come by illicitly in prison, not knowing that Daggett had given the money to Kinsey to pass on to Tony.

The police investigating Billy's murder discover a home-made silencer used in the killing. Kinsey immediately recognises the towelling used as padding as coming from the Westfall household, and Ramona jumps to the top of her suspect list. This means confronting Tony, who has given Ramona an alibi for the time of Daggett's death. In pursuing Tony, Kinsey realises Tony himself, dressed as a woman in his aunt's wig, was actually the killer. He was also the one who stole her gun, and killed Billy Polo, who had recognized Tony at Daggett's funeral. Killing the man who killed his family has done nothing to ease Tony's torment, however, and he commits suicide by throwing himself off a building in front of Kinsey, despite her best effort to talk him down.

The Mother Hunt (Nero Wolfe #38) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Mother Hunt
Series: Nero Wolfe #38
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 157
Words: 57K
Publish: 1963

Wolfe leaves his house, yet again. I almost deducted a half-star for that because I’m tired of being “told” that Wolfe never leaves his house but being “shown” that he actually does whenever it is convenient for the author. You failed me Rex Stout. It’s the Toaster Bath for you!

[please see my Rant from Sunday if you don’t understand that reference]

Other than that, I once again thoroughly enjoyed Rex Stout chauffeuring me around in style. I was quite content with that.

The cover I’ve used is quite different from the usual variety. That is because apparently this book was used as the basis for one of the tv episodes and so all of the other covers have that big red ugly “as seen on tv” blurb on them. It’s disgusting and I hate it, so instead I get this very odd cover. I’ll take Odd over Disgusting any day!

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia

Lucy Valdon has recently been widowed by the accidental death of her husband, the novelist Richard Valdon. Lucy has a surprise waiting for her in her vestibule one evening: an abandoned baby, dressed, with a note pinned to a blanket. The note claims that the baby is Richard's son. Lucy wants to learn who the mother is. That information would help determine whether her husband and the mother had been intimate, and therefore the likelihood that the child is in fact Richard's.

Wolfe is reluctant as always, but agrees to investigate. Archie examines the clothes that the baby was wearing and spots an unusual item: the baby's overalls have horsehair buttons, apparently handmade. After Archie draws a blank trying to track the buttons down via businesses in the garment trade, Wolfe tries a tactic that he uses to good effect in other cases. He advertises for information.

The advertisement succeeds in prompting a call from someone who has seen a similar button, and when Archie follows up he eventually locates Ellen Tenzer in Mahopac, about fifty miles north of New York City. Miss Tenzer is a retired nurse who from time to time cares for babies temporarily. She is unwilling to help Archie, though, and orders him off her property. Archie complies, Miss Tenzer disappears, and the next day she is found, strangled, in her car on a Manhattan street.

With that line of investigation closed to them, Wolfe and Archie try another. Lucy arranges for several of Richard's acquaintances to come to the brownstone. Wolfe asks that they each supply him with a list of all the women with whom Richard was in contact during a three-month period roughly corresponding to the date of the baby's conception. A list of 148 names results, and it takes nearly four weeks for Archie, Saul, Fred and Orrie to verify that none of the women had an unaccounted for baby following the period in question.

Finally, Wolfe decides to go for the swindle. His plan involves the Gazette, Lon Cohen's employer, and it succeeds in flushing the baby's mother from hiding. But then she is found dead, also strangled.

When Inspector Cramer learns that there is a connection between the dead woman and Wolfe, he shows up at the front stoop, forcing Wolfe and Archie to flee via the back door. Wolfe is furious about the murders, particularly the second, and desperately wants to expose the killer himself. But if Cramer finds him, he will either have to tell Cramer about the search for the baby's mother or withhold evidence in a capital case.

To avoid having to make that choice, Wolfe and Archie hole up in Lucy's house—she, her baby and her staff are away for a few days. While there, Wolfe has an insight about how the murderer and Ellen Tenzer might have become acquainted. That insight leads to the traditional Wolfe finale, with witnesses and suspects gathered together, but this time it's in someone else's house.

