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5.0 out of 5 stars
A trio of excellent short stories, Mar 30 2002
To date (beginning of season 2), 2 of the 3 stories herein have been adapted by A&E with Maury Chaykin as Wolfe; the TV series is extremely faithful to the original stories."The Next Witness" - (Adapted for _Nero Wolfe_'s 2nd season.) Wolfe makes a point of never leaving home on business, but alas, subpoenas are an occupational hazard for private investigators, and even Wolfe can't always shuffle them off onto Archie, even when the defendant never made it to the status of client. Wolfe didn't deliver Leonard Ashe to the law; he rejected Ashe as a client because he won't touch marital squabbles. Ashe is being tried for the murder of one of the operators of his telephone answering service, apparently after a failed attempt to bribe her to tap his wife's calls. Wolfe, after hearing the testimony of preceding witnesses, skips out on the subpoena, taking Archie along, having become convinced that Ashe is innocent, though he doesn't at first explain why. See if you can deduce his reasons before the grand finale. When Wolfe finally does take the stand quite a while later (now, of course, facing contempt of court), he has a diabolically clever plan to get his new evidence before the jury. Enjoy. When a Man Murders... - Sydney Karnow had wealth, a sardonic sense of humor, a nice wife, and a pack of sponging relatives. A year after his marriage, he volunteered for army service in the Korean War, and was reported dead within a year, leaving his fortune divided between his wife (50%) and the spongers (50% divided 3 ways), so all were well provided for if not filthy rich. Now, 3 years later, he's come back *alive* - two years after Caroline's remarriage to Paul Aubry. They used her inheritance to start an automobile agency, but the money didn't bring them to Wolfe - their problem is that their marriage is now invalid. (They're willing to concede anything about the money in exchange for a simple divorce.) Paul can't bring himself to speak with Karnow directly, and Karnow's lawyer won't get involved, so they're approaching Wolfe to act as intermediary. Ordinarily Wolfe won't touch any case related to marital squabbles, but he's willing in this instance. Unfortunately, when Archie enters Karnow's hotel room at the Churchill, he's dead again, this time for keeps. Did Paul or Caroline try to hire Wolfe as a bluff? Or did one of the spongers (some of whom haven't *got* the money to repay the estate anymore) panic? Or was it something they don't know about yet? "Die Like a Dog" - This has always been a favourite of mine, and I was very pleasantly surprised when A&E adapted it for _Nero Wolfe_'s 2nd season. A black Labrador literally follows Archie home, and not only retrieves his windblown hat, but turns out to be named 'Nero' (part of a much longer kennel-club name on his collar, but how could Archie resist?) Unfortunately, the unannounced (even if temporary) introduction of a dog into the hallowed halls of the brownstone backfires in a totally unexpected manner, which you'll have to read/see to believe. :) The *dog* turns out to be a possible witness in a murder investigation, but how the heck can anybody learn anything from him?
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