The Golden Spiders (Paperback)

Wolfe doesn't really know what the woman wanted him to do to earn his money, but he decides that she would not be displeased if he used it to solve her murder. He is immediately beset by lawyers seeking the return of the money to the woman's estate.

Wolfe fends off the lawyers and Inspector Cramer as he tries to solve the murders with almost nothing to go on. He does have a similarly executed third murder to consider, a pair of golden spider earrings, and a half-dozen or so unlovely suspects. He makes an assumption, acts on it, "stirs things up" a little, almost gets his confidential assistant Archie Goodwin arrested, gets his ace operative Saul Panzer blackmailed, and gets his operative Fred Durkin tortured. Wolfe's brain can concoct the most Byzantine situations, but Archie's brawn must oftentimes carry them through to fruition. As Fred undergoes torture, Archie steps in and saves the day by delivering a performance worthy of Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry."

With Archie's help, Wolfe uncovers a scandal, hands a gang of thugs over to Inspector Cramer, and earns his fee by not only solving the woman's murder but also clearing up the matter she wanted him to handle in the first place. All good fun, and one of the more action-oriented of the Nero Wolfe stories.

Once every spring, a farmer in upstate New York brings a bag of fresh starlings to the brownstone, and Fritz prepares a special treat. This year, though, Fritz decided to experiment with the seasoning, so Wolfe instructed him to throw it out. It didn't help when Archie intercepted the dish and ate it alone. :)

Archie thinks it tactful to answer the door during dinner, rather than leaving it to Fritz. Pete Dacos isn't a typical client; in fact, he's one of the neighbourhood kids. While wiping windshields at the corner, he saw a woman with golden spider earrings mouth the words 'help, get a cop'. Pete wants whatever reward money may be involved, but he figures he needs a little help. (Wolfe wants to punish Archie for eating the starlings, so he hears Pete out while Archie takes notes.) The next day, Purley (having been given the plate number of the car Pete saw) wants to know where their information came from - two hours ago, the car deliberately ran over Pete, who died soon after reaching the hospital. His mother had time to speak to him before he died, and fulfills her son's last wish: she hires Wolfe to catch his killer, with Pete's savings ($4.30) - an offer Wolfe and Archie can't refuse. Purley reveals that the car, which was stolen, had killed an INS agent a few days before.

Archie suggests placing an ad to contact the woman with the golden spider earrings - and both he and Wolfe are startled to catch something in the net. Mrs. Damen Fromm wants to hire Wolfe to investigate the boy's story. She won't tell Wolfe what she knows, and soon Wolfe finds himself investigating her murder as well as Pete's, to justify the retainer she paid him. Was financial chicanery going on in some of her charity work? Was the INS agent connected with any of the charites? Did she marry her late husband for his money?

Full-scale investigation, involving Saul, Fred, and Orrie, and giving bigger parts to Fred and Orrie than the usual Saul-dominated sidelines, although Saul pulls off some impressive stunts too. More human touches than some cases have: a jeweller who won't talk to Orrie has a son about Pete's age, and will talk about spider earrings for reasons other than bribery. More action and less persuasion than in most of Archie's work, including an actual brawl (very unusual for him).