• All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu (Dr Fu-Manchu #2) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu
Series: Dr Fu-Manchu #2
Author: Sax Rohmer
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Pulp Mystery
Pages: 240
Words: 75K
Publish: 1916

This was a very weak 3star book. I almost gave it 2.5, but considering that I plan to read at least the next Dr Fu-Manchu book, I realized there was enough interesting things so it did deserve that 3stars.

Sadly, Dr Fu-Manchu doesn’t play nearly as big a part in this book as he did in the previous. This was more about Petrie and Smith (the two Brits opposing the bad Dr) and sadly, they were world class buffoons. That was mainly down to Rohmer writing them like idiots to drive the story forward or to force the plot through.

In the previous book, Fu-Manchu had given a drug to a police official and it made him forget everything between a certain time period. So when the beautiful girl that Petrie loves turns up working for Fu-Manchu again and claims not to remember either Petrie or Smith, what do you think happens? Do they think calmly and rationally and remember what Fu-Manchu had done in the past? Heck NO! They immediately push the girl away as a traitor to all mankind and disbelieve every word she says, even when she’s trying to save them. Fu-Manchu comes in for his own idiocy at times too, sadly. He has been given a great honor, a white peacock and Petrie finds it and hides it in a cab, one street away from Fu-Manchu’s lair. And Fu-Manchu can’t find the bleeping thing and is about to be totally dishonored or killed within his secret society, when Petrie trades the peacock for Smith’s life.

This story was just filled to overflowing with everybody being stupid and making irrational and bad decisions just to move the plot forward.

My respect for Rohmer (the author) plummeted. Being a bad writer is a terrible sin.

The original title is The Insidious Dr Fu-Manchu but was changed for an American audience to the one I listed. That was too bad, because I like the first title more. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an AI generated cover for either title like I did for the first book, so I had to choose this one.

★★★☆☆

From Bookstooge

Fu-Manchu returns to England to continue his nefarious schemes to overthrow the entire western world. Karamenah is back to working for the bad dr and has no memory of either Dr Petrie or Nayland Smith.

Petrie and Smith attempt to foil various plots of Dr Fu-Manchu without understanding any of his bigger plans. Dr Fu-Manchu pursues his attempts to make Dr Petrie his protege and his attempts to kill Nayland Smith. Finally, Karamenah remembers her love for Dr Petrie and shoots Dr Fu-Manchu in the head, apparently killing him.

Gambit (Nero Wolfe #37) 3.5Stars

 

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Title: Gambit
Series: Nero Wolfe #37
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 147
Words: 56K
Publish: 1962

A book involving chess and murder. It was ok and I didn’t dislike it but it definitely is not high up on the list of most enjoyable Nero Wolfe books.

Part of it is that there is just too much uncertainty and while Wolfe and Archie figure out who the killer is, they can’t prove it legally. So Wolfe does his thing and the perp kills himself to prevent the truth from coming out because of a woman.

If I was forced to pick and choose which Wolfe books to re-read or to skip, and someone held a gun to my head to force me to skip some, this would get cut. It just lacked “something”...

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

Sally Blount's father, Matthew Blount, has been arrested for the murder of Paul Jerin, a chess master. Blount had arranged for Jerin to play twelve simultaneous games of blindfold chess at his club. Well into the contest, Jerin complains of physical discomfort and cannot continue. Shortly thereafter, Jerin dies of what tests show to be arsenic poisoning.

During the contest, Jerin had been sitting by himself in a small library off the chess club's main game room. He had nothing to eat or drink except a pot of hot chocolate, brought to him by Blount. After Jerin fell ill, he was diagnosed by a doctor who was playing in the contest; the doctor called for an ambulance but Jerin died at a hospital.

