Death Times Three: A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Book 47

Contents: Bitter end — Frame-up for murder [Murder is no joke] — Assault on a brownstoneThese 3 novellas were all vaguely familiar to me - I guess from watching the TV adaptations...I enjoyed them all but I think that the first one, "Bitter End", was my favorite.

I really think that Stout's forte was in the novella. These 3 are no exception with some of the characterization (including Hattie Annis) is the best there is.

Death Times Three includes 3 novellas featuring the famous armchair detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin. All of the Nero Wolfe mysteries take place in Manhattan through the 1930-70s. The first in this compilation, Bitter End, starts out with contaminated liver pate and continues with the search for a murderer. Following after that is Frame-Up For Murder where Archie is entreated by a beautiful young woman to help her brother save his fashion business only for the waters to be muddied by an ill-timed death. It closes with Assault on a Brownstone which is singular as Wolfe's sanctuary is beset with Treasury officials and Archie meets someone who gets the jump on him. It's a quick, fun read and if you love mysteries it will whet your appetite for longer works from Stout. You won't regret it, I promise.

This is three stories collected posthumously,. all of which were alternate versions of stories Stout published in his lifetime. The first one, "Bitter End" was a Wolfe/Goodwin version of the Tecumseh Fox story Bad for Business. It was published earlier in Corsage. See my comments there. The second, ""frame-up for Murder" is an expanded version of "Murder is No Joke" published in And Four To Go. This version turns Flora Gallant from a middle-aged frump to a cute young woman who flirts with Archie to persuade him to let her talk to Wolfe, but the basic plotline is the same. .The flirtation is fun. The third story is "Assault on a Brownstone' a version of "Counterfeit for Murder" published in Homicide Trinity. This has more significant plot changes, in that the colorful old lady Hattie Annis who is killed in a it an run early in "Counterfeit" survives in this version, while the female 'treasury agent is murdered. An introduction by John McAleer of the Wolfe Pack explores these variants. The blurb claim "first book publication anywhere" is not entirely accurate since "Bitter End" appeared in Corsage. The other two stories had only had magazine publication in Stout's lifetime.

This is an interesting collection of 3 novellas published after Stout’s death by his executer that had never appeared in book form before. The first on, “Bitter End” started out as the second Tecumseh Fox novel of 205 pages called Bad for Business. As was customary at the time it was offered to American Magazine in an abridged version or serialization before publication. The editor offered double Stout’s fee if he would rewrite it as a Nero Wolf story. Thus was born the first Nero Wolf novella. Stout wrote many more as we know, but this one was never published in book form. The plot coincides with the Fox novel which was published on schedule. I wonder what his readers thought who read both the Fox novel and the Wolf novella? In February 1958 the 48 page novella “Murder in No Joke” was published in And Four to Go. Rex Stout then did something he almost never did—he did a rewrite and expanded it to 79 pages and re-titled it “Frame-up for Murder.” In June-July of that year Saturday Evening Post published this obviously superior version but it was never published in book form so languished in back issues of the magazine until the executor of Stout’s estate decided to put out this new volume of novellas. The third novella has an even stranger history. Early in 1959 Stout wrote a 73 page novella called “Counterfeit for Murder” which is published under the title “Assault on a Brownstone” in this volume. Less than two months later he discarded all but the first seven pages and completely rewrote the story resurrecting the corpse of the old lady and substituting as the corpse the young lady who attracted Archie. The new story was published in serial form in a magazine and in Homicide Trinity. The editor of this volume speculates that the only thing that happened between the two writings was a fishing vacation with a dear friend who suddenly died of a heart attack the day after Stout got home and perhaps this was “grief” therapy to resurrect the older victim. The second story was a stronger story because the older character was a stronger character and the original story was never published until this edition. I was thinking while reading this that I wished the old landlady hadn’t died—I wanted to know her better. I’ll have to read the original now. It will be interesting to compare the two.