Book Review – Three for the Chair

I finished a series of Nero Wolfe short stories today by Rex Stout. Three for the Chair is as good as any of the other Nero Wolfe mysteries. I like these, they're like books for the "fusion" restaurant lover. My favorite fusion restaurant is a blend of Southwest, Central American, and Asian foods. Reading Nero Wolf mysteries is the fusion food equivalent of reading an Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot mystery, a Lawrence Sanders, McNally mystery and a 1950's hard-boiled detective mystery. All of these were poignant, fun to read, and wrapped the puzzle up nicely by the end, just as I expected.

A made some notes, of course.

Archie Goodwin describing a lady he is watching says:

"She stood up. Of course nurses are expected rise from a chair without commotion, but she just floated up."

Later in the same story, Archie describes a suspect succinctly and in a way that helps the reader understand Archie's tone and voice.

"I sat with my back to my deisk and took him in as an object with assorted points of interest. He was a uranium millionaire, the very newest kind. He was a chronic jaw-puncher, no matter where. He knew a good-looking nurse when he saw one, and acted accordingly. And he had been nomictaed as a candidate for the electric, chair. Quite a character for one so young. He wasn't bad-looking himself, unless you insist on the kind they use for cigarette ads. His face and hands weren't as rough and weathered as I would have expected of a man who had spent five years in the wilderness pecking at rocks, but since finding Black Elbow he had had time to smooth up some."

Archie describing Nero Wolfe shocked and surprised. I love the approximation in the description.

"Wolfe's brows went up a sixteenth of an inch."

As so much of the book includes, Archie describing Wolfe, this time as Nero Wolfe deals with a female contemporary.

"He frowned at her. Sometimes he honestly tries to speak to a woman without frowning at her, but he seldom makes it."

There was one other feature I wanted to note, but this was a running description through a mystery. There is one official that the detectives must deal with, and Archie says of him:

"Then more district attorney, a bouncy bald guy named Jasper Colvin, with rimless spectacles that he had to shove them back on his nose every time he took a step."

Throughout the rest of the story, Archie says things like:

"Colvin answered. "I did. I'm Jasper Colvin, district attorney of this county." He pushed his specs back up on his nose."

"Colvin nodded at him and down came the specs."

"Colvin cleared his throat and had to push the specs."

"Colvin pushed the specs. I'll only mention it every fourth or fifth time."

Then every few sentences dealing with this character Stout just writes, "Specs." Nothing more.

I thought that was a cunning way to bring humor and describe a major character.

Only two interesting vocabulary words.

Chimera – (modern) - a chimera is an animal that has two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated in different zygotes involved with sexual reproduction – (mythological) - a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her spine. (I knew this one, but I like to refresh my memory.)

Larrupe - give a spanking to; subject to a spanking

All in all, fun to read, as always.