Not only had Blount brought the hot chocolate to Jerin, he had washed out the pot and the cup after Jerin complained that he didn't feel well. Blount is charged with murder.

The only people to enter the library where Jerin sat, other than Blount, were four messengers, who relayed the moves between the main game room and the library. The messengers apparently had no good opportunity to put arsenic in Jerin's chocolate.

Dan Kalmus is Blount's corporate lawyer, and represents Blount after he has been jailed without bail. Blount's daughter Sally is convinced, however, that Kalmus is in love with Blount's wife Anna, and that he won't be inclined to give Blount his best legal efforts. Furthermore, Kalmus' specialty is business law, not criminal law, and he might not have the needed background.

But Sally is certain that her father is innocent, so she hires a reluctant Wolfe to investigate on her father's behalf. Neither Wolfe nor Archie seems to have his heart in the case because the circumstances point so clearly at Blount. And Wolfe learns from the police that their own inquiries discovered no connection between the messengers and Jerin, whereas Blount was unhappy that Jerin had been seeing Sally.

Because none of the messengers could have a motive to kill Jerin, and because he has assumed that Sally is correct that her father didn't, Wolfe conjectures that Jerin was poisoned not because the murderer had it in for Jerin, but to get at Blount, whose apparent motive would surely get him arrested. Wolfe's hypothesis, then, is that Jerin was a pawn, sacrificed in a gambit to get rid of Blount.

Wolfe speaks with each of the messengers as the best alternative suspects, to try to determine which of them might have wanted Blount, not Jerin, out of the way. Each of the four has a possible motive: Sally thinks Kalmus is in love with her mother, Farrow would like to take over Blount's firm, Yerkes wants Blount's vote in a board election but won't get it, and Hausman resents Blount for going easy on him in chess games but winning anyway.

Wolfe learns that there is, in Blount's words, "a certain fact" known only to Blount and to Kalmus that will demonstrate his innocence. The fact turns out to be that Blount really did put something in Jerin's chocolate, but it was sedative in effect, not poisonous. This puts a very different face on things, and as a result Wolfe and Archie, independently, are able to infer both the murderer's identity and how the arsenic got into Jerin.

• All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

Casebook of the Black Widowers (The Black Widowers #3) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Casebook of the Black Widowers
Series: The Black Widowers #3
Authors: Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 161
Words: 75K
Publish: 1980

Another enjoyable set of short stories. The secrets and mysteries involved here were much less “intense” than in previous books, just a step up from cozy in my opinion and I enjoyed the more laid back feeling.

Onward!

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

Every month, the Black Widowers convene for sumptuous food, fine wine, and a cosmically baffling mystery. Attended by Henry, the all-knowing waiter, these gentle rogues ponder such imponderables as: * the one-syllable middle name that represents what every schoolboy knows, yet doesn't... * a murder by solar eclipse very far out in space... * a Soviet spy's dying message utilizing a Scrabble set and a newspaper sports page... * a satanic cult leader's Martian connection... * a computer criminal's strange equation of Christmas and Halloween... * an ancient symbol that provides the key to a woman's mysterious disappearance...

Contents:

* The Cross of Lorraine
* The Family Man
* The Sports Page
* Second Best
* The Missing Item
* The Next Day
* Irrelevance!
* None So Blind
* The Backward Look
* What Time Is It?
* Middle Name
* To the Barest

• All of My Asimov Reviews

Homicide Trinity (Nero Wolfe #36) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Homicide Trinity
Series: Nero Wolfe #36
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 197
Words: 71K
Publish: 1962

3 novellas, just like every other “tri” titled Nero Wolfe book. When I start my re-read of this series, I’m going to just read the novellas by themselves and review each one. Trying to stuff all three into one review is a killer. It’s like a collection of short stories. I don’t review every short story in a collection either.

