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4.0 out of 5 stars
Only 'final' for this particular case, Oct 28 2002
Althea Vail, an actress who left the stage to become the trophy wife of millionaire Harold Tedder, was in time left a widow with 2 grown children. A few years ago, she acquired a trophy husband of her own - ex-standup comic Jimmy Vail. When Archie recognizes her on Wolfe's doorstep, he assumes that she's about to try to hire them for divorce evidence, and settles down to watch Wolfe throw her out.Instead, they learn that Jimmy Vail has been kidnapped, and that Althea is prepared to pay the half-million ransom demanded as the price of his return. But to hedge her bets, she wants Wolfe in reserve, to avenge Jimmy if payment doesn't bring him back alive. Wolfe and Archie aren't to investigate unless Vail is harmed, and he does return home safely - only to be found dead shortly thereafter, crushed by a fallen statue of Benjamin Franklin. A tragic accident, coupled with the murder of Mrs. Vail's secretary...and Mrs. Vail's grown son and daughter aren't interested in hiring Wolfe to investigate it, but rather to recover the ransom money, since their mother will let whichever sibling finds it first *keep* it. For once, the female characters aren't particularly sympathetic; Archie sympathizes with the son's desire to develop a spine, and can't abide the arrogant foolishness of the daughter. Saul, Fred, and Orrie are brought into play, keeping tabs on various suspects - not to expose a killer, technically - but given the fishy circumstances of the kidnapping, and of the secretary's death, they'll end up solving the murder to find the money. For another not-a-murder-investigation story (but with a wider playing field and more fun), see _Before Midnight_, where Wolfe's goal was to help salvage a contest - where the man bearing the answer sheet had been murdered, putting Wolfe squarely in Inspector Cramer's path. :)
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Gluttony Pays, Mar 3 2002
This was my first stab at Nero Wolfe the towering 285lb detective who works out of his West 35th Street brownstone with sidekick and narrator Archie Goodwin, a man gifted with total recall of all he hears, sees or reads. Circa 1961 Althea Vail, widow of super rich Harold Tedder, gets a $500,000 ransom demand for Jimmy her dashing second husband, twelve years her junior. Wolfe interviews Althea's striking and tight-lipped secretary Dinah Utley whom he believes typed the ransom note. Dinah's dead before the next dawn.Wolfe is arrogant, overbearing and unapologetic about how little he has to actually do for his outrageous fees. Both he and Archie are keenly insightful, precise and direct in anything they say though not particularly forthcoming. So they don't tell the police about the kidnapping, their suspicions of Dinah or how it ties to her death until the proscribed time two days later. In the intirim Jimmy is found dead in the Howard F. Tedder library under a bronze statue of Ben Franklin. Noel Tedder Althea's son comes to Wolfe to recover the ransom money. Wolfe accepts his proposal and declares the murderer is one of those in the library with Jimmy - Althea, her children, her brother or her lawyer. The story then follows a path that only the genius Wolfe can foresee until the murderer is finally exposed. Enjoy the nostalgia of an Underwood with multiple carbons instead of Microsoft Word and postal zones not zip codes, but don't expect anything logical or realistic in the plot. Michael Prichard, audio book reader, projects the bulk and arrogance of Wolfe in a delightful narration. This was an entertaining story to listen to, though I suspect it would have been somewhat tedious to read.
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