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 Final Deduction
Series:
Nero Wolfe #35
Author: Rex Stout
Rating:
4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages:
140
Words: 55K
Publish: 1961
If I had read this when it was published, I suspect I would have
thought that maybe Rex Stout was closing the door on Nero Wolfe. With
a title like The Final Deduction, it has a very Holmesian feel
ala The Final Problem. Reading it now, almost 65 years later,
I knew it wasn’t the final book about Nero Wolfe and Archie
Goodwin. And I’m very embarrassed to admit this, but it wasn’t
until Wolfe revealed what was going on that I realized the whole
thing was about taxes. I should have seen that coming a mile away!
Especially with just having paid my federal tax bill. Kidnapping and
murder seems a bit extreme to avoid paying taxes though, especially
when you CAN afford it and just don’t want to. Now that I’ve
said that, if I could get away with murdering two people to avoid
paying taxes, I’d have to ask WHO I could murder ;-)
What struck me was just how the people who hired Nero Wolfe totally
underestimated him. Did they think they were smarter than him?
(apparently yes) Did they think he charged such big fees just
because? (apparently yes again) WHY in the world did Mrs Vail hire
Nero Wolfe to find her kidnapped husband when she and he had cooked
the whole thing up? Hire Garrett
PI for goodness sake!
A thoroughly enjoyable mystery of trying to figure out what was going
on or, if you’re like me, a thoroughly enjoyable mystery to just
sit back and let the author provide all the answers. Hurray for that!
I am approaching the end of this series (down to the single digits
now) and while it will last me through the end of the year, and quite
possibly into 2026, I have decided that when I am done, I will take a
year off and then begin re-reading the series. That is how much I
enjoy these books.
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia
Former actress Althea Vail hires Nero
Wolfe to ensure her kidnapped husband Jimmy is returned home alive
and well, saying that she received a ransom note and phone call from
a "Mr. Knapp" demanding a $500,000 ransom, which she
intends to pay. Over the client's objections of secrecy, Wolfe
demands to see Mrs. Vail's secretary Dinah Utley, who read the note
and heard the phone call, and places an advertisement in the
newspapers threatening to uncover Mr. Knapp's identity if Jimmy Vail
is not returned safely. From the interview with Utley and comparing
her typing style with the ransom note, Wolfe and Archie conclude that
she wrote the note and is therefore implicated in the kidnapping.
Two days later, Althea reports that
Jimmy has returned home safely and tells Wolfe and Archie to keep
quiet about the kidnapping for 48 hours, as Jimmy promised his
abductors he would. Jimmy comes to the brownstone to speak with
Wolfe, but during the visit, Althea phones for her husband, having
been told by a policeman that Dinah Utley has been found murdered.
After traveling to White Plains to identify the body, Archie drives
to the client's home, where he informs the household - Althea; Jimmy;
Noel and Margot Tedder, Althea's children from a previous marriage;
Ralph Purcell, Althea's brother; and Andrew Frost, Althea's attorney
- that the report has been confirmed: Utley was knocked out on Iron
Mine Road and run over by her own car. In shock, Althea claims that
the kidnappers must have killed her, as she was instructed to deliver
the money through a series of phone calls and notes that led her to
Iron Mine Road for the ransom drop. Archie also discovers that
Utley's typewriter has disappeared.
Archie concludes that Jimmy Vail was
also in on the kidnapping, but learns the next morning that Jimmy has
died, his chest crushed by a statue of Benjamin Franklin in his home
library. Archie calls Lon Cohen and gives him all the information
about the kidnapping to be published after the 48-hour deadline has
passed, then reports his conclusions to Wolfe. Knowing that the
police could come at any minute, Wolfe and Archie hide out in Dr.
Edwin Vollmer's house until the deadline imposed by Jimmy has passed.
From the Gazette's article and a
conversation with Inspector Cramer, Wolfe and Archie learn that the
case is open, the police undecided as to whether Jimmy was murdered
or, in a slumber, accidentally pulled the statue onto himself. Their
job for Althea Vail complete, Wolfe and Archie are pulled back into
the case by Noel Tedder, who wants to hire them to find the ransom
money, as Althea told him that he could have it if he found it. Wolfe
accepts, Noel promising a fifth of the money as a fee, minutes ahead
of a call from Margot Tedder asking to hire Wolfe for the same job
but for far less a fee. Wolfe tells Noel - and in a later meeting,
Ralph Purcell - that Jimmy was murdered, as he was not drunk enough
to make such a fatal error as pulling a statue on him, and even a
sleepy man should be able to avoid a falling statue; therefore, Jimmy
Vail was drugged, and someone else pushed the statue onto his chest.
Returning to the Vail-Tedder home,
Archie speaks with Althea, who dismisses Wolfe's theory of murder and
says that she is taking back what she said about Noel keeping the
ransom money. Archie dines with Noel and, using a fabricated story
about his own dominating mother, encourages him to stand up to her.
After Noel delivers a paper to his mother standing by the initial
agreement, Andrew Frost visits Wolfe, disputing the agreement and the
claim of murder. Once Frost has left, Wolfe summons Noel along with
Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, and Orrie Cather, and sends them to the
Vail-Tedder country house, where he has concluded the money is
hidden. Archie finds the money in a trunk of bird's eggs, again only
minutes ahead of Margot. After Noel has claimed the money and paid
each of the detectives, Ben Dykes and Cramer arrive with a warrant
for Archie and a legal summons for Wolfe, filed by Althea on an
accusation of grand larceny. Wolfe convinces the police to postpone
issuing the warrants until the next day, then calls Althea to the
brownstone.
With Althea Vail in the red leather
chair, Wolfe details his conclusions: having observed the other
members of the household, he has dismissed any of them as being party
in the kidnapping, therefore Althea Vail herself was the final party
in the kidnapping and the murderer of Dinah Utley and Jimmy Vail. The
Vails contrived the kidnapping so the ransom money could be written
off as a casualty, allowing them to keep the $500,000 without paying
tax on it. They convinced Utley to participate - she wrote the ransom
notes and transcribed the phone call that was never made - but after
her meeting with Wolfe, Utley became frightened of exposure,
disposing of the typewriter on her way to Iron Mine Road. Her fear
convinced Althea that she would expose the plan, so Althea killed
her. When Jimmy Vail learned, he realized his wife had killed Utley,
so he had to die too. Wolfe claims that Jimmy had demanded the entire
share of the ransom for his silence, but Althea blurts out that Jimmy
had actually said he would leave her because she killed Dinah Utley.
After Althea leaves, Wolfe has Archie
deliver a recording of their conversation to Cramer, speculating that
Althea may commit suicide rather than face a trial. In an epilogue,
Archie reveals that Althea is still alive, her first trial having
ended in a hung jury, and that he will only publish the report of the
case if the second jury convicts her.