So I had a good time and that’s all you get.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia

Eeny Meeny Murder Mo

Bertha Aaron, a secretary at a law firm, comes to the brownstone to hire Wolfe to investigate a possibly serious ethical lapse by a member of the firm. She has no appointment and arrives during Wolfe's afternoon orchid session, so Archie gets the particulars from her.

The firm she works for is representing Morton Sorell in a messy, highly publicized divorce. A few evenings ago, Aaron noticed a junior member of the law firm – she won't say which one – in a cheap eatery, tête-à-tête with Mrs. Rita Sorell, the firm's opponent in the divorce action. That sort of ex parte communication is highly improper. Later, she asked the lawyer about it, and he wouldn't discuss the matter. She won't take the problem to the firm's senior member, Lamont Otis, because she fears that the news, coupled with Otis's advanced age and heart condition, will kill him. But it has to be investigated.

It's a novel problem, and Archie takes the unusual step of consulting Wolfe in the plant rooms. Because the case concerns a divorce, it's one that Wolfe normally would not touch. But because legal ethics, not the divorce itself, is the central issue, Archie thinks there's a chance Wolfe will take it. Even so, Wolfe tells Archie he won't do it, and Archie returns to the office to give Aaron the bad news.

Back in the office, Archie finds he can't give the news to her because she's dead, hit on the head with a heavy paperweight and then strangled with a necktie. It's Wolfe's paperweight. Even worse, it's Wolfe's necktie. He had spilled some sauce on it at lunch, removed it, and left it on his desk where someone could find it and use it to strangle Bertha Aaron.

Late that night, after Inspector Cramer and other police investigators have left, Otis arrives, along with one of the law firm's associates, Ann Paige. The death of his valued secretary has upset Otis, and he wants to know what happened.

Wolfe allows Otis to read a copy of the statement Archie gave the police, and Otis is clearly shaken by the report of the ex parte communication. Otis asks Paige to leave Wolfe's office – he wants to discuss things privately – and Archie escorts her to the front room. Wolfe and Otis discuss the situation at length, and Wolfe gets Otis's take on the three junior members of the firm, one of whom Aaron saw talking with Mrs. Sorell. During their discussion, Archie checks on Paige, and finds that she has opened the window in the front room and, apparently, jumped down to the sidewalk. She is nowhere to be found.

The next morning, Archie calls on Rita Sorell, using as entrée a note he's written, informing her that she and the unidentified junior member were seen together in the restaurant. He wants to bring her to talk with Wolfe, but she plays dumb, and the best Archie can get from her is a promise to phone later in the day.

On returning to the brownstone, Archie finds the office occupied only by a man he doesn't recognize. He finds Wolfe at the peephole, and learns that the man's name is Gregory Jett, one of the law firm's junior members. Jett is there to complain that Wolfe's behavior caused Otis undue stress. Brushing aside Jett's complaint, Wolfe learns that Jett is engaged to marry Ann Paige, and also that he had a brief fling with Rita Sorell a year earlier.

Then the two other junior members, Frank Edey and Miles Heydecker, arrive looking for information and acting like lawyers. Mrs. Sorell's promised phone call comes, and she tells Archie that Bertha Aaron must have seen her talking with Gregory Jett. Wolfe and Archie regard this information with skepticism: she seems to them devious.

Now Wolfe tells them what Aaron had to say before she was murdered – as yet, that's been disclosed only to the police and to Lamont Otis. Wolfe also states his assumption that the guilty lawyer followed Aaron to Wolfe's office, convinced her to admit him while Archie was in the plant rooms with Wolfe, and then took the opportunity to kill her.

The problem is that the three lawyers share a mutual alibi for the date and time that Aaron was murdered: they were in conference together at their office, fully a mile from the brownstone. The lawyers leave, suspicious of one another, and not happy.

When Wolfe then learns from Inspector Cramer that the timing apodictically exonerates Edey, Heydecker and Jett, he arranges for all involved to be brought to the brownstone for the traditional climax. This time, though, all but one are in the front room, listening via hidden microphone to Wolfe talk things over with the murderer.

Death of a Demon

Lucy Hazen has a preemptive confession to make to Nero Wolfe – having come to despise her husband Barry, a cruel public relations counsellor, she has recently become plagued by thoughts of shooting him with his own gun. In order to deter herself from following through on this impulse, she has decided to confess this to Nero Wolfe, knowing that if she did commit the crime he would reveal the act to the police. Although bemused by the meeting, Wolfe humors her and agrees to show her his orchid collection, but while they are upstairs Archie Goodwin hears on the radio that Barry Hazen’s body has been discovered in an alley, shot in the back.

Despite Lucy’s confession, Archie is convinced by her reaction when he informs her of her husband’s murder that she is innocent of the crime. Wolfe and Archie learn from Lucy that she last saw her husband at a dinner party held the previous evening for a group of his clients – Mrs. Victor Oliver, Anne Talbot, Jules Khoury and Ambrose Perdis – and his copy-writer Theodore Weed, whom Lucy clearly harbors feelings for. Although similarly convinced of her innocence, Wolfe is reluctant to accept Lucy as his client and sends her away, though he keeps the gun in his possession for safe-keeping. Using an old mattress, Archie acquires a fired bullet from the gun and turns it over to Inspector Cramer for comparison.

Lucy is detained as a suspect in her husband’s murder, and hires Wolfe to exonerate her. Theodore Weed approaches Wolfe, also offering to hire him. He admits that he is in love with Lucy Hazen and that Barry Hazen knew this, taking pleasure from his discomfort about the situation when in her presence. He reveals his suspicions that his employer was extorting money from his clients. Via Nathaniel Parker, Wolfe’s attorney, Lucy gives Wolfe a key to her apartment, and informs him that her husband had given her instructions in the event of his death; she was to locate a metal box hidden in their home, empty the contents, and destroy them.

Archie Goodwin is dispatched to acquire the box, but on arriving at the Hazen residence discovers that the guests from the dinner party are already there, clearly searching the apartment. He manages to hold them at gunpoint, and – after locating the box – brings them to Wolfe’s brownstone. The guests confirm that Hazen was blackmailing them, and inform Wolfe that he took sadistic pleasure in taunting each person with hints about what they had done. Wolfe and Archie open the box only to discover it is empty, but Wolfe nevertheless claims to each guest that he will sell them the contents of the box for $250,000 each.

Inspector Cramer arrives at the brownstone in a gloating mood, revealing that the police have discovered the gun that Lucy Hazen apparently used to murder her husband – a pistol that her father used to commit suicide. The gun is of the same make as the one Lucy brought to Wolfe, however, and the bullet from the first gun did not match the bullet that killed Barry Hazen. This leads Wolfe to a conclusion, which is further confirmed that evening when, alone of the others, Jules Khoury refuses to give Wolfe any money for the contents of the box.

Wolfe reveals that the box was empty and accuses Khoury of murdering Barry Hazen. He admits that he has no evidence, but argues that Hazen’s hints and the specific gun used strongly imply that Khoury’s secret was that he actually murdered Lucy’s father, his former business partner. Furthermore, Khoury’s refusal to pay Wolfe suggest that he knew all along that the box was empty, having located and destroyed the evidence after murdering Hazen. His use of the duplicate gun was an attempt to frame Lucy for the crime. Khoury is arrested and evidence is discovered tying him to both murders, and Lucy and Theodore admit their feelings for each other.

Counterfeit for Murder

Hattie Annis doesn't like cops.[1] So when she shows up at Wolfe's door with a brown paper package holding a large stack of $20 bills, she thinks that there could be a reward for returning it to its owner, but she won't trust the cops with it. They'll probably stiff her.

Wolfe is busy with the orchids, but Hattie says she'll come back later if Archie will hold the money for her. Sometime later, a young woman named Tammy Baxter shows up. She is one of the tenants of Hattie's cheap boarding house, whose rooms she only rents to people working in show business. Tammy is concerned for Hattie, who almost never leaves her house, but today she said she was going to see Nero Wolfe, and she hasn't come home. Feeling protective of Hattie, Tammy has gone to Nero Wolfe's house to see if Hattie arrived. Archie lies and says he hasn't seen her, and Miss Baxter leaves.

When Hattie returns, she collapses at the doorstep; on her way back to Wolfe's house, a car swerved onto the sidewalk and hit her – fortunately, not hard enough to break bones, but enough to shake her up. In the front room, Hattie is revived by Fritz's coffee, and tells Wolfe and Archie about the money. She was chasing a mouse that ran behind the shelves in her parlor when she found the package hidden behind some books. She took the package and opened it to find a large amount of money – Archie estimates $10,000 in twenties.

The doorbell rings. It's Albert Leach, an agent of the Treasury Department, wanting to know if Archie has seen or spoken with a young woman named Tammy Baxter or an older woman named Hattie Annis. Archie, not caring for Leach's approach, admits to meeting Tammy, but does not mention that Hattie is present in the house. Then he returns to the front room, closely examines one of the twenties, and announces that there will probably be a reward: the bills are counterfeit.

Wolfe won't take Hattie on as a client, but he allows Archie to accompany her to her boarding house and investigate. Once there, Archie meets Hattie's boarders: Raymond Dell, Noel Ferris and Paul Hannah, three actors, and Martha Kirk, a dancer; Hattie caters to stage people. It isn't until Archie and Hattie enter the parlor that Archie sees the fifth boarder, Tammy Baxter, lying dead on the floor with a kitchen knife in her chest.

When Homicide arrives, Hattie locks herself in her bedroom and refuses to communicate with the police. Cramer doesn't want to break Hattie's door down and asks Archie to reason with her. Archie does so, and, acting as Wolfe's agent, takes Hattie as a client, but cannot talk her into coming out from her room. Eventually, Cramer gives up, breaks down her door, and has her carried away to be interrogated.

On his way back to the brownstone, Archie phones Wolfe to inform him that he has been hired. Over Wolfe's objection, Archie mentions that Hattie has extensive assets – close to half a million dollars in bonds, in addition to her four-story house in Manhattan. Wolfe, reluctant as always, accedes, and concurs that Parker should be instructed to see to her bail.

Archie has concluded that the murdered woman, Tammy Baxter, was a Treasury agent: Leach, when he asked about Miss Baxter, indicated that he knew both her phone number and that she had been to the brownstone earlier that day. He and Wolfe conjecture that she had been placed in Hattie's boardinghouse by the Treasury Department to investigate a counterfeiting operation.

The surviving tenants, Dell, Ferris, Hannah and Kirk, call at the brownstone. As she was being carried out of her house, Hattie told them to go to Nero Wolfe and tell him everything they had told the police. They set in to do so, but Wolfe takes control of the conversation, and questions each of them about personal background, present employment and source of income.

Wolfe gets some hints, and the next day sends Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather to reconnoiter at the boarders' places of employment. Archie is called to the DA's office to help sort out why the Treasury Department, and not Manhattan Homicide, has possession of the counterfeit money, which is evidence in a murder case. When Archie returns to the brownstone it is to find all concerned – the boarders, Inspector Cramer and Sgt. Stebbins, Agent Leach, and Saul Panzer – in the office to hear Saul describe the counterfeiting equipment that he found in the building where Wolfe sent him.

• All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu (Dr Fu-Manchu #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu
Series: Dr Fu-Manchu #1
Author: Sax Rohmer
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Pulp Mystery
Pages: 267
Words: 72K
Publish: 1913

Oh, this is going to be a tough review. So many different thoughts, many conflicting, ran though my head as I read this book.

The first thought. I enjoyed the heck out of this story. It was a fantastic 1913 mystery pulp with a series of stories connected together as we are introduced to our protagonists, the heroes opposing the deadly Dr Fu-Manchu. Fu-Manchu might have the title, but he’s the villain and doesn’t show up that often. In many ways, he seems modeled on a Moriarty sketchboard. The smartest, evilist genius the world has ever known. He’s ALWAYS in control. It was awesome (yeah, yeah, that word doesn’t mean what I think it means…) I had so much fun reading the short stories. The stories weren’t disconnected though and always were just a step along the path for the heroes to finally confront the Dr. Only for us the readers to realize that the Dr had been in complete control the entire time. He really is the epitome of an Evil Genius. I almost clapped my hands in glee to be honest. And there is no Sherlock Holmes to oppose him, just two Englishman with all the faults and blindspots of their time and one Arab woman in thrall to Dr Fu-Manchu but in love with one of the heroes. It made the situations all the more desperate and that desperation came through. The threat presented by Dr Fu-Manchu was real.

That leads me to my second thought. This book would send the WOKE kids of today into catatonic shock. Or they’d go burn some more tesla cars or loot a drugstore or say it’s ok to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, you know, the typical things over-privileged, under-disciplined stupid kids are doing nowadays. I could totally see New Guy from work reading the first story in ten minutes, then ranting for thirty minutes about how “evil” the book is. I am not WOKE at all, period.

But that leads to my third thought. Even “I” had a tough time with the continued references to the Yellow Peril or the Danger to the White Race. I don’t know anything about Rohmer as a person (except that Sax Rohmer was a pen name) and thus I don’t know if he had a thing against Asians or if he was just writing to the zeitgeist of the times. I CAN understand using skin color as a descriptor though. So that’s where the conflicted thoughts come in. I am trying to keep in mind when this was written as well. The thing that made it tough was that it was mentioned in almost those exact terms at least twice in every story. It’s the kind of thing I don’t want to get used to, just like I don’t want to get used to profanity in the books I read, or violence, or blasphemy.

Finally, the cover. I showcased this cover on an earlier “My Week” post but didn’t say why I liked it or anything specific. What I enjoy about this one is that it reminds me, very strongly, of the Arcane Casebook covers. Those are great stories with some seriously cool covers and I get that same vibe from this version of The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Dr. Petrie is surprised by a late night visitor, "a tall, lean ... square cut ... sun baked" man who turns out to be his good friend (ex-Assistant Commissioner Sir Denis) Nayland Smith of Burma, formerly of Scotland Yard, who has come directly from Burma. We then learn that various men associated with India are the target of assassination by the Chinese master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu, who seems to have been active in Burma (as distinct from India), in places such as Rangoon, Prome, Moulmein and the "Upper Irrawaddy" and who comes to England with dacoits and thugs.

Fu Manchu is pursued from the opium dens of Limehouse in the East End of London to various country estates. We learn that Dr. Fu Manchu is a leading member not of "old China", the Mandarin class of the Manchu dynasty, or "young China", a new generation of "youthful and unbalanced reformers" with "western polish" – but a "Third Party". Nayland Smith is outwitted several times by Fu Manchu and thus he reflects more the narrow escapes of the later Bulldog Drummond rather than the "logical" superior approach of the earlier Sherlock Holmes.

Fu Manchu is a master poisoner and chemist, a cunning member of the Yellow Peril, "the greatest genius which the powers of evil have put on the earth for centuries", though his mission is not exactly clear at this stage. He appears to be trying to capture and take back to China the best engineers of Europe for some larger criminal purpose.

By the end of the book, Fu Manchu's slave girl Karamaneh, a beautiful Arab woman, apparently now in love with Dr Petrie, and her brother Aziz are freed from Fu Manchu's captivity, and Inspector Weymouth, driven mad by an injection of serum from Fu Manchu, is restored to sanity by Fu Manchu, who appears to have escaped from a fire which destroys the house that he had previously entered.